''Methane Pioneer'' was the first oceangoing liquified natural gas tanker in the world. Built in 1945 as a

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

named ''Marline Hitch'', the vessel was renamed ''Don Aurelio'' and ''Normarti'' before being rebuilt in 1958 for the purpose of transporting

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

and operated between 1959 and 1972. The ship was later renamed ''Aristotle''.

Service history

Early history

''Methane Pioneer'' was built as

yard number The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.9 ...

344 by Walter Butler Shipbuilders in

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

as a Type C1-M-AV1 cargo ship for the

United States Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The co ...

. She was delivered as ''Marline Hitch'' in July 1945. As

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

came to an end shortly after it was delivered, ''Marline Hitch'' was sold privately under the name ''Don Aurelio'' in 1946. In 1951 the ship was renamed ''Normarti''.

As ''Methane Pioneer''

In 1958 ''Normarti'', then owned by the Norgulf Shipping Line, was converted into a tanker at the

Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States during the 20th century. It began operation in 1917, and expanded dramatically during W ...

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

and was delivered in October 1958, renamed ''Methane Pioneer''. The project was funded by the British

Gas Council The Gas Council was a UK government body that provided strategic oversight of the gas industry in England, Wales and Scotland between 1949 and 1972. The British gas industry was nationalised under the provisions of the Gas Act 1948 ( 11 & 12 Geo ...

and was operated by a joint venture company called Constock International Methane (CIM). CIM was formed as a partnership between

Conoco Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...

and

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was formed by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a vast cen ...

, and renamed Conch International Methane when

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

joined in 1959. She had a capacity of 32,000 barrels of LNG. ''Methane Pioneer'' was allocated the

Call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

GBHU. ''Methane Pioneer''s maiden voyage was from Constock's LNG production facility on the

Calcasieu River The Calcasieu River ( ; ) is a river on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast in southwestern Louisiana. Approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed J ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Carrying the world's first ocean cargo of LNG, it left port on 25 January 1959 and reached its destination at

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames Estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ...

in England on 20 February, taking 27 days to cross the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. ''Methane Pioneer'' was later renamed ''Aristotle'' and operated by Stephenson Clarke Shipping, making 30 voyages between 1959 and 1972, when it was withdrawn from service and converted into a storage barge for LNG. She was scrapped in 1972.

References

{{Type C1-M ships Type C1-M ships 1945 ships Energy history of the United Kingdom Natural gas industry in the United Kingdom Ships built in Duluth, Minnesota World War II merchant ships of the United States Merchant ships of the United States Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Tankers of the United Kingdom LNG tankers