Credit River - Derbyshire Traditional Cache

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Hidden : 7/14/2013
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Credit River - Shipwreck Series

Derbyshire
 September 9, 1980



There are many shipwrecks around the world. Some very famous and others not so. Each however has it’s own story to tell. As you travel along the Credit River doing this series of caches, we have highlighted a number of these shipwrecks. During low water levels on these parts of the Credit River, you need to be careful in a canoe or kayak so as you don’t wind up in your own shipwreck. Besides the many large rocks along the way, there are also some other obstacles such as dams which should be avoided. All of the geocaches in this series have been placed by tubing, inflatable boat or on foot by walking in the water along the Credit River. Whichever way you choose to search for these caches, use caution and common sense.
More information about this series can be found here: Credit River - Shipwreck Series

Derbyshire
MV Derbyshire was an ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as the last in the series of the Bridge-class sextet. She was registered at Liverpool and owned by Bibby Line.

She was lost September 9, 1980 during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan. All hands (42 crew and two women married to crew members) were lost. At 91,655 gross register tons, she was—and remains—the largest British ship ever to have been lost at sea.

Derbyshire was launched in late 1975 and entered service in June 1976, as the last ship of the Bridge-class combination carrier, originally named Liverpool Bridge. Liverpool Bridge and English Bridge (later Worcestershire) were built by Seabridge for Bibby Line. The ship was laid up for two of its four-year service life.

In 1978, Liverpool Bridge was renamed Derbyshire, the fourth vessel to carry the name in the company's fleet. On July 11, 1980, on what turned out to be the vessel's final voyage, Derbyshire left Sept-Îles, Canada, her destination being Kawasaki, Japan. Derbyshire was carrying a cargo of 157,446 tonnes of iron ore.

On September 9, 1980, Derbyshire hove-to in Typhoon Orchid some 230 miles from Okinawa, and was overwhelmed by the tropical storm, and sank with the loss of all 42 crew members on board, plus the wives of two crew members. Derbyshire never issued a Mayday distress message.

The search for Derbyshire commenced on September 15, 1980 and was called off six days later when no trace of the vessel was found, and it was declared lost.

Six weeks after Derbyshire sank, one of the vessel's lifeboats was sighted by a Japanese tanker.

In June 1994, the wreck of Derbyshire was found at a depth of 4 km, spread over 1.3 km. A bronze plaque was placed on the wreckage as a memorial for those who were lost on board Derbyshire.

Full investigation of the cause and details of the accident was long delayed. Persistent refusal by the UK government to mount an inquiry prompted the International Transport Workers' Federation to launch its own search for the wreck. The search, led by American shipwreck hunter David Mearns, was declared hopeless by a major marine consultancy, but the union persisted even though they could only afford eight days of search. The wreck was found by Mearns' team in June 1994 when the eight-day period was almost up. The survey managed to deploy a remotely operated vehicle, the Magellan, to take preliminary photos, which confirmed the finding. The strange orientation of the wreck was published in a report on March 12, 1998. This prompted the British Government to reopen a formal investigation into the sinking.

The formal investigation commenced on April 2, 2000. It eventually concluded that the ship sank because of structural failure and absolved the crew of any responsibility in the sinking.

Evidence from the underwater surveys showed that the closing appliances for nine ventilator openings in the bow section of the ship were missing; it was concluded that this had allowed seawater to flood into the ship and cause it to trim down by the bow. This adverse forward trim enabled storm force waves to batter the foremost cargo hold hatch covers causing them to collapse and the forward cargo hold to then flood with sea water. The same process was repeated on the number two and number three cargo holds. The additional weight of seawater, coupled with the heavy seas during Typhoon Orchid, caused the main hull to suffer a catastrophic structural collapse and the vessel to founder.

Rumours of crew negligence circulated in the marine industry early in the investigation were based on the leaked unfinished findings of the assessors appointed by Lord Donaldson of Lymington on behalf of the British Department of Transport. These rumours were not substantiated by the investigation. They examined the 135,774 pictures of the Derbyshire wreck taken during two surveys by a research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. These assessors, Robin Williams and Remo Torchio, both naval architects, concluded that amongst other obvious openings for water ingress, including broken ventilators, a mooring rope coming out of a relatively undamaged and unlatched fore deck access hatch led to the possibility that over several hours the vessel took on water in the storm to a degree that produced a marked bow down trim coupled with large waves crashing onto the first hatch cover and its eventual failure. The vessel then began to take on more water and sank very quickly.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Unatvat orfvqr iregvpny oenapu pbzvat bhg bs ubevmbagny oenapu.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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