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Coastal trading vessels, also known ascoasters orskoots,[1] are shallow-hulled[2]merchant ships used for transporting cargo along a coastline. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get throughreefs where deeper-hulled seagoing ships usually cannot (26-28 feet), but as a result they are not optimized for the large waves found on the open ocean. Coasters can load and unload cargo in shallowports.
For Europeaninland waterways they are limited in size by the navigable dimensions of those waterways. E.g. ships on theFrench waterways are limited to theFreycinet gauge of 38.5m length, 5.05m breadth, and 2.5m draft.[3]
DuringWorld War II there was a demand for coasters to support troops around the world.
Type N3 ship andType C1 ship were the designations for smallcargo ships built for theUnited States Maritime Commission before and during World War II.[4][5] Both were use for close to shore and short cargo runs.[6][7][8] TheGovernment of the United Kingdom usedEmpire ships typeEmpire F asmerchant ships for coastal shipping. British seamen called these "CHANTs", possibly because they had the same hull form asChannel Tankers (CHANT); initially all the tankers were sold to foreign owners and therefore there was no conflict in nomenclature. The USA and UK both used coastal tankers also.[9][10][11] UK usedEmpire coaster tankers andT1 tankers. Many coasters had some armament, such as a5-inch (127 mm) stern gun,3-inch (76.2 mm) bow anti-aircraft gun andOerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. These were removed after the war.
After the war many of the ships were sold to private companies all around the world.[12][13]
Major coastal trading vessel shipyards include:[14]
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