Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters or skoots,^[1] are shallow-hulled^{[citation needed]} merchant ships used for transporting cargo along a coastline. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled seagoing ships usually cannot (26-28 feet), but as a result they are not optimized for the large waves found on the open ocean. Coasters can load and unload cargo in shallow ports. For European inland waterways, they are limited to a 33,49 m beam.^{[clarification needed]}

During World War II there was a demand for coasters to support troops around the world.

Type N3 ship and Type C1 ship were the designations for small cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II.^[2][3] Both were use for close to shore and short cargo runs.^[4][5][6] The Government of the United Kingdom used Empire ships type Empire F as merchant ships for coastal shipping. British seamen called these "CHANTs", possibly because they had the same hull form as Channel Tankers (CHANT); initially all the tankers were sold to foreign owners and therefore there was no conflict in nomenclature. The USA and UK both used coastal tankers also.^[7][8][9] UK used Empire coaster tankers and T1 tankers. Many coasters had some armament, such as a 5-inch (127 mm) stern gun, 3-inch (76.2 mm) bow anti-aircraft gun and Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. These were removed after the war.

After the war many of the ships were sold to private companies all around the world.^[10][11]

Major coastal trading vessel shipyards include:^[12]

• Avondale Shipyard and Marine Ways
• Consolidated Steel Corporation (Long Beach & Wilmington)
• Froemming Brothers
• Globe Shipbuilding Company
• Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation (Decatur, AL)
• J. A. Jones Construction Company (Brunswick)
• Kaiser Richmond No. 4
• Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company
• Pennsylvania Shipyards Inc.
• Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation
• Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. (Superior and Duluth)

• Short sea shipping
• Bangkokmax ships (172x28.4x8,08m)
• Bangkok Port (172m length, 25m beam -with special permit 30m-, 8,2m draft), Bangkokmax of 1944 TEU
• Seawaymax (USA Great Lakes docks, 8,08m draft), Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (draft 10,7m)
• Type C1 ship standard allies coastal transport ships in World War II

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coastal motor vessels.

Look up coaster in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Historia y Arqueología Marítima - Los buques cargueros tipo N3 (Spanish, with diagram & photos
• The Bay of Pigs Invasion-The sinking of the Houston (photos)
• (N3-M-A1 variant) Shipscribe: ENCELADUS (AK-80)
• (N3-M-A1 variant) Shipscribe: BAK-1 (S.S. Asa Lothrop)
• Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945

v t e Modern merchant ships
Overviews	Ship Cargo ship Cargo Maritime transport Freight transport Merchant marine Maritime history Shipping line
Dry cargo	Barge Bulk carrier Car float Chain boat Coastal trading vessel Collier Container ship Heavy-lift ship Hopper barge Lake freighter Lighter aboard ship Livestock carrier Reefer ship Roll-on/roll-off (RORO) Train ferry
Tankers	Chemical tanker Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) Gas carrier Hydrogen tanker LNG carrier Oil tanker
Passenger	Cable ferry Cargo liner Cruise ship Cruiseferry Ferry Narrowboat Ocean liner Roll-on/roll-off (RORO) Train ferry
Support	Anchor handling tug supply vessel Diving support vessel Emergency tow vessel Fireboat Platform supply vessel Pusher Salvage tug Tender Tugboat
Other types	Cable layer Crane vessel Dredger Drillship Fishing vessel Floating restaurant Icebreaker Merchant submarine Narco-submarine Pipe-laying ship Research vessel Riverboat Semi-submersible Snagboat
Related	Nautical operations Affreightment Admiralty law International Chamber of Shipping List of merchant navy capacity by country