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under a Norwegian flag.

The $25 million ship was constructed by the Japanese shipbuilding company

Tsunashi and launched in 1987 under the name Nozak Sun. In 1996,

the Nozak Sun was sold to the Norwegian company Vilhelmsen and renamed Tricolor.

The tricolor measured 190 meters in length and 32 meters in width.

The crew consisted of 22 Filipinos, one Swede and the Norwegian captain.

At midnight on the 14th of December 2002, the motor vessel Tri -Color

the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, carrying 2 ,871 brand new luxury vehicles,

including BMWs, Volvos and Saabs, valued at around $47 .7 million.

It also had 77 containers filled with tractor and crane parts.

The ship is heading to Southampton in the UK before making the journey over

Atlantic to its final destination in the US.

After setting sail, the crew head to their cabins. The captain, the second

and an able seaman are on the bridge and the third engineer is in the engine

room. The tricolour heads west at 17 .9 knots in dense fog and prepares to cross

into the north -south shipping lane of the English Channel.

Shipping lanes, called traffic separation schemes, are like highways,

Tricolour is sailing towards the junction close to the boundary between

and British waters, roughly 20 nautical miles north of Dunkirk in France.

Motor vessel Kariba is sailing at 60 knots in the same direction, slightly

on Tricolour's horse side, about half a mile away.

The 20 ,000 -ton, 177 -meter container ship Kariba is traveling from Antwerp to

Western Africa.

At 02 .15, the tricolor maneuvers to overtake the container ship Kariba.

of the dense fog, the crew on the Kariba can't actually see the tricolor behind

them to their right. Their attention is focused on the intersection of the

traffic separation scheme in front of them.

On their navigation screen, the crew of the Kariba watch another ship

approaching, the Clary, a 139 -meter bulk carrier.

Clary's second officer is by himself on the bridge. He watches the two vessels

on his radar to his starboard, or right -hand side. He thinks about making a

significant turn to starboard, allowing all ships to pass port -to -port, which

is the maritime convention.

Even though the coast is clear to make that turn, he's restricted by the

limitations of the channel and so he continues dead ahead.

Even though the fog is thick and maritime law requires ships to sound

horns, all three ships remain silent.

Then, as expected, out of the thick fog from the south, the crew on board Kariba

spot the carry running at 30 knots heading north, about to cross its path.

but it's closer than they anticipated.

Kariba turns hard to starboard to avoid a collision with Clary. Officers on

Tricolor's bridge watch the Kariba while they overtake the ship to starboard.

Kariba suddenly turns to the right, heading straight towards them. In an

to dodge the oncoming ship, the captain of the Tricolor turns his rudder hard to

starboard, but it's too late.

The Kariba's bow strikes the port or left side of the Tricolor just behind

bridge. The bulbous bow of the Kariba tears a hole behind Tricolor's

bulkhead and punches the number three port fuel oil tank.

As the tricolor shudders from the crash, everyone on board is shaken awake by

the horrifying sound of twisting metal. The men on the bridge quickly sound the

general alarm to alert everyone on board and send out a distress call over the

radio. The crew gather quickly at their mustering station while the ship starts

to take on water and lifts to port.

The third engineer in the engine room escapes through the elevator shaft and

joins the others on deck.

The crew at the mustering station launch an inflatable life raft and abandon

ship.

Despite having a severely damaged bow, the Kariba is in better shape than the

Tricolor. Its crew launches a lifeboat and starts looking for the Tricolor's

life raft in the fog.

The second officer on the approaching ship, Clary, decides that the two ships

have simply kissed or lightly touched, and so he ignores the distress call,

erases his chart to hide his tracks, and sails away disappearing into the fog.

The tricolour lifts heavily to port and the officers on the bridge are forced

into the ice -cold winter water of the English Channel.

Even though it's a dark foggy night, the three men are found quite quickly and

rescued by the Kariva's lifeboat.

A Belgian tugboat named Boxer responds to the emergency call and picks up the

remaining 21 crew members on tricolour's life raft.

The Belgian Navy and French Coast Guard are alerted.

Tugs and an emergency towing vessel from the UK Coast Guard are dispatched to

the location, but by the time they arrive on the scene, it's too late.

The tricolor turns and sinks in less than half an hour, hitting the sandy

on its port side in 30 meters of water. At 32 meters wide on the beam, the

starboard section of the ship breaks the waterline.

The tricolor sinks at the intersection of two lanes in the traffic separation

scheme in French waters.

It's one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with 18 % of the world's

ocean traffic passing through this junction.

Every day, 400 or 500 ships transit the junction on their way to Anfer,

Rotterdam, Bremen and Hamburg, some of the biggest ports in Europe.

With all the 24 crew members of the Tricolour safe and accounted for, the

limps back to the Belgian port of Anfer.

The tricolour sinks not only in the middle of a busy part of the North Sea,

also in an open area outside the Flemish banks, exposed to the wind, waves and

strong tidal currents.

The French authorities are concerned that the wreck is a navigational hazard

a possible source of pollution, so they prepare an anti -pollution strategy to

handle the situation.

The Channel and North Sea Regions Prefecture Maritime promptly implements

emergency protocols and contracts a company that specializes in accidental

contamination named CEDA, who dispatches an expert to the site.

The specialist evaluates the risk of pollution from the fuel and oil on board

the ship.

The tricolor is carrying 200 tons of diesel oil, 25 tons of lubricating oil

2 ,000 tons of heavy fuel oil which are split between eight ballast tanks.

They're all intact and there are no indications of any leaks.

To alert vessels passing through the area, a maritime patrol boat is

at the wreck site.

Three light buoys, each 10 meters high and 2 .65 meters wide, are anchored 150

meters from the wreck to mark the actual location.

The Dover Coast Guard and French officials broadcast a VHF radio warning

the hazard every hour.

The ship's insurance contracts the rescue and salvage company Smith Salvage

MP the tricolour's oil tank in order to minimise the risk of pollution.

Smith dispatches two barges to assess the project and assist in securing the

site. On the 16th of December, just two days after the incident, a 3 ,000 tonne

Dutch cargo ship named Nicola collides with the tricolour wreckage.

The Nicola is empty at the time and sustains only minor damage.

The two Smith tugs pull the Nikola off the wreck and it's able to sail away

under its own steam.

French and English patrol boats are dispatched to rearrange the marking

around the wreck. One boy with a Raycon system is placed 600 meters away. The

Raycon emits a radar echo that's visible on all screens.

A further five Cardinal Lightboy markers are placed 600 meters away from the

wreck. Cardinal markers indicate the compass position a vessel must keep to

avoid a hazard.

The French, Belgians and British fly helicopters over the wreck every day to

monitor for oil leaks.

The Asian Hercules 2 floating crane is sent to the wreck site to serve as a

platform for the salvage team's divers when they extract the oil.

It's dangerous work.

they have to inspect the ship in winter conditions, which brings strong winds,

breaking waves and large swells, along with the strong tidal currents in the

English Channel.

Because the ship's on its side, the divers have access to the bottom of the

hull, which allows them to drill holes through the keel and into the ballast

tanks to connect valves. They connect hoses and a pump to siphon out the oil

into a barge. On the 21st of December, a week after the ship sank, Smith Salvage

start pumping oil out of the vessel. The procedure is called lightering, where

liquid cargo is transferred from one vessel to another.

Three days later, the French authorities give the order to remove the wreck.

It's a hazard to shipping and the environment, and it needs to be removed.

At 19 .20 on the 1st of January 2003, a Turkish oil carrier, Vicky, misses the

Raycon transmission on their navigation station.

six flight beacons hourly vhf radio warnings and the french navy vessel

permanently stationed nearby and collides with the wreck at full speed

244 meters long and weighs 43 500 tons it's carrying 70 000 tons

of gasoline and more than 2 000 tons of heavy fuel oil

As the tide rises, Vicky manages to refloat itself, and just four hours

2300, it sails a mile away to an anchorage to assess its damage. The next

French Navy helicopter notices the tricolour's exposed starboard side has

further because of the collision, and Vicky has a ruptured bow tank which is

seeping oil into the water.

Because of poor weather, the cleanup operations at sea can't start for a few

days. More than 200 oil -soaked birds are rescued.

Over the next week, a portion of Vicky's cargo is lighted into another vessel

and on the 12th of January the ship leaves the anchorage. Under pressure

French, British and Belgian authorities, the Wilhelmsen Group invites salvage

companies to tender for the salvage of the wreck.

The wreck has to be removed as soon as possible with careful consideration for

the environment.

Only three companies submit tenders for the operation.

On the 22nd of January 2003, in poor weather conditions, the diver's barge

collides with the wreck and damages two valves in the fuel tank.

Tons of heavy fuel spills into the sea.

The Wilhelmsen group send anti -pollution vessels along the French and

coasts to contain the spill.

On the 17th of February, the salvage team complete the light -throwing

after extracting as much fuel and oil as they can from the vessel. But they only

recover 1 ,700 tons of the 2 ,225 tons of oil Tricolor was carrying.

Significant amounts of oil are left in the ship's hold and engine room tanks.

Pollution management control records show that a total of 170 tons of oil are

spilled into the sea through small cracks in the fuel tanks.

On the 11th of April, the Wilhelmsen Group award the salvage contract to a

consortium of companies.

The Dutch company Smith Salvage leads the program in partnership with Skulder

Salvage, URS Salvage and Marine Contracting and Moultraschip Salvage.

The consortium faces a challenging task of removing the large vessel in rough

waters and in a busy shipping channel.

Sitting on its port side on the sea floor, the 32 -meter -wide tricolored

is too large and heavy to be lifted in one place, and the location in the tidal

shipping channel makes it impractical to construct equipment to roll the ship

upright and refloat it.

The salvage team's best course of action is to cut the carrier into smaller,

more manageable sections.

After extensive planning, the salvage team decides to divide the wreck into

segments, each weighing between 4 ,000 and 6 ,000 tons.

The cuts must be precise, which means the operation needs accurate positioning

and navigation system, as well as a detailed survey of the wreck and its

location. A long -range kinematic or LRK system is used by the salvagers to get

the best positioning accuracy for the project.

The LRK receiver connects to the Belgian and Netherlands based LRK GPS network

stations.

Accuracy is improved by adding land -based fixed beacons to the

The LRK network has comprehensive coverage of the coastline regions for

Belgium and Holland, with a range of around 30 nautical miles and an accuracy

down to a few centimetres. The salvage team uses LRK equipment to do a multi

-beam echo -sounding hydrographic survey.

Multi -beam echo -sounding is a type of sonar used to map the seabed. The output

of the survey is a three -dimensional map of the wreck with an accurate

position.

Two work platforms are set up on either side of the wreck. The platforms are

stabilized by extendable legs on the sea floor, 30 meters below the waterline.

Once the work platforms are in position, the divers inspect the tricolored hull,

mark the eight cut sections, and install multiple bollards or lashing points on

each segment.

Lifting cables will be attached to the bollards when the wreck sections are cut

and pulled out of the water by cranes.

The lead salvage company Smith also salvaged the Russian submarine Kursk two

years earlier in 2001.

They used the same cutting wire from that salvage operation.

I'll leave a link to the video about the salvage of the Russian submarine Kursk

here if you haven't seen it.

An anti -pollution vessel is available during the entire operation, with the

French and Belgian authorities closely monitoring to prevent possible damage to

the environment.

On the 22nd of July 2003, the first cut is started.

The team used directional drilling equipment to install the cutting wires

the ship. The directional drill system is operated by engineers on the

When the drill emerges from the seabed on the other side of the wreck, a hollow

tube is attached and the drill is pulled back.

The cutting wire is then passed from one end of the tube to the other.

The cutting wire is a steel cable 100 meters long, 38 centimeters thick, and

covered in spiked cylinders or bushings that make a serrated edge.

The bushings are coated with a material called woodier, which is almost as hard

as diamonds.

The cutting wire is strung under the ship between two platforms with a power

winch on each platform.

The wire is gradually tightened turning the cable into a giant chainsaw moving

back and forth slowly slicing through the ship from the bottom to the top. The

stern with the engine is the first to be cut.

When the wire gets to the propeller shaft they swap out the cutting wire for

fresh one to cut through the solid metal shaft.

Divers constantly check the cutting wire and the vessel for any changes in

position. Surface crew monitor the situation through a camera feed from the

diver's helmet.

In good weather, the first section takes about 30 hours to cut. The divers

examine the integrity of the segments after it's cut and weld lifting frames

the sides to reinforce weak areas.

Then they connect the lifting cables to the bollards.

The cutting wire cuts clean through every deck including the engine.

Two giant shear legs or floating cranes, the Rambus and Asian Hercules II, lift

the first section out of the water.

The stern section is lifted slowly to allow water to drain from the ship.

The higher it's raised out of the water, the more weight is transferred onto the

massive shear legs.

The center of gravity has to remain steady and the weight must be split

between the two shear legs.

As the stern segment rises, ballast water is pumped out of the forward

tanks on the lift barges.

More ballast water is added to the aft ballast tanks. The stern section is

slowly lowered onto the barge giant 4, which is the same barge used during the

cursed salvage.

giant four heads for the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium where a dedicated

scrapyard has been set up to dismantle the nine segments.

Plastic is laid down to cover the ground soil from oil spill and metal plates

are positioned on top to take the weight of the wreck.

The ship's metal will be recycled and the luxury cars will be dismantled in

different factories throughout Belgium.

Each car needs a disposal certificate from the manufacturer.

The vehicle makers demand that all cars must be recovered and disposed of

entirely to prevent any damaged parts being sold, which could lead to claims

faulty parts in the future.

After each segment is removed, the divers conduct a thorough side scan

the wreck site and along the route, giant four travel between the wreck site

the port, just to make sure no cars are left behind.

On the 7th of September, around 300 tons of heavy fuel spills out of the wreck,

contaminating large portions of French and Belgian beaches.

About three weeks later, on the 17th of October, the eighth and final cut is

complete, with four segments still in the water waiting to be lifted and towed

away. The salvage team have towed five sections to Seebrugge. After about a

month of winter storms and gale force winds, they decide to delay removing the

remaining four segments because of the dangerous weather conditions.

Over the winter waves and surge batter the last four segments and without the

reinforced structure of the ship to support them they start to fall apart.

The contract for the salvage requires the team to remove all the wreckage from

the sea floor.

but the weakened structural integrity of the remaining segments means they can't

lift them using the crane. In order to clear the site of scattered cars, debris

and buckling metal, the salvage team are forced to reconsider their approach.

Nearing summer 2004, the salvage team crew used the side scan sonar to remap

debris field.

After the damage from the winter storms looking for the smaller pieces is a

difficult job so they bring in a magnetometer which is a large metal

locate debris buried under the mud and sand.

The locations of debris are plotted on a chart and a systematic search and

recovery operation follows.

The salvage team uses a crane with a wreck grab or giant claw to bring the

pieces of debris to the surface.

It's a slow and long process compared to lifting the barge sections.

Over the summer months, the debris field is slowly and methodically cleared. In

October 2004, the final piece is brought to the surface, completing the salvage

of tricolor from the busy shipping channel.

Over 10 ,000 seabirds were discovered dead on beaches along the coastline

the various oil spills.

In January 2006, the U .S. District Court ruled that Kariba's decision to

to starboard was the only factor that caused the collision.

The owners of Cariba and Tricolor filed an appeal arguing that Cariba's actions

weren't the sole cause of the collision.

During the appeal, the circuit court finds that all three vessels are at

Cariba turned to starboard and didn't reduce its speed.

Tricolor didn't slow down and tried to pass Cariba in the fog in a high traffic

channel with the Clary northbound.

And Clary was supposed to have more than one person on the bridge and didn't

alter course to avoid a collision.

The 16 -month salvage operation cost around $40 million, along with the loss

the vehicle carrier and its cargo at around $88 million, makes for a total

of around $128 million.