History
Since the earliest days of tankships, the need to safely and efficiently transfer bulk liquid to a moored ship has been fundamental. An insufficient solution to this problem led to one of the world's first oil tanker disasters. In 1881, the Branobel tanker Nordenskjöld was taking on kerosene in Baku. The ship was connected to the pier with a simple piece of pipe. While loading, the ship was hit by a gust of wind and the cargo pipe carrying was jerked away from the hold. Kerosene then spilled onto the deck and down into the engine room, where mechanics were working in the light of kerosene lanterns. The ship then exploded, killing half the crew. Ludvig Nobel responded to the disaster by creating a flexible, leakproof loading pipe which was much more resistant to spills.
Chiksan brand marine loading arm manufacturer FMC Technologies claims to have built the world's first all-steel marine loading arm in 1956 and to have over 8,000 units installed worldwide.
Read more about this topic: Marine Loading Arm
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)