SUPEROILTANKER "AMOCO MILFORD HAVEN"


The Sinking

The HAVEN is one of the most well known wrecks among all Italian divers: as a matter of fact this is currently the biggest wreck lying in the Mediterranean See.
Other well known Oiltanker accidents of this class had triggered in the past similar environmental damages, like it happened in Britain (ship AMOCO CADIZ, 1978), Mauretania (ship MARIA ALEJANDRA, 1980) and Senegal (ship MYCENE).
She was directly coming from the Karag Island harbour (Iran) to GENUA, her tragic last target, for the delivery operations of the crude Oil. This was her second innauguration journey, since during 1991, after having been hit by a missile during the Gulf war, she had been repaired and renewed in Singapore.

The accident occurred due to a tremendous blast on board, while the HAVEN was docked at GENUA MULTEDO harbour and already had been discharging 80,000 Tons out of the 200,000 of crude Oil she contained: probably a pump went suddenly broken, so this triggered the fire in a snap and the Captain and other 4 crew members lost their lives on site. Some tugboats succeeded bringing the firing wreck nearby the coast, yet the ship broke in two parts.
The front piece drifted a while, and then sunk at a depth of about. 1,500 ft.
The HAVEN went down after 3 full days of continuous blasting and firing, and released in the sea about 140,000 Tons of Oil. Some 40-50,000 coverd the sea bottom.
This standing fire, with the following high temperature, cleaned up the wreck, melting any object and substance on board: due to the fuel consumption the Oil quantity may have been reduced by 80%, leading to a partial decrease of the environmental impact.
Yet a considerable amount still remained on the deck and into the tanks, in solid state: reports said 10,000 Tons were still lying there, while 20-30,000 Tons have fallen all around the wreck area. This matter has been covered with the time by submarine vegetation, mussels and filtering bentonic fauna, which contributed - so official reports - to a certain betterment of the water quality through filtration, decreasing in a certain extent the oil damages.

The Dive

The HAVEN lies on a sandy bottom at a depth of 275 fsw., in perfect navigation trim and has become since the last years one of the most wanted targets among all italian recreational and technical divers, particularly during the weekend time. There are no environmental problems of any kind for the divers safety during the dive.
Yet it is sometimes possible to observe that, after having dived into some of the closed inner spaces of the wrack, the bubbles released by the divers can occasionally set free little parts of the oil which is still attached to the ceilings: this comes up then to the surface with the air, releasing its characteristic smell of fuel.

The divers traffic is from time to time controlled by the local Coast Guard, since in the recent past (2002-2003) some deadly accidents occurred: these, according to trial results, might have been allegedly consequence of self miscalculation by unexperienced divers and of incompetence of the diving instructor who led them.
It is not possible to dive without being supported by any DIving Center, which is normally also in charge for checking your certifications in advance.
The Harbour Authorities issued severe regulations for scuba diving here.
Diving below 120 ft. is forbidden to all those divers who do not own any Deep Diving Certificate (the local Coast Guard can fine you up to 1,250 $ after controlling your certification and depth gauge, directly on site). Though, if you are certified (min. Deep Air or Decompression Diver Certificate) you do not have to worry about this.
A max. number of 3 divers for a dive guide is required by the special HAVEN regulations.

This is for sure a terrific dive: the site is duly marked on the surface by a group of white signals. You fall in the open blue until you can reach the chimney at about 108 ft. Its height has been reduced some years ago, since it turned out to become a navigation hurdle.
At 120 ft. you can glide upon the first deck, facing the command bridge, that you can easily enter through the large windows. At 126 ft. you can touch the bottom of the first deck: the command bridge is part of a 75 ft. high central tower, that can be reached with the aid of a leading line, in case of low visibility.
Within these depth limits one can already enjoy an amazing recreational dive, scheduling a 45-50 min. time engagement with a deco stop in air around 8-10 min. time (15 lt. bottle).