MV Derbyshire

The MV Derbyshire, was built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as an ore-bulk-oil combination carrier, she was registered at Liverpool, and owned by Bibby Line.

She was lost September 9 1980 during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan (25°30′N 130°30′E / 25.500°N 130.500°E / 25.500; 130.500); 42 crew and two wives were lost. At over 90,000 gross tons she was, and remains, the largest UK ship to have ever been lost at sea.

Initially, the remaining crew were charged with negligence but the International Transport Workers' Federation launched their own investigation to find the wreckage. The search was declared to be hopeless by a major marine consultancy, but the union persisted even though they could only afford eight days of search. A team of mathematical experts were employed and Bayesian search theory methods were used. The wreckage of the ship was found in June 1994 after the eight-day period was almost up. The survey managed to deploy a remotely operated vehicle, the Magellan (after the explorer), to take preliminary photos of the wreck which confirmed the finding. The strange orientation of the wreckage was published in a report on March 12 1998. This prompted the British Government to reopen a Formal Investigation into the sinking.

Formal Investigation, commenced on April 2 2000. They eventually concluded that the ship sunk due to structural failure and absolved the crew of any responsibility in the sinking. 12 ventilation holes were found to be responsible for allowing water to get into the ship, flooding it, and pulling it down by the bow. Coupled with the rough waves bobbing the ship, this resulted in the ship experiencing grating pressures it was not designed to withstand. In 1986 grounding of the MV Kowloon Bridge resulted in its break up and faults found in two other sister ships lend weight to this.

The Derbyshire Family Association was awarded the Marine Society's Thomas Gray Silver Medal in July 2004 for campaigning for better safety regulations regarding bulk carriers.

External links

This article about a specific civilian ship or boat is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.