Derbyshire (ship)

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Derbyshire p1
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
other ship names
  • Liverpool Bridge
Ship type OBO carrier
class "Bridge" class
Shipyard Swan Hunter Shipbuilders , Haverton Hill
Launch 1976
Whereabouts Sunk in Typhoon Orchid in 1980
Ship dimensions and crew
length
294 m ( Lüa )
width 44 m
displacement 67.429  t
measurement 91,655 GRT
 
crew 42
Machine system
machine 1 × diesel engine (B&W 8K98FF)
Top
speed 		15.0 kn (28 km / h)
Transport capacities
Load capacity approx. 160,000 dw
Others
Registration
numbers 		IMO 7343085

The motor ship Derbyshire was a British bulk tanker that sank in the Pacific Ocean in 1980 . It is the largest ship ever to have sunk under the British flag.

The Derbyshire in 1976 at the shipyard Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in Haverton Hill as Liverpool Bridge built and by the Bibby Line in Liverpool bereedert . She was the last of a total of six ships of the "Bridge" class. In 1978 it was renamed Derbyshire . The ship carried crude oil and bulk cargo, especially ores .

Sinking of the ship

Coming from Sept Isles in Canada on the way to Kawasaki , the freighter loaded with 157,000 tons of iron ore concentrate came south of Japan on September 9, 1980 ( 25 ° 30 ′  N , 130 ° 30 ′  E, coordinates: 25 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  N , 130 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  E ) into a typhoon and sank within a few minutes, so that the crew could not even make an emergency call. The 42-person crew and two accompanying wives were killed.

The Derbyshire wreck was discovered in June 1994 by a search expedition led by the American oceanographer David Mearns , which was also financed by relatives.

Initially, the reason for the sinking was assumed to be monster waves or a design error, which in 1986 led to the loss of the sister ship Kowloon Bridge off the Irish coast.

Initial examinations of the wreckage showed that the bow was relatively unscathed on the sea floor, while the rest of the ship was badly damaged. It was therefore assumed that the bow had already flooded before the sinking, while the rest of the ship was destroyed by the rising water pressure during the sinking.

More detailed examinations of the wreckage revealed that heavy seas during the typhoon tore off the covers of several ventilation shafts on the bow, so that the ship took water through nine to twelve holes approximately 30 cm in diameter over a longer period of time. As a result, the forecastle sank and the waves coming over hit the foremost hatch covers directly . These finally gave way and the front cargo hold was full. As the bow continued to sink, this was repeated in quick succession in holds 2 and 3, whereupon the ship lost its buoyancy and finally sank quickly.

literature

  • Donald Faulkner: The mv Derbyshire Saga, A Forensic Investigation from Cradle to Grave . Contribution of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) to the STG yearbook in execution of the cooperation agreement between RINA and STG. In: Yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society . Vol. 95. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 2001, ISBN 3-540-40361-2 , pp. 413-422 .

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