Our 21st-century lifestyle could not exist without large oil tankers. But most people’s knowledge about their operations and the colossal debt owed to their experimental predecessors remains a closed book. Written by an experienced navigator who served aboard these behemoths in the 1970s, this book offers a real insight into life at sea on a VLCC and how it has changed over the years. It includes the intricacies of learning to navigate a monster, coping with unexpected situations while handling 80 million gallons of crude oil on a daily basis, and how supertankers evolved into the epitomes of safety they are today.