The ship was constructed in 1974 as an Aframax tanker with 21 cargo tanks in a single-hull design. The ship with hull number 230 was built at the Astilleros y Talleres del Noreste (ASTANO) shipyard in Ferrol and completed as La Niña in April 1974 . The client was the company Petronor from Bilbao, the ship management was carried out by Compania Maritima Rio Gulf. In 1979 the Afran Transport Company from Monrovia took over the ship and used it as the Afran Zenith .
Accident on the Elbe
The Afran Zenith called at the Port of Hamburg on July 25, 1981 . The ship was loaded with almost 80,000 tons of crude oil from Angola for the Shell refinery in Kattwyk Harbor. The pilot change was routinely carried out at Teufelsbrück . When the engine was stopped and the boat was moving slightly ahead, two port pilots took over the tanker from the Elbe pilots. When the Afran Zenith was about to pick up speed again, the main engine did not start again. Since there was no longer any pressure exerted on the rudder , the tanker lay across in the flood current and drifted with its bow on the north bank of the Elbe at about 10:28 a.m. An emergency anchorage was carried out immediately, during which the anchor was overrun and the hull slit open on port side . Around 300 tons of oil leaked from a 200 by 60 centimeter leak in the forecastle tank on the port side. Tugs who were called in immediately tried to free the tanker for over three and a half hours. At around 1:50 p.m. the tanker was towed free by 14 tugs and brought to the Finkenwerder piles. At 10:00 p.m., the Afran Zenith was pulled into Kattwyk Harbor by the tugs, accompanied by seven fireboats and five police boats . The tanker arrived there at midnight.
The spilled oil polluted the Elbe and bank areas over a length of 15 kilometers. If the water had run out, the tanker would have threatened to break apart. All residents and road users in the port area and bank area of the Elbe from Blankenese to St. Pauli were asked not to smoke and not to use an open fire. The near-disaster sparked a discussion about Hamburg as a tanker port.
Further use
After the accident on the Elbe, the Afran Zenith was converted and used as a stationary tank storage ship from 1982. In 1989 it was sold to the Chevron Shipping Company, a subsidiary of the Chevron Corporation , which continued to use the FSO as Chevron Zenith . The next change of name to Bellatrix Voyager followed after a sale in February 2002. After the ship was renamed again to Muadi in July 2004 , the last name change to Aditi followed on November 1, 2008 , under which the ship was scrapped from November 11th .
