The motor ship ''Ranga'' was a 1,586 tonne container ship owned by the Spanish shipping company, Naviera Ason SA, but on charter to the Icelandic shipping company,
Hafskip. She was formerly named ''Berta de Perez'', but her name was changed at sea to ''Ranga'', due to the Icelandic charter. The ''Ranga'' was on her maiden voyage from Vigo to
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...
under Captain Miguel Ángel Díaz Madariaga.
The ship lost power on this voyage during a storm, and was wrecked at at Dunmore Head, close to Coumeenole Beach, near
Slea Head on the
Dingle
Dingle ( or ''Daingean Uí Chúis'', meaning "fort of Ó Cúis") is a town in County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The only town on the Dingle Peninsula (known in Irish as ''Corca Dhuibhne''), it sits on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coa ...
peninsula,
County Kerry
County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
on 11 March 1982.
Rescue
The local rescue team comprising members of Dingle Fire Brigade, the Garda Síochána and emergency services, rescued some of the fifteen crew members by
Breeches buoy. The remainder were taken off by an
RAF helicopter. Captain Miguel Ángel Díaz Madariaga was the last to be rescued and dropped off the vessel.
Disposal
The ship was a total loss and created
oil pollution as she broke up. The ship broke into two parts quickly, the stern of the ship, with the
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
on, and the bows. In 1989, the company Eurosalve tried to scrap her, but this failed due to the inaccessibility of the wreck. The stern section of the wreck was removed in 1991, due to filming of ''
Far and Away'', which included a scene shot at Dunmore Head. Today, only the bow and some other scattered pieces of wreckage are still visible.
File:Shipwreck Ranga 1.jpg, The remains of the ''Ranga'' in 1984
File:Shipwreck Ranga at Dunmore Head, Ireland.jpg, The remains of the ''Ranga'' in 1984
File:ShipwreckRangaDunmoreHead1986.jpg, The ''MV Ranga'' remains pictured in 1986
File:Ranga shipwrecked at Dunmore head, Dingle, Ireland.jpg, The bow section in 2006
File:The remains of the Ranga at Dunmore Head, Ireland.jpg, The superstructure remains in 2006
See also
*
Dingle peninsula
*
MV ''Plassy''
References
* Bourke, EJ. (1994). Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast Volume 1, p. 157. .
*
* "Los Barcos de Pérez Y Cía", 2001.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranga
Container ships
Maritime incidents in 1982
Shipwrecks of Ireland
1980 ships
Ships sunk with no fatalities