The Derbyshire

On or about September 9th 1980, The mv Derbyshire sank off the coast of Japan in position apparently 25o 30' North, 130o 30' East. There were forty four people on board, including two wives; there were no survivors. The ship had been hove to in Typhoon Orchid (Typhoon 15, 16). There were no Mayday calls. She was en route for Kawasaki, Japan with a cargo of Iron Ore Concentrates (Caroline Concentrates) loaded at Sept Isles, Canada.

The Derbyshire had an overall length 294.1 metres, extreme breadth 44.28m and a maximum draught 18.44m, gross tonnage 91,654.50, and net tonnage 67,428.51. She was longer than three football pitches and as wide as a six lane motorway. She was built by Swan Hunter at Haverton Hill shipyard, Teesside, but had been laid up for two years during her short four year life.

This type of ship is called a Bulk Carrier. These web pages hope to arouse interest in order, not only to discover what happened to the Derbyshire, but to inform the general public of the appalling safety record of large bulk carriers worldwide. Between 1980-94 the total losses of bulk and combination carriers was 149, with 1,144 lives lost.

It is widely believed that massive structural failure is the cause of the Derbyshire's sinking, and probably many other bulk carriers too. In 1994 the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) financed an expedition to locate and map the wreck of the Derbyshire. The ITF has declared that it is no longer enough to declare ship losses as force majeure, particularly when so many seafarer's lives are being lost. They say, and I quote: "Hopefully the UK Government will take on board our recommendations that a further expedition and a new public inquiry into the circumstances of the vessel's loss takes place. It is clear that the evidence we have so far recovered, renders the conclusions drawn by the Formal Investigation in 1987 unsafe."

Unless improvements can be made to the appalling safety record of bulk carriers, then men like Curly Bayliss and his friends on board the Derbyshire will have died in vain. They weren't `people' on board the Derbyshire, there were husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, friends, nephews, sisters, daughters - they were real people. Let us hope this investigative web site will be able to help prevent such tragedies in the future.

Step with us, into the murky waters that surround the mv Derbyshire....

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