The ''Kirki'' was a 210-metre-long

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-registered

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

which caught fire in the early morning of 21 July 1991, 30 km west of the fishing town of

Cervantes, Western Australia Cervantes is a town in Western Australia located off of Indian Ocean Drive about north-north-west of the state capital, Perth in the Shire of Dandaragan local government area. At the 2016 census, Cervantes had a population of 527. The town ...

, causing what at the time was the worst oil spill to have occurred in Australian waters. The ship encountered severe weather and rough seas, which caused leaks and a buildup of water in the ship's ballast, creating unanticipated strain on the structure. This eventually resulted in the ship's bow tearing off, rupturing the forward storage tanks and causing an

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

estimated at 17,700 tons, or 5.2 million gallons. The oil then caught fire, ignited by damaged electrical cables that were short-circuiting on the severed part of the bow. The crew sent out a distress call at 3:02am on 21 July, and after it became clear how dire the situation was, the 37-strong crew were evacuated by Australian rescue helicopters over the next few hours. After the fire was confirmed to be extinguished, the still-leaking ship was towed to

Cape Preston Cape Preston is a rocky headland located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, situated West South West of Karratha. It lies on the tribal land of the indigenous Nhuwala. Cape Preston is a standard Bureau of Meteorology reference point ...

by a number of

tugboats A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

and an oil rig support vessel, the ''Lady Kathleen,'' where the remaining light crude oil and heavy fuel oil were transferred to another tanker, the ''Flying Clipper'', on 18 August. Kirki was then towed to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, where it was drydocked and dismantled for scrap. The condition of the ship was described as "very sick" by the salvage team, including repetitious and persistent equipment failure. The Australian government investigation identified many issues, including the ballast tank lids had rusted through and the holes had been covered in canvas and painted on both sides to hide the condition on the lids. An image by freelance photographer Neil Eliot depicting the crippled ship without its bow, and with a "fireball exploding out of" its broken front section, was adjudged the winner of the 1991

Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

for Best News Photograph. A posthumous online tribute to Eliot describes the image as 'graphically bringing home the full drama of the occasion'. The incident was also the subject of a now-famous sketch on Australian comedy program ''

Clarke and Dawe ''Clarke and Dawe'' (also stylized as ''Clarke & Dawe'') is an Australian news satire television program that originally aired on the Nine Network from 1989 to 1996 and later on ABC TV from 2000 until 2017. Almost all episodes feature comedians ...

'', titled "The Front Fell Off".

References

{{1991 shipwrecks Maritime incidents in 1991 Oil spills in Australia