Betelgeuse (ship)
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The Betelgeuse was a French crude oil tanker that exploded on January 8, 1979 at the Whiddy Island oil terminal in Ireland . 47 crew members and workers were killed.
history
On January 8, 1979, the French tanker Betelgeuse unloaded its cargo of 74,000 tons of Arabian-heavy crude oil and 40,000 tons of Arabian-light crude oil at Gulf Oil's Whiddy Island terminal in Bantry Bay, southwest Ireland . When there were about 40,000 tons of oil on board, the tanker exploded and burned out. As a result of the explosion, in which the tanker broke into three parts and sank, all 42 crew members on the ship at the time of the explosion died as well as five employees of the oil terminal and a pilot. During the subsequent major fire, the 40,000 tons of crude oil remaining in the tanker flowed into Bantry Bay. Both the jetty and the terminal were badly damaged, the 18 storage tanks remained undamaged.
The investigation into the accident revealed serious deficiencies in the maintenance condition of the supertanker. The fire was triggered by steel plates on the tanker's outer skin rubbing against each other.
The two parts of the wreck were lifted in 1980 by the Dutch salvage company Smit and scrapped in Bilbao and Valencia.
Trivia
The Betelgeuse was curiously after that very star Betelgeuse named in the constellation of Orion, the astronomers precisely the same fate is predicted: to go down as a supernova in a gigantic explosion.
literature
- Bossow, Günter: Mayday, Mayday ... ship accidents in the 80s and 90s. 1st edition. Pietsch Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-50320-4 .