MS Berge Vanga

History
Name:	MS Berge Vanga
Owner:	Bergesen d.y.[1]
Port of registry:	Liberia
Builder:	Uljanik Shipyard, Pula, Croatia[2]
Launched:	1974[3]
Identification:	IMO number: 7367536
Fate:	Disappeared, presumed sunk, South Atlantic, 29 October 1979
General characteristics
Type:	Ore-bulk-oil carrier
Tonnage:	115,426 GT[3] 231,568 DWT[3]
Beam:	50.07 m (164.3 ft)[1]
Draught:	20.416 m (66.98 ft)[1]
Installed power:	35,000 Brake horsepower[1]
Propulsion:	2 x Burmeister & Wain diesel engines[1]

MS Berge Vanga was an ore-bulk-oil carrier with 227,912 tonnes deadweight (DWT). The ship was owned by Norwegian shipping company Sig. Bergesen d.y. and registered in Liberia. The ship had build number 300 at the Uljanik shipyard in the port city Pula in Croatia where it was built in 1974.

The ship was en route from Brazil to Japan with iron ore when contact was lost with the vessel in the South Atlantic from 29 October 1979. The ship vanished and the ensuing search operation yielded no results. 40 people lost their lives.

Some debris that could resemble parts from the tanker was found but no people. Still very little is known about the disaster, and the hearing after the accident was held behind closed doors. The principal theory holds that the cause could have been explosions caused by oil residue in the cargo compartments. MS Berge Vanga was, like its sister ship MS Berge Istra which disappeared under similar circumstances four years earlier, a ship which could transport both oil and iron ore. After these two disappearances no more combination ships like this were built, and oil was never again transported alongside ore.

References

• Meland, Astrid (3 January 2006). "Skipet som forsvant" [The ship that disappeared]. Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 1 June 2014. 

External links

• Visser, Auke (2014). "Berge Vanga". Auke Visser's International Super Tankers. Retrieved 1 June 2014.