High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Esso Northumbria was the first of a series of Very Large Crude Carrier ships, built by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on Tyneside, in 1969. Launched on 2 May 1969 by HRH The Princess Anne was the largest vessel to have been built in Britain at that time. Its tonnage was 253,000 tonnes and its length was 1,350 ft. The ship was designed to carry crude oil from the Persian Gulf, and its large design was a result of the Suez Crisis, which had resulted in the closing of the Suez Canal. The ship was single-hulled and was designed with relatively limited knowledge of the behaviours of such large structures at sea, being generally a straightforward scaling up of a smaller design. It was also built to a fixed-price contract at a time when rampant inflation was occurring in Britain. This led to many attempts to cut costs; Swan Hunter ultimately made a loss on the contract. Final cost of the ship was ?6.5 million. Данное издание представляет собой...