Chemicals Tanker Boraq. Her original yard model in a scale of 1:100 was a generous present from Hyundai to the museum 10 years ago. It has since been on permanent display.
The Boraq serves on deck 5 of our exhibition as a good example of a modern Chemicals and product tanker. This type of ships, usually smaller than tankers built for the transport of crude oil, serve to transport a variety of substances as liquid bulk. This are usually chemicals and/or the products that are generated from the processing of crude oil in a refinery. For this duty, this type of tankers need a quite specific construction.
For starters, a double hull is not just a safety feature in case of accident for product tankers like it is for other tankers. It also help keeping the contents of the tanks at a constant temperature. This is specially important for some chemicals that might be transported aboard. The Boraq inner hull is separated by 2 m from the inner hull of her fully independent 22 tanks. Product tankers usually have a large number of tanks that have each their own pipe system to load/unload their cargo. This way, a high variety of products can be transported while avoiding cross-contamination. The pipe systems are usually more complex than in crude tankers, making product tankers easy to recognise. The fact that there is a variety of products that are carried aboard this ships makes the thorough cleaning of the tanks after use specially important. For this, the interior of the tanks must be made of a specially well-polished stainless steel, with a corrosion resistant coating. In this case, the walls of the tanks are sealed with an inorganic zinc primer.
The Boraq is 183,2 m long, 32,2 m wide and can transport up to 54.368,0 m³ of cargo. Her top speed is 15,25 knots with ballast and 14,8 knots fully loaded. She was built in 2003 by the
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., Ltd. in Ulsan, Republic of Korea. She has worked most of her career so far under the flag of Saudi Arabia. Very recently she has changed her flag for that of Hong Kong and she has been renamed Doris. She is still in duty and currently crossing the strait of Malacca on her way from Singapore to Dubai.
Her original yard model in a scale of 1:100 was a generous present from Hyundai to the museum 10 years ago. It has since been on permanent display.