Alan Villiers discusses Tankers with Captain Kenneth Morris.
Today about one quarter of the world's merchant shipping tonnage consists of tankers, many of them between 20,000 and 45,000 tons capacity, costing more than £2,000,000 each.
Very recently, a few tankers of more than 100,000 tons capacity have been ordered-a far cry from 1861, when the first cargo of oil was carried across the Atlantic in barrels by a 224-ton brig. Tonight Alan Villiers and Captain Morris, who commands a tanker, discuss the extraordinary history and development of these ships, and some of the hazards they face in war and peace.
From the BBC's West of England television studio