MV Tricolor
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nosac Sun |
| Builder: | Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, Japan |
| Yard number: | 589 |
| Launched: | 3 March 1987 |
| Identification: | IMO Number 8600181 |
| Fate: | sold |
 Norway
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| Name: | Tricolor |
| Owner: | Capital Bank, Scotland |
| Acquired: | 1996 |
| Fate: | sank following collision |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Single screw PCTC (Pure Car Truck Carrier) |
| Tonnage: | 49,792 GT |
| Length: | 190 m (620 ft) |
| Beam: | 32.2 m (106 ft) |
| Draught: | 9.12 m (29.9 ft) |
MV Tricolor was a 50,000 tonne Norwegian-flagged vehicle carrier built in 1987, notable for having been involved in three English Channel collisions within a fortnight.
MV Tricolor was originally launched in 1987 as Nosac Sun. At the time of her collision with Kariba she was operated by Wilh. Wilhelmsen.
During the early hours of 14 December 2002, while traveling from Zeebrugge, Belgium to Southampton, U.K., with a load of nearly 3,000 automobiles, she collided with Kariba, a 1982 Bahamian-flagged container ship. Kariba was able to continue on, but Tricolor sank where she was struck, some 17 nautical miles (20 mi) north of the French coast within the French Exclusive economic zone in the English Channel. While no lives were lost, the ship remained lodged on her side in the mud of the 30 metres (98 ft) deep waterway. A third vessel, MV Clary was alleged to have contributed to the collision in subsequent litigation as having caused an "embarrassment of navigation".
The sinking occurred off Dunkirk harbor, which is France’s most northerly seaport and France’s third largest port after Marseille and Le Havre.
Because of the location of the sunken vessel, at a point where two lanes combine in the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the English Channel and the Southern part of the North Sea and the fact that she was just completely submerged, the wreck was considered as a hazard to navigation. The TSS at that location is one of the busiest shipping-lanes in the world. In December 2002 French authorities ordered the wreck to be removed, as it was perceived to represent a danger to shipping and the environment. Declaring the vessel a hazard to navigation was an understatement as two more collisions happened with MV Tricolor in the days after the sinking.
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Wikipedia