Abstract
Greater and greater number of cargo ships sailing over small, restricted water areas can endanger the environment - in the case of disaster - by spilling fuel oil, carried in the ship's bottom tanks for its propulsion. In this paper is proposed an alternative solution (against that of double plating) in the form of the second, elastic protective barrier which would be able to decrease risk of spilling in the case of loss of ship's plating tightness due to collision or grounding.