In 1878, Sven Alexander Almqvist built the world’s first oil tanker, together with Ludvig Nobel.
The first drawings of an oil tanker can be seen above left, and the Zoroaster had its maiden voyage in 1878 from Baku in present day Azerbaijan out into the Caspian Sea. To get there it had to navigate the river systems of Russia. As the vessel was to large for the narrowest parts of the rivers, the aft and the stern went through the rivers with the mid-section in pieces, then all pieces were reassembled for its first sea voyage.
Prior to this invention experiments to put oil in the bulk of a ship had rendered the ships unstable, hence all oil had to be transported in barrels (for which we say ‘barrels of oil’ to this day).
The four first oil tankers of the world were named after world religions: the Zoroaster, after Zoroastrianism, the Buddha, the Mohamed, and the Sokrat after Greek philosopher Socrates.