Back in 1986 the ore carrier Kowloon Bridge sank off the Irish coast, in the vicinity of the Stags Rocks near Baltimore west Cork. The wreck is the biggest by tonnage in the world and is a huge diving tourism magnet to the area. She had gotten into difficulty and needed repairs so stopped at Bantry for repairs, on proceeding from Bantry she got into difficulty again in storms and “lost her rudder”, a bit of a disaster, the crew abandoned ship and the ship hit the rocks and later sank despite salvage attempts.
Built as the English Bridge in 1973 in Newcastle upon Tyne she was renamed Worcestershire, then Sunshine, then Murcurio when owned by Grimaldi, she became Crystal Transporter in 1983 and in 1985 the name welded to the stern was her everlasting and final name Kowloon Bridge.
Anyway some of the firemen on the firecourse were telling me that they were divers also in their spare time, the excitement of fighting fires was not enough for these boys. They had been diving at the wreck of the Kowloon Bridge and were saying that the area was being buoyed and cordonned off for a salvage operation.
I did a bit of investigation and found out that the owners of the wreck paid the minister of the marine €1.135 million in 2005 as a settlement to for damages, a bit more than the £1 paid back in 1986 by the second owner Shaun Kent, but peanuts compared to the value of the iron ore cargo that has being lying there for 20 odd years. There have been challenges form environmentalists and local Cork people reported in the papers from November 2006 against the “environmental catastrophe” that awaits when they start to salvage the ship and cargo. The price of metal these days has made the salvage more profitable, so I think the diving gang are going to be minus a wreck object in the near future, unfortunately for them.
The other interesting thing about this ship is that she is the sister to the ill fated “Derbyshire” which sank in the South China sea in 1980 without so much as a mayday and all hands lost 44 people in all. Nothing was done about the Derbyshire until the Kowloon Bridge sank, the Derbyshire has been the subject of many theories and t.v. programmes she was found in 1994 and a brief history is found here http://www.nautical-heritage.org.uk/derbyshire.html
I remember the incident and I think the storm you mentioned was “Hurricane Charley” which was in August ‘86. I thought she was scraped years ago.
I had forgotten about it too until the firemen started talking about it, amazing that such a huge ship could be sitting there almost forgotten for over 20 years.