AHTS ''Bourbon Dolphin'' was an anchor handling tug supply vessel of Bourbon Offshore

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The ship capsized off the coast of

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

on April 12, 2007, and sank three days later while preparations were being made to tow her to shore.

History

''Bourbon Dolphin'' was built at the Ulstein Verft in 2006, the "Ulstein A102" design. She was part of a three-ship contract with Bourbon, the two others being the ''Bourbon Orca'' and ''Bourbon Mistral''. On February 21, 2007 ''Bourbon Dolphin'' succeeded in pulling the German mine hunter ''Grömitz'' to sea again after she had run aground near

Florø is a town and the administrative centre of the municipality of Kinn, Vestland, Norway. The town was founded by royal decree in 1860 as a ladested on the island of Florelandet, located between the Botnafjorden and Solheimsfjorden. Florø is No ...

. Less than two months later, on April 12, she capsized with 15 Norwegian sailors aboard. Eight were picked up by vessels already on scene and two were found by Her Majesty's Coastguard, while five are still missing. Three of the ten recovered were reported dead. The incident happened while ''Bourbon Dolphin'' was anchoring the semi-submersible drilling platform ''Transocean Rather''. The 99-man crew of the ''Rather'' was evacuated by the RAF. On Sunday 15 April, ''Bourbon Dolphin'' sank in 1,100 meters of water off the coast of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at . In January 2009 Bourbon Offshore Norway was fined 5 million Norwegian kroner (€530,000 at the time) after a Norwegian government Commission of Inquiry raised doubts about the ability of both the vessel and its crew to handle large anchors in such deep water. Norway's national prosecutor said the new captain, who died with his son in the sinking, had not been given enough time to learn about the crew and ship, as he only had 90 minutes to take over.BBC news: Death vessel firm fined £500,000
/ref>

References

External links

''Bourbon Dolphin'' had nearly toppled before
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourbon Dolphin 2006 ships Ships built in Ulstein Tugboats Maritime incidents in 2007 Shipwrecks in the North Sea Merchant ships of Norway 2007 disasters in the United Kingdom