| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nosac Sun |
| Builder: | Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, Japan |
| Yard number: | 589 |
| Launched: | 3 March 1987 |
| Identification: | IMO Number 8600181 |
| Fate: | sold |
| Career (Norway) | |
| Name: | Tricolor |
| Owner: | Capital Bank, Scotland |
| Acquired: | 1996 |
| Fate: | sank following collision |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Single screw PCTC (Pure Car Truck Carrier) |
| Tonnage: | 49,792 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 190 m (620 ft) |
| Beam: | 32.2 m (106 ft) |
| Draught: | 9.12 m (29.9 ft) |
MV Tricolor was a 50,000 tonne Norwegian-flagged vehicle carrier built in 1987, notable for having been involved in three English Channel collisions within a fortnight.
Contents |
The MV Tricolor was originally launched as the Nosac Sun.[1]
During the early hours of 14 December 2002, while traveling from Zeebrugge to Southampton with a load of nearly 3,000 automobiles, she collided with the Kariba, a 1982 Bahamian-flagged container ship. The Kariba was able to continue on, but Tricolor sank where she was struck, some 20 miles north of the French coast in the English Channel. While no lives were lost, the ship remained lodged on her side in the mud of the 30 metres (98 ft) deep waterway. A third vessel, the MV Clary was alleged to have contributed to the collision in subsequent litigation as having caused an "embarrassment of navigation".[2]
Following the sinking and due to the location in a busy point of a shipping lane (the location was on the edge of a turning-point within the Traffic Separation Scheme or TSS of the English Channel) the wreck was initially guarded by the French police vessel Glaive and HMS Anglesey in addition to two salvage vessels and three wreck buoys.[3]
The Channel is one of the busiest seaways in the world and, despite standard radio warnings, three guard ships, and a lighted buoy, the German vessel Nicola struck the wreck the next night, and had to be towed free. After this, two additional patrol ships and six more buoys were installed, including one with a Racon warning transponder. However, on 1 January 2003, the loaded Turkish-registered fuel carrier Vicky struck the same wreck; she was later freed by the rising tide.
The salvage operation of the Tricolor was led by the Dutch company Smit International, and took well over a year. Starting in July 2003, the operation was declared complete on October 27, 2004. The salvage method included a carbide-encrusted cutting wire used to slice the wreck into nine sections of 3000-tonnes each. This technique was similar to one Smit had used in salvaging the Russian submarine, K-141 Kursk. The cable took no prisoners slicing through the hull and many of the cars with ease.
C.T. Systems, together with Thales Navigation, handled the navigational aspects of the operation. The positioning equipment provided the required locational accuracy and after using a side scan sonar, the debris had been located and all the relevant positional information converted to a chart, enabling a systematic search and recovery of the remaining debris.
The cargo of 2,871 new cars – mostly from premium German and Swedish manufacturers including BMW, Volvo and SAAB – was removed from the wreck and destroyed, approximately £30m (representing a retail value of £60m) worth. Most oil was removed from the ship's tanks soon after it sank, but during the salvage there was a small 540-tonne oil spill, sparking concern.