The Batillus-class supertankers were a class of supertanker ships built in France in the late 1970s, with four ships of this class built between 1976 and 1979. Three of the ships were scrapped after less than ten years of oil transport service each, with the fourth one scrapped in 2003.
Quick Facts Class overview, General characteristics ...
The oil tanker Batillus at the end of her construction in Saint-Nazaire, being fueled.
Prairial, built in 1979, renamed Sea Brilliance, renamed Hellas Fos, renamed Sea Giant, scrapped in 2003.[3]
Measurements
While being the largest ships ever built by gross tonnage until Pioneering Spirit, the four Batillus-class ships were the second largest ever constructed when measuring deadweight tonnage or length overall, behind only the supertanker Seawise Giant (renamed five times, including to Knock Nevis), which existed from 1979 to 2010.[7]
While there were minor differences between the four Batillus-class ships, they all approached a gross tonnage (GT) of 275,000 and 555,000tonnes deadweight (DWT) tonnage, and had a length overall of over 414 metres (1,358ft) (longer than all but a few of the tallest skyscrapers in the world).
The Batillus class had a depth of nearly 36 metres (118ft 1in) from the main deck and a full load draft of 28.5 metres (93ft 6in), the greatest of any vessel, and slightly greater than the two Globtik Tokyo-class ULCCs.
Unlike Seawise Giant and most other ULCCs, the Batillus-class vessels had twin propellers, twin boilers of full size and power, and twin rudders. As a result, in the event of an engine or other failure, they could continue operation with the remaining propeller and boiler.