OT-Oil Tanker ships

[jakla1027]

Hello everyone,

So I was just wondering, what was the biggest oil tanker (or tankers) in the world during WWII? What was their max G.R.T.? How much oil could they carry? I remember seeing somewhere that the Brits used a few "Converted Whale Factory Ships" during the war in the oil tanker role, & they were amongst the biggest oil tankers of the time in terms of oil cargo they could carry, is that correct?

Any info would be great!
Thanks

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: jakla1027

Hello everyone,

So I was just wondering, what was the biggest oil tanker (or tankers) in the world during WWII? What was their max G.R.T.? How much oil could they carry? I remember seeing somewhere that the Brits used a few "Converted Whale Factory Ships" during the war in the oil tanker role, & they were amongst the biggest oil tankers of the time in terms of oil cargo they could carry, is that correct?

Any info would be great!
Thanks

I don't know about the British, but Japan had a couple of converted whale factory ships that were reckoned as the largest tankers of their time. They were the Tonan Maru No. 2 and the Tonan Maru No. 3.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/Tonan2_c.htm

[tocaff]

The SS Ohio was the biggest and had the largest capacity of any tanker at the time she was built. Here's a pic of her arriving at Malta.

[Sardaukar]

French had:

Emile Miguet - 14,115 GRT - 1937 - sunk by U-48 while in convoy, 12 Oct 1939

Probably largest that Allies had.

[jakla1027]

Thanks for all the feedback thus far guys, doesn't sound like the allies had much over 14-15,000 G.T.R. in a single tanker. From my reashearch it looks like the typical Allied tanker or oiler was about 8-10,000 G.R.T.

I'm still interested in how big these whale factory ships the brits had were, I've found a little info on them, but no info on their "tanker" role. Maybe they didn't use them?[8|]

[jcjordan]

Does this link help any?

British Shipping