First sea transport of "Gas" as cargo

Did you know that the first purpose-built gas carrier was delivered in 1931 by Hawthorn Leslie, a shipyard located at Hebburn on the River Tyne?

The vessel was named #AGNITA and she was designed to carry three different types of cargo - gas oil, #sulphuric acid and #LPG with the gas oil carried inside or outside the cylinders, the acid or propane would be inside. The shipment of the two main LPG gases, propane and butane, has been a vital part of world energy supplies for almost the last hundred years. She had 24 cylindrical pressure vessel tanks for the transport of butane and propane, with a total capacity of 1,463 m3. She could carry up to a maximum of 880 tonnes of LPG cargo.

AGNITA was owned by Anglo Saxon Petroleum, part of the #Shell Group, and she made history in 1940 when she carried the first sea transport of gas from Venezuela to the UK. The domed tops of her cylinders protruded well above her weather deck on her normal voyage after loading sulphuric acid at Rotterdam in her cylinders and she proceeded to Curacao to discharge the acid, and load gas oil both inside and outside of her cylindrical tanks. Alternatively, gas oil might only be loaded outside of the cylinders and in this case she would proceed to Port Arthur in Texas to load propane into her cylindrical tanks and proceed to Europe with both the propane and gas oil as cargo. She had a service speed of 11.5 knots from a single eight cylinder oil engine of 2,350 bhp, and her hull had dimensions of length 306 feet and beam of fifty feet. Three years later in 1934, a Dutch Shell ‘Triple Twelve’ tanker, Megara of 12,600 dwt, was also converted to carry propane. This was a remarkable feat considering the challenges and risks involved in handling such a volatile cargo at that time.

Unfortunately, AGNITA's career was cut short when she was captured and scuttled by the German raider Kormoran on 22nd March 1941 near Freetown.

AGNITA was a pioneer in the LPG trade and paved the way for the development of this important seaborne industry. In keeping to the ship-owner's request, having spent a great deal of money in constructing a vessel for a special trade, any reference to the fact that the vessel had been specially constructed for the carriage of high pressure petroleum products was to be avoided. Hence, the Particulars of Class in Lloyd's Register of Ships described the tanker as: Carrying Petroleum in bulk — Fitted with cylindrical tanks of Sulphuric Acid.

Today, there are more than thousand LPG carriers in service worldwide, with capacities ranging from 500 to 86,000 m3 and even bigger sizes are on order.

I hope you enjoyed this brief history lesson about AGNITA and the first transport of gas (LPG) as cargo by sea.

Source: https://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/A-Ships/agnita1931.html