Today is the 19th anniversary of the tragedy of the ferry “Moby Prince”. The first photo shows the memorial plaque inside the “Porto Mediceo”In the second picture (from a postcard) we can see the “Moby Blue” and the “Moby Prince” in the port of Bastia (Corsica), while the pictures of the wreck are from the magazine “Panorama”.
These last images are courtesy of the website “Navi e Armatori” (Ships & Owners) of which I am a proud member.
Here is the Wikipedia entry about the event:
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, wasn't 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 small bettolina, 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.Search labels: Moby - ferry
21 comments:
VP, thank you for sharing these. They are wonderful.
Omigod! I wonder if I heard about this when it happened! Hard to imagine a more tragic event, especially in light of all the rescue blunders.
A very fine, if sad, series of photos.
So, do you own a ship of some kind?
That is such a sad story. Thinking about all those lives that may have been saved. You're photo of the memorial is beautiful.
Oh what a terrible and tragic story.
The photos alone are enough to bring tears to the eyes.
Good that at least the victims' names are saved and displayed. May they rest in peace.
Like I kept thinking yesterday, the sad anniversary of D.Y., "How could this happen?!"
@ Jacob - Sorry, no. It's only a website of ship spotters.
This is amazing, and so sad. You portrayed it beautifully, and the monument is respectful, yet living in the red flowers. It's simply devastating to hear when tragedy is compounded on tragedy with the mistakes and even purposely stupid things that are said and done that make accidents so much worse. I've been watching some movies lately that remind me how often this happens. A good post.
Wow, strong pictures and a sad day in your countries history, 19 years back! ( We had "Scandinavian Star" 20 years back,- so that is why your photos also gave a "flasback" and are really strong documentary .)
An example of terrible mismanagement. The differences between the boats before and after underscore the inept "rescue" operation. Wonderfully informative post!
A well composed memorial to this tragic accident, VP.
It is the first time for me to learn about this tragedy. Awful and sad. The memorial is simple and beautiful, like your tribute.
What a horrible disaster!
@ Gunn - I just read about 'Scandinavian Star', the story is almost as frightening and full of mismanagement as ours. Thanks for the information.
Hmmm.
Meanwhile, Corsica Ferries has ended their strike. Against Moby...
Wowee! What a terrible happening. The photos of the burned ship show the true tragedy.
Nice memorial. MB
PS: I'll let you know about the Eagles and the nest. I have to wait until Monday now. MB
I do remember this story. Thanks for the added info and pictures of the burned shell.
This is really sad and tragic. You did a great job of presenting this terrible event. I don't think I'd heard of it before.
I don't remember this... How awful!
Grazie VP.
Oh my, this is quite gruesome. Those poor people.
what a tragedy !
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