Home › Categories › Tankers

Tankers

The crude carriers — including the largest ships ever built, most of which died young.

Ships here7
Longest458.45 m
Deliveries1976–2002
Still in service2
What it means

The category, explained

Tankers are measured by deadweight — the tonnes of cargo, fuel and stores a ship can lift — and the top of the all-time deadweight table belongs entirely to them. Five ships in history have exceeded half a million tonnes; all five are in this category, and their collective story is a warning about maximum scale: too deep for the canals, too big for almost every port, most were scrapped within a decade.

The breed's survivors are more modest. The workhorse VLCC of today carries around 300,000 tonnes; the last two ULCCs afloat, TI Europe and TI Oceania, carry 440,000 and have no successors on any order book. Ships here rank by deadweight.

The ships

Every one here

Side profiles are sized by real length overall — longer ships draw bigger.

Seawise Giant
Batillus
Pierre Guillaumat
Esso Atlantic
TI Europe
TI Oceania
Exxon Valdez
Grid

Seawise Giant

C.Y. Tung / later owners · Scrapped 2010

Length overall458.45 m — longest ship ever
Beam68.8 m
Deadweight564,763 t
Gross tonnage260,941 GT
Full specification →

Batillus

Société Maritime Shell · Scrapped 1985

Length overall414.22 m
Beam63.01 m
Deadweight553,662 t
Draft (fully laden)28.5 m
Full specification →

Pierre Guillaumat

Compagnie Nationale de Navigation · Scrapped 1983

Length overall414.22 m
Beam63.01 m
Deadweight555,051 t — largest ever
Draft (fully laden)≈28.6 m
Full specification →
Side by side

Ranked by length

ShipCategoryLengthBeamDeliveredStatus
Seawise GiantTanker458.45 m68.80 m1979Scrapped 2010
BatillusTanker414.22 m63.01 m1976Scrapped 1985
Pierre GuillaumatTanker414.22 m63.01 m1977Scrapped 1983
Esso AtlanticTanker406.57 m71.07 m1977Scrapped 2002
TI EuropeTanker380.00 m68.00 m2002In service
TI OceaniaTanker380.00 m68.00 m2002In service
Exxon ValdezTanker300.85 m50.60 m1986Scrapped 2012