''Mighty Servant 3'' is a 27,000-ton

semi-submersible Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as: * Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport *Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface * ...

heavy lift ship A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normal ships. They are of two types: *''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to be floated o ...

. Its deck is . The vessel was built in 1984 by Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in Ōshima, Japan, for

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

shipping firm

Wijsmuller Transport Dockwise was a Netherlands-based holding company in the marine transport industry. It was acquired by Boskalis in 2013 and was merged into the Boskalis brand name in 2018. History Dockwise was formed in September 1993 by the merger of two compleme ...

, which merged in 1993 with Dock Express Shipping to become Breda-based offshore heavy lifting group Dockwise Shipping B.V.

Service

Most of the cargo transported by ''Mighty Servant 3'' are oil platforms and drilling industry related gear. When loading its mammoth burdens, it takes on thousands of gallons of water into ballast tanks, which causes the cargo deck to submerge. After the cargo is floated into position, the ballast tanks are emptied with pumps, slowly lifting the deck above the waterline to sailing position. The vessel is capable of carrying the heaviest semi-submersible drilling units, harsh-environment deep-water jack-up rigs and large floating production

tension-leg platform __NOTOC__ A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metr ...

s and spars with drafts of up to . In 2010, ''Mighty Servant 3'' was outfitted with oil skimming equipment and used in the cleanup of the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...

in the Gulf of Mexico.

Incidents and accidents

2006 sinking

On 6 December 2006, ''Mighty Servant 3'' sank in of water near the port of

Luanda Luanda () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major Angola#Economy, industrial, Angola#Culture, cultural and Angola#Demographics, urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atl ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, while offloading the drilling platform '' Aleutian Key''. During submerging to unload cargo, the ship developed a

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

and continued to submerge beyond design limits. There were no casualties, nor damage to the transported platform. After five months of resting on the seabed, it was salvaged by

salvage-company

Smit International Smit Internationale N.V. (or Smit International) is a Dutch company operating in the maritime sector. The company was founded in 1842 by Fop Smit as a towage company with only the 140 horsepower paddle steamer tug ''Kinderdijk''. Fop's sons, J ...

and handed back to its owners on 26 May 2007. To pull the vessel from the seabed, the 1,200 tonne

sheerleg A floating sheerleg (also: shearleg) is a floating water vessel with a Crane (machine), crane built on shear legs. Unlike other types of crane vessel, it is not capable of rotating its crane independently of its hull. There is a huge variety in ...

''Taklift 7'' was used in combination with pumping pressurized air into the closed compartments of ''Mighty Servant 3''. It was transported to Grand Bahama Shipyard for repairs, arriving on 17 June 2007. In August 2009, after an extensive rebuild of its engines, in

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is on ...

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technolo ...

, she was returned to service.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Dockwise Shipping B.V.Smit International press release about salvage of Mighty Servant 32006 photo of Mighty Servant 3 sinking after accident
1984 ships Semi-submersibles Heavy lift ships Ships of the Netherlands Ships built by Oshima Shipbuilding Maritime incidents in 2006

Service

Incidents and accidents

2006 sinking

See also

References

External links