MV Kurdistan

MV Kurdistan was a 182-metre (597-foot) oil tanker built by Swan Hunter (Shipbuilders) Ltd. at the Hebburn Shipyard Tyne and Wear as the Frank D. Moores in June, 1973,[1] renamed Kurdistan in 1976 and at the time of the accident was owned by the Nile Steamship Company Ltd. She was a Liberian-registered tanker which broke in two spilling some 6,000 tons of Bunker c oil in the Cabot Strait off the coast of Cape Breton Nova Scotia Canada on 15 March 1979.[2][3] The amount of oil spilled is second only to the SS Arrow spill off Canada's East Coast.

Accident

While traveling from Point Tupper, Nova Scotia to Sept-Îles, Quebec on 15 March, 1979, laden with 30,000 tons of heated Bunker c oil, Kurdistan encountered heavy winter pack ice in the Cabot Strait around noon and was unable to proceed. The weather was poor and the ship reported that it was rolling heavily.[4] After being immobilized in the ice for approximately eight hours the tanker turned and headed towards the open sea in an effort to get around the pack ice. Almost immediately after clearing the ice, the tanker was caught in a heavy swell and crew reported hearing a "thud and a shudder", and Kurdistan's hull began to crack vertically in two separate areas.[4] Oil began leaking from a vertical crack in the sides of the vessel's No.3 wing tanks.[4] The Kurdistan crew managed to pump a substantial amount of the oil into the remaining undamaged tanks within the vessel, limiting what could have been a more catastrophic spill, before the ship's bow section broke completely apart from the vessel and remained partially afloat.[4] The crew were later rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir William Alexander.

In the disaster, 10,000 tons of heavy oil was ultimately spilled into the Cabot Strait, with the clean-up efforts along Cape Breton Island's western coastline taking ten months to complete.[5] It was later revealed that the disaster marked the first time Kurdistan had ever carried a cargo of heated oil.[4]

The stern section remained afloat and was towed into Port Hastings, Nova Scotia where the remaining 16,000 tonnes of oil was off-loaded once weather had improved. What remained of Kurdistan was later towed to Europe and retrofitted with a new hull before returning to service as the Simonburn in November of 1979.[6] The severed bow section was towed to deep water south of Sable Island and sunk by gunfire from HMCS Margaree on 1 April, 1979.[5][7][8]

Cause

An inquiry later blamed the wreck on human error, with faulty welding to the ship's hull made shortly before the incident being deemed responsible.[5]

The cause of the crack was determined to be a defective butt weld in the port-side bilge keel. The artea had been damaged in 1975 and repaired in 1977.[4] It was also determined that the displacement of heated oil by cold water entering the cargo tanks contributed to the disaster.[4]

References
  1. "Tyne Built Ships". tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  2. Boudrot, Don (13 December 2019). "The MV Kurdistan". Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  3. Neu, Hans J. A. "Sea State During the Breakup of the Oil Tanker Kurdistan" (PDF). cybrary.org. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  4. "M V Kurdistan tanker". twi-global.com. The Welding Institute. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  5. "Kurdistan - 1979". Marine Heritage Database. Government of Nova Scotia. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  6. "Tyne Built Ships". tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  7. Boudrot, Don (13 December 2019). "The MV Kurdistan". Port Hawkesbury Reporter. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  8. "Kurdistan". Retrieved 12 December 2020.

Further reading

http://shipfax.blogspot.com/2019/03/kurdistan-remembered.html

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