The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with steam turbine drive, built in 1975 for the Parisian shipping company Societé Francaise de Transportes Maritimes (SFTM), was built at the French shipyard Chantiers Navals de La Ciotat in La Ciotat. Built as Aquitaine , the ship had the following names throughout its career: Aquitaine , Nova , Ova , Va , Rova and Arica . After the Arica last sailed for the Norwegian shipping company Sörensen & Sönner (Arendal), it was scrapped in May 1998.
The accident
The single-hull tanker Nova , which was ten years old at the time, was used as a shuttle tanker by Kharg , just like the later enemy Magnum . Both tankers collided with each other on the night of December 5th to 6th, 1985 about 140 km from Kharg, presumably because both ships were sailing without lighting due to the situation in the tanker war of the first Gulf War and wanted to avoid an alleged missile attack. None of the crew members was killed, the amount of oil spilled was estimated at around 73,000 tons, since at most one of the two tankers could have been loaded.
consequences
In an arbitrage proceeding later in Norway, the collision was classified as a normal shipping hazard and not a war hazard and argued with the convoys carried out during the First World War .
Both ships later fell victim to the tanker war. The Magnum was destroyed in the summer of 1986 in Khark by an Exocet rocket, killing two crew members and causing the ship to be completely lost. The Nova was renamed Rova and on October 10, 1987 also fired at with an Exocet missile, whereby six sailors were killed.
literature
Stewart, IG: The World's Super Ships . 1965-1980. IGS Marine Publishers, Perth 1980, pp.8 .
