When we
look at maritime disasters and loss of lives at sea; from RMS Titanic to more recent ones, such as that of “Costa Concordia”, for some reason or the other, my thoughts always drift to that of M.V. Derbyshire.
Derbyshire was launched in late 1975 and entered service in June 1976,
as the last ship of the Bridge-class combination carrier, originally
named Liverpool Bridge. Liverpool Bridge and En
glish Bridge (later Worcestershire) were built by Seabridge for
Bibby Line. The ship was laid up for two of its four years of service life.[
In 1978, Liverpool Bridge was
renamed Derbyshire, the fourth vessel to carry the name in the company's
fleet. On 11 July 1980, on what turned out to be the vessel's final voyage, Derbyshire
left Sept Isles, Canada, her destination being Kawasaki, Japan. Derbyshire
was carrying a cargo of 157,446 tonnes of iron ore.
On 9 September 1980, Derbyshire
hove-to in Typhoon Orchid some 230 miles from Okinawa, and was overwhelmed
by the tropical storm killing all aboard. Total loss of lives was 44 including
two women. Derbyshire never issued a Mayday distress message.
The search for Derbyshire
commenced on 15 September 1980 and was called off six days later when no trace
of the vessel was found, and it was declared lost. Six weeks after Derbyshire
sank, one of the vessel's lifeboats was sighted by a Japanese tanker.[
In June 1994, the wreck of Derbyshire
was found at a depth of 4 km, spread over 1.3 km. An additional
expedition spends over 40 days photographing and examining the debris field
looking for evidence of what sank the ship. Ultimately it was determined that
waves crashing over the front the ship had sheared off the covers of small
ventilation pipes near the bow. Over the next 30+ hours, seawater had entered
through the exposed pipes into the forward section of the ship, causing the bow
to slowly ride lower and lower in the water. Eventually, the bow was completely
exposed to the full force of the rough waves which caused the massive hatch on
the first cargo hold to buckle inward allowing hundreds of tons of water to
enter in moments. As the ship started to sink, the second, then third hatches
also failed dragging the ship underwater. As the ship sank, the water pressure
caused the ship to be twisted and torn apart by implosion.
In June 1994, the wreck of Derbyshire was found at a depth of 4 km, spread over 1.3 km. An additional expedition spends over 40 days photographing and examining the debris field looking for evidence of what sank the ship. Ultimately it was determined that waves crashing over the front the ship had sheared off the covers of small ventilation pipes near the bow. Over the next 30+ hours, seawater had entered through the exposed pipes into the forward section of the ship, causing the bow to slowly ride lower and lower in the water. Eventually, the bow was completely exposed to the full force of the rough waves which caused the massive hatch on the first cargo hold to buckle inward allowing hundreds of tons of water to enter in moments. As the ship started to sink, the second, then third hatches also failed dragging the ship underwater. As the ship sank, the water pressure caused the ship to be twisted and torn apart by implosion.
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ReplyDeletewas the said lifeboat taken aboard the tanker, and was it inspected to see if any use had been made of the survival equipment available on board.
ReplyDeleteIt seems odd that no further information was forthcoming and no reference was made to the existence of the lifeboat in the later investigation reports !!
The lifeboat was sheered from it's moorings as she sank. No crew unfortunately made it to thr liferafts due to the speed of her loss. She was equipped with a system which only required a button pressed on the bridge to transmit an automated mayday. She was lost so quickly that the master didn't even have opportunity to activate. By the time the watch realised the unfolding catastrophy, it was far too late. She was seconds from total loss.
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