''Blue Marlin'' and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

compose the ''Marlin'' class of semisubmersible heavy-lift ships operated by Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands. Designed to transport very large, semisubmersible

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to ...

s above the transport ship's deck, she is equipped with 38 cabins to accommodate 60 people, a workout room, sauna and swimming facilities, and a secure citadel for protection against pirate attacks.

History

''Blue Marlin'' and her sister ship were owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway, from their construction, in April 2000 and November 1999, respectively, until 6 July 2001, when they were purchased by Dockwise. The

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

hired ''Blue Marlin'' from Offshore Heavy Transport to move the destroyer back to the United States after the warship was damaged by

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

suicide bombers while anchored in the port of

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. During the latter part of 2003, work done on ''Blue Marlin'' boosted her capacity and added two retractable

propulsor {{short description, Mechanical device to propel a vessel A propulsor is a mechanical device that gives propulsion. The word is commonly used in the marine vernacular, and implies a mechanical assembly that is more complicated than a propeller. The ...

s to improve maneuverability. The ship re-entered service in January 2004. Following these improvements, ''Blue Marlin'' delivered the oil platform ''

Thunder Horse PDQ ''Thunder Horse'' PDQ is a BP plc and ExxonMobil joint venture semi-submersible oil platform on location over the Mississippi Canyon Thunder Horse oil field (Block 778/822), in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, southeast of New Orleans, moored in waters ...

'', weighing 60,000 tons, to

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

, for completion. Dockwise HLV BLUE MARLIN preparing to offload OCEAN MONARCH

In July 2005 ''Blue Marlin'' moved the

gas refinery Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as o ...

Snøhvit from its construction site in

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

Hammerfest Hammerfest or Hámmárfeasta is a town/cityIn the Norwegian language, the word ''by'' can be translated as "town" or "city". that is also the administrative centre of Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the nor ...

, an 11-day trip. This transport was filmed for the TV show ''

Extreme Engineering ''Extreme Engineering'' is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program featured future and ongoing engineering projects. After ending of season 3 it airs under the ''Build It Bigger'' ...

'' on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, and also the TV show ''

Mega Movers ''Mega Movers'' is a television program on History Channel. It first aired on April 18, 2006. The program details the preparations and inside problems and details of large moves, such as historical buildings being relocated to new sites miles awa ...

'' on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

. In November 2005, ''Blue Marlin'' left Corpus Christi to move the massive

sea-based X-band Radar The Sea-Based X-band radar (SBX-1) is a floating, self-propelled, mobile active electronically scanned array early-warning radar station designed to operate in high winds and heavy seas. It was developed as part of the United States Department of ...

Adak Adak may refer to: Places *Adak Island, one of the Aleutian Islands **Adak, Alaska, a town on the above island ** Adak Airport, airport serving the town *** Adak Army Airfield, original name of the airport (1942–c.1943) *** Davis Army Airfield, ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, via the southern tip of South America and

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. It arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 January 2006, having travelled 15,000 miles. In January 2007, the ''Blue Marlin'' was employed to move two

jackup rig A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit ...

s, the '' Rowan Gorilla VI'' and the GlobalSantaFe ''Galaxy II'', from

Halifax Harbour Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural har ...

to 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 ...

. On 16 June 2012, the ship arrived in Ferrol Harbour in preparation for transporting the incomplete amphibious warship HMAS ''Canberra'' to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. The Australian ship was lifted onto ''Blue Marlin'' on 4 August 2012 and was scheduled to sail on 12 August, bound for Australia BAE Systems shipyard in Williamstown. The ship passed the Port Phillip Heads and arrived at Melbourne on 17 October 2012. On 5 May 2019, ''Blue Marlin'' was briefly hijacked off the coast of

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

. The crew took shelter in the ship's

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

, while pirates shot up the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

in frustration. The pirates fled before the arrival of the Equatorial Guinean frigate and Spanish patrol boat .

Post-2004

*Max sailing draft: *Max draft submerged: *Water above deck submerged **aft **forward *Propulsor output: each *Conversion yard:

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard HD Hyundai Mipo (abbreviated: HMD; ) is one of the largest shipbuilding companies with the world's largest share (50%) in PC (Product Carrier) segment. Since the 1980s, more than 10,000 ships were repaired and converted until 2005 and 400 newly ...

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

, South Korea

References

External links

Professional photographs
from shipspotting.com
RIGZONE article about towing the ''Thunder Horse PDQ'' oil platform
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Marlin 1999 ships Heavy lift ships Semi-submersibles Ships built in the Republic of China Ships of the CSBC Corporation, Taiwan

History

Post-2004

See also

References

External links