MV Berge Istra

cyrusdvirus

Anyone got any info regarding this particular ship?

Wiki is its usual inconclusive self.

long range shooter

gatecrash wrote: »

Anyone got any info regarding this particular ship?

Wiki is its usual inconclusive self.

Both the Berge Istra and the Berge Vanga was identical OBO ships for Sigvald Bergesen in Norway.
Both ships exploded due to gas in the wingtanks,and 70 people lost their lives.

Ore from Brazil to Japan and via the Persian Gulf to load oil back to Europe.
The ships had a 'neutral-gas' filling system of poor quality, often not working at all.
This led to the fact that they, after emtying their wing oiltanks, left Brazil again with ore in the center rooms and highly explosive oil gas in the wing tanks.
This gas did not explode until reaction with oxygen..., and that was bound to happen.:eek:
There was 2 spanish ABs that survived the explosion on the Berge Istra,they where on a liferaft for 20 days before being rescued.:(

coolfox

Hi
Doddy Hayes has written a book on the event of Berge Istra.
In a reasent artical in the Norwegen paper Dagbladet. a captain has come forward 30 yrs after and told that he had threatened the ships owners with exsposing the hazards he new of on the berge istra.
He made a deal with the owners that they would not build any more such vessels.
This promis the owners kept, following vessels were regular tankers. However there was still the sister ship berge vanga, when she sank
without a trace with ore cargo and around the same positian 4 yrs later. The captain still kept silent.
But he now had a bad consciens about not having forced the owners to stop all together by exsposing them after the loss of berge istra.
The people who went down with berge vanga were people he knew and had sailed with.
In the artical there is a coulor photo of the two survivers, now old gents who the captain has kept in kontakt with.
The amazing thing about the photo, is that its taken in one of the mens garrage, filled with junk.
There up against the wall is the liferaft the were taken up from with the faded name of berge istra. How in the world they managed to hang on to it and it get the raft back to Spain and Tennerrife must be worth a story in itself.
However the paper refers to a secret hearing in New York. In Doddy Hayes book he writes it took place in Capetown.
Whatever, had the ships owners come clean 37 yrs ago the cases would be as forgotten as so many other tragic cases
Its been their secrecy thats kept the cases alive.

long range shooter

coolfox wrote: »

Hi
Doddy Hayes has written a book on the event of Berge Istra.
In a reasent artical in the Norwegen paper Dagbladet. a captain has come forward 30 yrs after and told that he had threatened the ships owners with exsposing the hazards he new of on the berge istra.
He made a deal with the owners that they would not build any more such vessels.
This promis the owners kept, following vessels were regular tankers. However there was still the sister ship berge vanga, when she sank
without a trace with ore cargo and around the same positian 4 yrs later. The captain still kept silent.
But he now had a bad consciens about not having forced the owners to stop all together by exsposing them after the loss of berge istra.
The people who went down with berge vanga were people he knew and had sailed with.
In the artical there is a coulor photo of the two survivers, now old gents who the captain has kept in kontakt with.
The amazing thing about the photo, is that its taken in one of the mens garrage, filled with junk.
There up against the wall is the liferaft the were taken up from with the faded name of berge istra. How in the world they managed to hang on to it and it get the raft back to Spain and Tennerrife must be worth a story in itself.
However the paper refers to a secret hearing in New York. In Doddy Hayes book he writes it took place in Capetown.
Whatever, had the ships owners come clean 37 yrs ago the cases would be as forgotten as so many other tragic cases
Its been their secrecy thats kept the cases alive.

Pity he didnt come forward before,when the owners where still around.:mad:
I know many sailors from Norway who worked for Bergesen before,and all in all had a good reputation for being a solid company.
In 1976 Sigval Bergesen d.y. was forced to retire for health reasons. Management of the company was handed over to his two grandchildren, Petter C.G. Sundt and Morten Sig. Bergesen. Ten years later, the company went from being a privately owned to a publicly traded company. Sundt and Sig sold their shares in the company to World-Wide Group in 2003.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergesen_d.y.

coolfox

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/01/21/m...esen/15151445/
Hi
Check out this link about Berge Istra

coolfox

M/S ORCADES (BUILT 1948) P&O LINE
16.03.1972: Made her last voyage from Sydney. During this voyage she made a
1,030km (640 mile) detour to aid a Swedish seaman injured in an
Engine room accident on board the Norwegian ore carrier Berge Istra
in the southern Indian Ocean. The patient was transferred by
life boat, and landed at Durban, the next port of call.
The man was an electrician who got a shock and fell of the top of a steam boiler.
He broke a rib in his back that ruptured a kidney, wrecked his spleen, split his liver sack.
Loosened the rest of his organs.
But he survived and after months in hospital he returned home and later got his old job back on Berge Istra.
He started sending Christmas cards to the surgeon who kept him alive to Durban, the surgeon received
The cards every Christmas until the year Berge Istra went down.
This was a little part of a book on the memoirs of a sailing doctor, but I cant find it on the web again and cant remember the surgeons name, but he has written books on sea sickness

long range shooter

coolfox wrote: »

M/S ORCADES (BUILT 1948) P&O LINE
16.03.1972: Made her last voyage from Sydney. During this voyage she made a
1,030km (640 mile) detour to aid a Swedish seaman injured in an
Engine room accident on board the Norwegian ore carrier Berge Istra
in the southern Indian Ocean. The patient was transferred by
life boat, and landed at Durban, the next port of call.
The man was an electrician who got a shock and fell of the top of a steam boiler.
He broke a rib in his back that ruptured a kidney, wrecked his spleen, split his liver sack.
Loosened the rest of his organs.
But he survived and after months in hospital he returned home and later got his old job back on Berge Istra.
He started sending Christmas cards to the surgeon who kept him alive to Durban, the surgeon received
The cards every Christmas until the year Berge Istra went down.
This was a little part of a book on the memoirs of a sailing doctor, but I cant find it on the web again and cant remember the surgeons name, but he has written books on sea sickness

Hi, your link is not working,but i have read it before in the Norwegian version.
Interesting story about the Bergesen vessels,it was truly one the worst disasters in Norways maritime history,untill the Alexander L Kielland capzised in the North sea in 1980.
And i believe Peter Tate was the name of the surgeon you mentioned.
You can read the story on the link below.
And the Swedish chief electrician was taken onboard P&O liner Orcades.
The funny side of the story was that the swedish chief electrician was at his 6`8" a big man,so big that he wouldnt fit into any hospital bed onboard.:D
They had to improvise and make a own bed for him.;)
But like you said he did send christmas cards every christmas untill the Berge istra tragically went down in December 1975.


http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Berge-Istra,-A-Sad-But-True-Story&id=358007