Jakob Maersk was a Danish oil tanker built in 1966 and owned by Maerskline Navigation Company.
On January 29th 1975 at around 1pm, when on manoeuvres to moor on tanker terminal A at Leixões harbour, she suffered a huge explosion followed by an intense fire and other explosions.
She was 261.81m long and displaced 48.262 tons. Her 32 crew was made up of both men and women. 26 were saved, of which 4 were severely burned, 5 were missing and 1 drowned. The 5 missing crew members were machine engineers.
The tug "Monte da Luz" sailed close to the burning tanker and saved 17 crew members and the two port pilots.
The ship carried 88.000 tons of oil from Gulf Persic to Leixões, most of which was consumed by the fire. The fire lasted 3 days. The flames reached 50m and the smoke reached 750m.
Until 1996, this accident was in 12th place on the list of the biggest oil leaks worldwide.
The cause was, as always, human error. The ship broke in two. The stern sank near the entrance of the harbour and the bow was dragged by the sea to the shore at the Castelo do Queijo where she stayed for a number of years.
The highest and biggest part of the stern section that sank was later removed because she was a danger to other vessels entering and leaving Leixões harbour. Nowadays divers can find some burned metal sheets and oil tubes on a sandy seabed between 12 and 15m deep. It's possible to find loose lines and fishing nets near the wreck.
Source: www.mergulhomania.com
(Reproduced with permission of the author)
