ZOROASTR First oil tanker built in 1878

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Built as a tanker under yard 285 by the Motala Verkstad i Norrkoping, Sweden for Ludwig Nobel, (Branobel) in St Petersburg, Rusland.
Launched as the ZOROASTR.
Tonnage 377 tons, dim. 56 (lpp 42m) x 8.2 x 2.7m (draught).
One steam engine, one shaft, speed
1878 Completed. She was registered in Baku under Russian flag.

 After construction in Sweden, the ship was first dismantled and then transported in sections by barge via canals and the Volga River (>3000 km) to Baku, where it was reassembled and put into operation. 

1888 The company was renamed in Napta Production Ges., St Petersburg, Rusland

The ZOROASTER served the Branobel  company for around 30 years as an inland tanker between Baku and Astrakhan on the Volga.
The ZOROASTER, which sunk after the Second World War,  has since served as the foundation of the main settlement of the oil platform city of Neft Daslari.

The first successful oil tanker was ZOROASTER, built by Sven Alexander Almqvist in the Motala Verkstad, which carried its 246 metric tons   (242 long ton) of kerosene cargo in two iron tanks joined by pipes.  One tank was forward of the midships engine room and the other was aft.
The ship also featured a set of 21 vertical watertight compartments for extra buoyancy  The ship had a length overall of 56 metres (184 ft), a beam of 8.2 metres (27 ft), and a draft of 2.7 metres (9 ft).

Unlike later Nobel tankers, the ZOROASTER design was built small enough to sail from Sweden to the Caspian by way of the Baltic Sea, Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, the Rybinsk and Mariinsk Canals and the Volga River

The aft and the stern was put together and then dismantled to make room for the mid-section as the Caspian Sea was reached.

Source: Miramar Ship Index. Wikipedia. Internet.
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