MV ''Tricolor'' was a 50,000 tonne Norwegian-flagged vehicle carrier built in 1987, notable for having been involved in three collisions in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

within two weeks.

History

MV ''Tricolor'' was originally launched in 1987 as ''Nosac Sun''. At the time of her collision with ''Kariba'' she was operated by Wilh. Wilhelmsen.

Collision and sinking

During the early hours of 14 December 2002, while traveling from Zeebrugge, Belgium to Southampton, UK, with a load of nearly 3,000

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

s, she collided with ''Kariba'', a 1982 Bahamian-flagged

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

. ''Kariba'' was able to continue on, but ''Tricolor'' sank where she was struck, some north of the French coast within the French

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

in the

. While there were no deaths, the ship remained lodged on her side in the mud of the deep waterway. A third vessel, MV ''Clary'', was alleged in subsequent litigation to have contributed to the collision by "embarrassment of navigation". The sinking occurred off

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

harbor, which is France's most northerly seaport and France's third largest port after

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

and

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

Danger to shipping

Because of the location of the sunken vessel, at a point where two lanes combine in the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the

and the Southern part of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and the fact that she was just completely submerged, the wreck was considered as a hazard to navigation. The TSS at that location is one of the busiest

shipping lanes A sea lane, sea road or shipping lane is a regularly used navigable route for large water vessels (ships) on wide waterways such as oceans and large lakes, and is preferably safe, direct and economic. During the Age of Sail, they were determined ...

in the world. In December 2002 French authorities ordered the wreck to be removed, as it was perceived to represent a danger to shipping and the environment. Two more collisions happened with MV ''Tricolor'' in the days after the sinking. Following the sinking and due to its location in a busy point of a shipping lane (the location was on the edge of a turning-point within the TSS of the

), the wreck was initially guarded by the French maritime police

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

P671 ''Glaive'' and HMS ''Anglesey'' (a 195 ft British Island-class patrol vessel), in addition to two salvage vessels and three wreck buoys. Despite standard radio warnings, three guard ships, and a lighted buoy, the Dutch 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 In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

. However, on 1 January 2003 the loaded Turkish-registered fuel carrier ''Vicky'' struck the same wreck; she was later freed by the rising tide. In response to the multiple collisions the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) defined a new type of buoy, the Emergency wreck buoy for marking recent wrecks before permanent buoyage and chart updates can occur.

Salvage

The salvage operation of the ''Tricolor'' was carried out by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

of companies under the name Combinatie Berging Tricolor (Combination for Salvaging Tricolor) that was led by the Dutch company Smit International, and took well over a year. The consortium consisted of Smit Salvage, Scaldis Salvage, URS Salvage & Marine Contracting and Multraship Salvage. The operation began in July 2003 and was declared complete on 27 October 2004. The salvage method included a

carbide In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece. Interstitial / Metallic carbides The carbides of th ...

-encrusted cutting cable used to slice the wreck into nine sections of 3,000

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

each. This technique was similar to one Smit had used in salvaging most of the Russian nuclear

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

K-141 ''Kursk''. The Dutch company CT 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 was located and all the relevant positional information was 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 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

and Saab – was removed from the wreck and recycled for the metal component. Most oil was removed from the ship's tanks soon after it sank, but during the salvage there was a 540-tonne oil spill.

References

External links

Supplementary report to the inquiry into the collision between the car carrier ''Tricolor'' and the container vessel ''Kariba'' on 14 December 2002 near WesthinderArchive
– Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer
Rapport d’enquête complémentaire Abordage entre le navire transporteur de voitures TRICOLOR et le porte-conteneurs KARIBA

Archive
– Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer *
New Tricolor spill spotted
"

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. Monday 8 September 2003.
Photos of the wreck
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tricolor Merchant ships of Norway Shipwrecks in the English Channel 1987 ships Maritime incidents in 2002 Ships built in Japan Ro-ro ships