Twenty five years ago today, the ore-bulk-oil carrier MV Kowloon Bridge sank off the coast of West Cork with a cargo of 165,000 tons of iron ore and 2,000 tons of bunker oil, becoming the world’s largest shipwreck by tonnage.
The Kowloon Bridge was bound from Quebec, Canada to the River Clyde,in Scotland when she started to develop structural cracking on the main deck during a storm. She diverted to Bantry Bay, Ireland. She subsequently suffered steering gear failre and on Monday, November 24th, 1986, ran around off ‘The Stags,’ near Baltimore, West Cork in the Republic of Ireland. Attempts at salvage failed and on December 3, the ship broke in half and sank. The almost 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil which leaked from the wreck did significant damage to local beaches, fisheries and wildlife. The Kowloon Bridge was a sistership to the MV Derbyshire which sank with all hands during Typhoon Orchid in 1980. See our post, Douglas Faulkner and the MV Derbyshire.
25th anniversary of Europe’s biggest wreck – ‘Kowloon Bridge’
The wreck of the Kowloon Bridge is now a popular site for experienced divers, in20 to 118 feet of water off the Stag Rocks.
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She was called the ‘English Bridge’ when I sailed on her in 1973, Bibby line was part of the Seabridge consortium. The ‘Derbyshire’ had originally been named as ‘Liverpool Bridge’. I sailed on her in 1977.
Dutch Tug “Typhoon” was on her way from Galway to attempt salvage but ran into serious weather on the way. A wheelhouse window on the tug was smashed and the wheelhouse flooded, taking out all the electronics.
I spend 2 days on the tug doing repairs, along with others doing repairs on everything else but by the time this was finished it was too late for the “Kowloon Bridge”
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