# Can a large ship sail right through an oil slick?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-large-ship-sail-right-through-an-oil-slick/714939>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-large-ship-sail-right-through-an-oil-slick/714939 "2015-03-13T22:53:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-large-ship-sail-right-through-an-oil-slick/714939/21 "2015-03-17T17:52:18Z")

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> [@beowulff](#):
>
> An oil slick is only inches thick. The propellers on a large ship are many feet below that.  
> I can’t imagine any way that the oil would harm them.
> 
> I’m not even sure that the oil would foul the props even if they were spinning in it.

Inches thick?? No way. They are only fractions of inches think. In fact they are so thin they are measured in microns.

Ships would go though an oil slight and not even know it. The only way they would know if is if some piece of gear that takes in sea water (I’m think a fresh water evaporator) gets coated in oil. But because the slick in on top of the water, that’s very unlikely.

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