I'm hoping we will see a photo of what the Sunderland Echo call "a massive ship ... a huge ship big enough to carry the TITANIC in its hold"

The Sunderland Echo is certainly groundbreaking when it comes to a description of a Vessel Length, it is normally measured in Football Field lengths!

Well they must be right, I just checked, TITANIC 46329grt, TORM AUSTRALIA 51763dwt, my case rests!

Interesting indeed! Do oil/chemical tankers have open holds?
Assuming Miramar correct: TORM AUSTRALIA LPP 174.0m (overall - 183.3); TITANIC LPP 259.8m!!!

Ron M

They do when they convert them into Bulk Carriers at the ending of there lifespans as Tankers, I kept away from large Tankers in the 1960's when they kept going BANG
The "Torm" will not have the Craftsmanship on board that Wear built ships had, the modern Module Cabins (little boxes made of tickytacky), Wear builtwoodwork was always superb with the use of different Woods onboard.

Oh, no photo of this huge tanker with a big hold

TORM AUSTRALIA brought the first cargo of liquid fertiliser for a new storage facility on the docks. The ESSIE C, another 'massive' medium range tanker, has arrived this week with a further cargo of liquid fertiliser from Point Lisas via Rouen where most of her cargo was discharged. Apparently the huge increases in cost for European produced fertiliser has made the import of liquid fertilisers from the Americas an attractive proposition. I suppose the new new trade goes some way to replace the Ukrainian steel import trade at Sunderland but one ship every three months is not quite as good as one every fortnight.

If you want to see a huge Tanker “Pablo” with a quick conversion to an open Hold Bulker just jiggle around the maritime sites and you will see photographs of one that has just gone BANG in the Far East last week, the explosion completely ripped the Deck off along with most of the Tank Spaces which went into the sea after reaching a great height. Unfortunately two Crew Members are missing, the Tanker is one of an increasing number of vessels which are on the “Black” Fleet Register which apparently has around 25% of vessels where as Lloyds has something around 17%
The vessel was not loaded so it looks like lessons have not been learnt about “Degassing”
They must have towed the Rouen visiting Tanker Stern first at some point to get her there or back to sea, although the river is quite wide there the “Bridge Team” on a Ton Class I was on had difficulty doing the turn just before the first of the low Bridges when he nearly ripped the Portside Sweep Samson Post out just missing the Anchor of a Cargo vessel moored on the opposite Wharf!