The change of loading from Saltend to a new jetty at Immingham, linked to two new oil refineries, and craft delivering other liquids such as vegetable and mineral oils to factories lining Hull Harbour are also described, as are docks’ water boats, cod-liver-oil-barges, coal-tar carriers, liquid effulent tankers and the boatyards where many of these tanker barges were built.

In the early twentieth century, the drums and other containers in which these various liquids were carried aboard wooden barges and lighters began to be phased out with the construction of barges having iron tanks within them, enabling much heavier cargoes to be carried.

These were built primarily to carry liquid coal tar from coke ovens to tar distilleries and collect creosote, one of the products. By the late 1950s, early 1960s, tanker traffic flourished on the industrial waterways like the Aire and Calder and Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigations.

Mike Taylor relates the story of the Humber tankers, widely illustrated and interspersed with recollections of men who worked on the waterways. Mike Taylor is an avid canal historian who has written six books for Tempus and is based in Derbyshire.

This detailed book provides a general overview of the history of these craft on the Humber waterways, including analysis of boatyards, cargoes, waterway features and the inter-conversions of dry cargo craft to tankers and vice versa.

Tanker Barges on the Humber Waterways
By Mike Taylor
Published by Tempus Publishing
ISBN 0 7524 3921 9
Paperback, 128 pages
Price £12.99