''Mighty Servant 3'' is a 27,000-ton

semi-submersible Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as: *Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport *Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface *S ...

heavy lift ship A heavy-lift ship is a ship, vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be transported by normal ships. They are of two types: *''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to ...

. Its deck is . The vessel was built in 1984 by Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in Ōshima,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, for

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

shipping firm Wijsmuller Transport, which merged in 1993 with

Dock Express Shipping Dockwise was a Netherlands-based holding company in the marine transport industry. It was acquired by Boskalis in 2013 and was merged into the Boskalis brand name in 2018. History Dockwise was formed in September 1993 by the merger of two complem ...

to become

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

-based offshore heavy lifting group Dockwise Shipping B.V.

Service

Most of the cargo transported by ''Mighty Servant 3'' are

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

s and drilling industry related gear. When loading its mammoth burdens, it takes on thousands of gallons of water into ballast tanks, which causes the cargo deck to submerge. After the cargo is floated into position, the ballast tanks are emptied with pumps, slowly lifting the deck above the waterline to sailing position. The vessel is capable of carrying the heaviest semi-submersible drilling units, harsh-environment deep-water jack-up rigs and large floating production

tension-leg platform __NOTOC__ A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically geotechnical engineering#Floating-moored structures, moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of crude oil, oil or natural g ...

s and spars with drafts of up to . In 2010, ''Mighty Servant 3'' was outfitted with oil skimming equipment and used in the cleanup of the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

in the Gulf of Mexico.

Incidents and accidents

2006 sinking

On 6 December 2006, ''Mighty Servant 3'' sank in of water near the port of

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, while offloading the drilling platform '' Aleutian Key''. During submerging to unload cargo, the ship developed a

list A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...

and continued to submerge beyond design limits. There were no casualties, nor damage to the transported platform. After five months of resting on the seabed, it was salvaged by

salvage-company

Smit International Smit Internationale N.V. (or Smit International) is a Dutch company operating in the maritime sector. Founded in 1842 by Fop Smit, it provided towing services in the Port of Rotterdam. Within its first decades, it branched into shipbuild ...

and handed back to its owners on 26 May 2007. To pull the vessel from the seabed, the 1,200 tonne

sheerleg A floating sheerleg (also: shearleg) is a floating water vessel with a crane built on shear legs. Unlike other types of crane vessel, it is not capable of rotating its crane independently of its hull. There is a huge variety in sheerleg capac ...

''Taklift 7'' was used in combination with pumping pressurized air into the closed compartments of ''Mighty Servant 3''. It was transported to Grand Bahama Shipyard for repairs, arriving on 17 June 2007. In August 2009, after an extensive rebuild of its engines, in

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...

, she was returned to service.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Dockwise Shipping B.V.Smit International press release about salvage of Mighty Servant 32006 photo of Mighty Servant 3 sinking after accident
1984 ships Semi-submersibles Heavy lift ships Ships of the Netherlands Ships built by Oshima Shipbuilding Maritime incidents in 2006

Service

Incidents and accidents

2006 sinking

See also

References

External links