SEARCHING FOR THE DERBYSHIRE

The 169,00dwt combination carrier DERBYSHIRE sank on 10 September 1980, some 230 miles off the coast of Okinawa. In the public and in the shipping industry, the same questions were asked: how could such a large and seemingly invincible ship be lost almost without trace. In response to proposals by the Derbyshire Families Association and two UK transport unions, the International Transport Workers' Federation decided to fund a search for DERBYSHIRE and to produce the first factual evidence of her sinking. Like all searches, DERBYSHIRE search began with a very thorough collection an analysis of the known loss data. Using the principles of modern probability analysis, an overall search area of 175 square nautical miles was estimated with a high probability zone of roughly 90 square miles. A state-of-the-art "teamed system" that combined a dual-frequency side-scan sonar with a work-class ROV system for the deep ocean ( 6,000 metre depths) was used to search the area. The sonar was launched on 29 May 1994 to begin the search. On 3 June, the colour monitor displaying sonar imagery began revealing a scene of immense destruction and fragmentation that could not be attributed to anything other than the obliterated remains of the bulk carrier DERBYSHIRE. The ROV was fitted with a high quality photo/video configuration to ensure that the ROV's visual evidence was clear to lay people and defensible in a court of law. Large pieces of wreckage were video-taped in unusual contorted angles lying next to lengths of bent piping and other small debris. A very large section of the ship sitting upright, but deeply buried within an impact crater was recognized as the bow which appeared to be fractured straight across at Frame 339. Further detailed analysis of the sonar imagery following the search has yielded another significant finding: the identification of a sonar target believed to be the stern section just forward of the superstructure in the suspected weak section around Frame 65. This location of the stern, an addition to the confirmed fracture of the bow and the presence of hundreds of relatively small pieces of wreckage, indicates an extremely violent breakup that must have occurred over a very short period of time, perhaps only seconds or minutes. In the view of the International Transport Workers' Federation, this new and important evidence invalidates the conclusion of the 1987 formal inquiry that DERBYSHIRE was probably overcome by the forces of nature in Typhoon Orchid.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Sea Technology, v 35 n 12, Dec 1994, p 15 [6 p, 6 ref]
• Authors:
  • Mearns, D
• Publication Date: 1994

Language

• English

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bulk carriers; Loss and damage; Ships; Sonar
• Geographic Terms: Derbyshire (England)
• Old TRIS Terms: Searching; Ship losses; Sunken vessels
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00710113
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: British Maritime Technology
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 14 1995 12:00AM