MS Moby Prince

Career
Name:	1968-1985: Koningin Juliana 1986-1991: Moby Prince
Operator:	1968-1985: SMZ 1986-1991: Navarma Lines
Port of registry:	1968-1985: Hoek Van Holland,  Netherlands 1985-1991: Livorno,  Italy
Builder:	Cammel Laird, Birkenhead
Yard number:	1331
Launched:	1967
Out of service:	1991
Identification:	IMO number: 6808806
Fate:	Destroyed by fire, 1991
General characteristics (as built)[1]
Type:	Car / passenger ferry
Tonnage:	6,682 GT (gross tonnage)
Length:	131.02 m (429 ft 10 in)
Beam:	20.48 m (67 ft 2 in)
Draught:	5.10 m (16 ft 9 in)
Installed power:	4 x MAN Augsburg Diesels
Propulsion:	2 x Controllable pitch propellers 1 x Bow thruster
Speed:	21 Knots
Capacity:	1200 passengers

Moby Prince was an Italian ferry owned by Navarma Lines (today Moby Lines) which crashed near Livorno on April 10, 1991.

Built in 1967 by the English shipyard Cammell Laird of Birkenhead as Koningin Juliana for ferry operator Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland of the Netherlands, it was used on the Harwich to Hook of Holland route until 1984.

Disaster

See also: Moby Prince disaster

On April 10, 1991, at 22.23, the ship collided with the oil tanker Agip Abruzzo in Livorno harbour and it caught fire killing 140 people. Not all the deaths were caused by the fire; it has been reported that a large portion of the victims died intoxicated by massive toxic inhalations, while they were gathered in the main internal room of the ship. The operations of rescue were managed badly; the may day sent from the Moby Prince, very weak, was not apparently heard from the radar officers of Livorno. The rescue teams were deployed only on the Agip Abruzzo. Initially the commander of Agip Abruzzo thought that the ship hit was a barge, and also said to the rescuers "Not to exchange our ship with that". Only some volunteers managed to approach the ferry, rescuing only a single survivor, a mariner from Naples. Despite this mariner reporting that there were still survivors on the burning ferry, nobody climbed on the wreck to rescue them. When the rescuers entered the wreck the following morning, they found only dead bodies. Initially the crash was attributed to a very thick fog, but some amateur video footage excluded this possibility.

References

1. ^ http://www.faktaomfartyg.nu/koningin_juliana_1968.htm

External links

• Photos of the shipwreck