NEWS RELEASE 31st March 2000

Re-hearing of the Formal Investigation into the Loss of m/v DERBYSHIRE

 31 March 2000

 Mr Justice Colman will commence the hearing of the re-opened of the Formal Investigation (FI) into the loss of the mv Derbyshire on Wednesday 5 April 2000.

 The hearings will take place at: 10.30am on Wednesday 5 April 2000 at Court 81, 81 Chancery Lane, London, WC2. It will continue until Wednesday, 19^th April, starting again on Tuesday, 2^nd May until Friday, 26^th May and will finally reconvene from Tuesday 6^th June until its conclusion. The hearing is expected to end in June. The report on the loss will then be issued later this year.

 The Formal Investigation was re-opened by the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, on 17 December 1998 after the discovery of new and important evidence and a Report by UK/EC Assessors’ on the results of an ocean bed survey not available at the original investigation.

Mr Justice Colman, a senior judge of the Commercial and Admiralty Court, will hear opening statements from the Attorney General, Lord Williams of Mostyn, as well as statements from parties involved. These include the Derbyshire Families Association, Bibby Line, the owners of the vessel, Swan Hunter, the builders, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.  

It is expected that evidence will be given by a number of mariners who sailed on the Derbyshire prior to her loss in September 1980, and by crew members of the Derbyshire’s sister ship.

 The discovery in 1994 of the wreckage of the Derbyshire at a depth of two and half miles under the Pacific resulted in the recommendation by Lord Donaldson for the commissioning of a comprehensive under-water video and photographic survey. This was carried out by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, from the United States together with the UK/EC Assessors. Findings from this report will be heard in the course of the technical and expert evidence to be given. There will be expert witnesses covering oceanography, meteorology, navigation, fracture analysis and marine architecture and engineering.

 Transcripts of each day’s hearing and relevant photographic and video evidence will be made available on the Internet, and hard copies of the daily transcripts will be available at the Court. The proposed daily programme of witnesses will also be made available to the general public outside the court. However, the programme is liable to change at short notice due to availability of witnesses and the length of examination of their evidence.

 Notes to Editors

1. The MV DERBYSHIRE, British flagged, owned and crewed, disappeared virtually without trace when the vessel was in the Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan, or about 9 September 1980. All on board – 42 crew members and two wives were lost. The DERBYSHIRE was a modern (built 1976), fully equipped and well managed ore-bulk-oil (OBO) combination carrier. At over 90,000 gross tons she was, and remains, the largest UK ship ever to have been lost at sea.

2. In November 1986 the KOWLOON BRIDGE, a sister ship of the MV DERBYSHIRE, went aground and subsequently broke up off the south east coast of Ireland. Following this accidence, a Formal Investigation was ordered into the loss of the MV DERBYSHIRE. The Report of the Formal Investigation was published in 1989 and concluded that the forces of nature probably overwhelmed the ship. However, the families of those who died, believed further investigations ought to be carried out.

3. In June 1994 the wreckage of the ship was found two and a half miles under the Pacific, south east of Japan, during a search sponsored by the International Transport Worker’s Federation.

4. In March 1995 the then Secretary of State asked Lord Donaldson to carry out an assessment of what further work needed to be undertaken to identify the cause of the sinking of the MV DERBYSHIRE, in the light of the discovery of the wreck. Lord Donaldson recommended that there should be a more comprehensive and final re-examination of the wreck.

5. Following this, the then Secretary of State announced that a return expedition would take place in two phases. Phase 1, a preliminary survey, took place in July 1996, and succeeded in locating the stern of the vessel. Phase 2, the main expedition, was undertaken in March/May 1997. It returned with some 137,000 photographs and 200 hours of prime video imagery, which required a considerable amount of analysis by the Assessors.

6. The Assessors’ report of the MV DERBYSHIRE surveys was published on 12 March 1998. As the report and the survey material on which it was based represented new and important evidence, the Deputy Prime Minister ordered that the Formal Investigation be re-opened.

7. The Deputy Prime Minister then gave interested parties there months (extended to 21 October 1998) to submit written representations on whether the Formal Investigation should be re-opened in whole or in part, what questions it should address, and whether the re-hearing should be held by a Wreck Commissioner or by the High Court.

8. It was announced on 17^th December 1999 that the whole Formal Investigation would be re-opened and would take place in the High Court. The hearing will commence on Wednesday 5 April 2000 before Mr Justice Colman and is anticipated to last until June. The judge will then issue his report later in the year.

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