# Texaco caribbean disaster.can you help?



## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

hi,i,m looking for pictures/info of ships involved in the 1971 disaster in the dover straits.the Texaco Caribbean,Paracus,the Niki or spelt Nikki,and last the west german freighter,Brandenburg,built in 1951.i,ve spent hours searching the net for pictures of the Brandenburg.this ship has been the most difficult to find information about.i,ve not been able to find single photo of it.if any members have any info/pics,anything it will be most appreciated.


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

Hi Strangelights,

Re the Brandenburg could *THIS PHOTOGRAPH* be the one you are looking for.

ALSO

IDNo: 5050359 
Year: 1951 
Name: BRANDENBURG 
Launch Date: 8.11.50 
Type: Cargo ship 
Date of completion: 2.51 
Flag: DEU 
Tons: 2695 
DWT: 4749 
Yard No: 443 
Country of build: DEU 
Builder: Orenstein Koppel 
Location of yard: Lubeck 
End: 1971 hit wreck [TEXACO CARIBBEAN] 50.59N/1.18E 12.1.71 & sank 2nm away.

Kind regards

Chris.


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

An interesting saga.... and it is good you already have one ship..

On 11 January 1971, the Panamanian tanker the Texaco Caribbean was on a ballast voyage from the Netherlands to Trinidad when she was struck by the 12,000-tonne Peruvian freighter the Paracas in thick fog. The latter ignored the shipping lanes of Dover Straits and took the shorter way along the English coast. The Texaco Caribbean exploded, split in two and sank, releasing 600 tonnes of bunker and ballast. 8 sailors lost their lives in the incident and 22 were rescued.

The Paracas was sailing from Peru to Hamburg with a cargo of fishmeal and fishoil. She was also seriously damaged in the incident. The salvage tug the Heros towed her to Hamburg where they arrived on 14 January.

The British coastal authorities placed 3 vertical green lights on site to warn other ships of the presence of the wreck. However, the following day the West German freighter Brandenburg hit the Texaco Caribbean and sank a few minutes later. Lifeboats did not have the time to arrive. Only 11 out of 32 crew members were rescued by local fishing boats. The bodies of 7 crew members were found and 14 remained missing.

A light ship and 5 light buoys were added on site but on 27 February, the Greek vessel the Nikki, sailing from Dunkirk to Alexandria, ignored the warnings and collided with the submerged wrecks. The tanker the Hebris was in the area at the same time. The crew saw the Nikki sinking and sent radio messages. The Hebris came closer as people were seen at sea but when she arrived on site there was nobody left. The Nikki went down with her entire crew.

The 3 wrecks represented a serious hazard for passing ships. A second lightship and about 10 more buoys were added. However within 2 months, British coastal authorities reported 16 ships for having ignored the lightships and buoys. Luckily, there were no further incidents.

The company Risdon Beazley Ulrich Harms Ltd from Southampton was contacted to remove the wrecks of the Texaco Caribbean, the Brandenburg and the Nikki. The operation lasted 18 months. During that time the area was signalled by 2 lightships and 14 lighted buoys.


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

Texaco Caribbean is* here* and the Brandenburg is *here* and the Niki is *here*


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## timo (May 25, 2004)

Is this the incident that bought about the Dover Straits seperation scheme?


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

timo said:


> Is this the incident that bought about the Dover Straits seperation scheme?


Yes and No... (EEK) The Institutes in 1966 published a report proposing traffic separation schemes in a number of areas, and in June 1967 a traffic separation scheme was established in the Dover Straits - the world's first - and a significant fall was seen in the number of collisions between ships on opposing courses. 

At the time, observance of the schemes was voluntary, but in 1971 a series of accidents in the English Channel led to calls for immediate action - in the most serious incidents, the tanker Texaco Caribbean was in collision with a freighter off the Varne shoals and the following night the wreck was struck by the freighter Brandenburg, which also sank. Some six weeks later, the freighter Niki struck the wreckage and sank with the loss of all 21 people on board.

As a result, IMO's Maritime Safety Committee meeting in March 1971 recommended that observance of all traffic separation schemes be made mandatory and this recommendation was adopted by the IMO Assembly later the same year. The Dover Stratis scheme was therefore the first mandatory traffic scheme, from 1971.

The Conference which adopted the Collision Regulations (COLREGs), in 1972 also made observance of traffic separation schemes mandatory.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

timo said:


> Is this the incident that bought about the Dover Straits seperation scheme?


Not entirely, as pointed out above, but this series of incidents did lead directly to the IMO adopting NAVTEX as the means of broadcasting warnings to shipping. 

At the time of the collision, although there were adequate arrangements for broadcasting (by coast radio stations) details of navigational hazards to shipping, there were no matching arrangements for ensuring the reception of such messages aboard the world's shipping. Even though the first wreck (and subsequent wrecks) had been marked, and warnings had been broadcast to ships in the area by morse radiotelegraphy and by radiotelephony, the fact that initial broadcasts were made during R/O off-watch periods and proper radio watches were not being kept aboard many ships, allowed ships to enter the danger area unaware of the position of the wrecks.

The adoption of NAVTEX and the compulsory carriage of NAVTEX receivers on ships, provided a means of ensuring that navigational warnings, meteorological warnings and other emergency and safety-related messages could be received and printed out automatically (i.e. without manual involvement) on the bridge of every ship fitted with a NAVTEX receiver. For exxential information, an alarm could be sounded to attract the attention of the watchkeeper on the bridge. The broadcasts could be received within some hundreds of kilpmetres of any shore station transmitting the NAVTEX warnings.

Devekoped by the Swedish PTT and initially introduced in Western European waters, following its adoption by IMO the system later spread to other parts of the world and was later supplemented by the INMARSAT SafetyNet broadcasts, which had even longer range. Ships can now copy safety-related broadcasts wherever they are sailing and have those incidents in the Channel to thank for the service.


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## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

*thanks to all of you.*

as i only joined yesterday i,m amazed at the response so quickly.i had spent so long looking through various sites but with no luck.i,m fairly familiar with the story of the tradegy,i was only 9 years old at the time but can still clearly remember the explosion as the Texaco Caribbean broke in two.our family was in living in Dover at the time.it was like a massive rumble and our windows rattled.i can also remember of a family friend who owned a shop in Folkestone,she told my mother that the window of her shop had shattered with the explosion.i have read an interesting site concerning the event.its actually a court hearing concerning the relatives of,who i think were Brandenburg crew members,"Hagen Pastewika and Monica Pastewika (Deceased),against Texaco.i,m not good enough on the pc to send you a link but if you type in (521 f2d 448) i,m sure it will make interesting reading.i was also trying to find of crew list of the Brandenburg as i was told that some of its passengers were not all crew members but on a type of budget cruise.can anyone confirm this.finally i would also be interested in viewing any interior shots/engine room of this lovely old ship if any members have some.once again thanks for all your help.


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

If I recall correctly the confusion caused by the buoyage system used to mark the wrecks led to the introduction of IALA A and B some years later.

At the time of the incident there were something like 30 different systems in use world wide.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

See my "gallery" for photo and accounts, Regards, Hugh Ferguson


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## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

*Brandenburg.did it sink straight away or 2miles later?*

The other part to this story that i,m unsure about is that some websites i,ve read say that the Brandenburg sunk more or less straight away after hitting the wreckage if the Texaco Caribbean and others say that it continued for a further 2 miles before capsizing and sinking.does anyone know which part of this story is the right one?


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

Hi Strange lights
The Brandenburgh apparantly continued for a further 2 miles before capsizing and sinking. Its wreck site was charted as being some two nautical miles away from the Texaco Caribbean. The Nikki however sank almost immediately.

Kind regards

Chris.


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

strangelights said:


> The other part to this story that i,m unsure about is that some websites i,ve read say that the Brandenburg sunk more or less straight away after hitting the wreckage


2 miles = 8 minutes at 15 knots.... I would consider 8 minutes 'more or less straight away ' if I was trying to abandon ship in the middle of the night.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Click HERE for picture and comments.


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## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

*BBC programme.*

I have some news which may be of interest to members. There was a do***entry filmed by the BBC concerning this event back in,Dec 2009.The BBC team filmed a programme called "saftey-at-sea which concerns the Texaco caribbean disaster back in 1971.It will feature original footage of the event as well as interviews with people concerned/connected with the event.It is supposed to be shown sometime this year-2010.I have emailed the BBC many times to get a date but as yet they fail to reply. Does any members know of this?


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## Beefchrist (Feb 19, 2010)

strangelights said:


> I have some news which may be of interest to members. There was a do***entry filmed by the BBC concerning this event back in,Dec 2009.The BBC team filmed a programme called "saftey-at-sea which concerns the Texaco caribbean disaster back in 1971.It will feature original footage of the event as well as interviews with people concerned/connected with the event.It is supposed to be shown sometime this year-2010.I have emailed the BBC many times to get a date but as yet they fail to reply. Does any members know of this?


We are in post-production with this programme currently (assuming it's ours and not someone else making something identical). The Texico Caribbean disaster is one part of the programme, and yes there is original footage from the event filmed by a local (Dover) filmmaker. We don't know when it will be broadcast, but it will be sometime this year as a part of a BBC4 season on the sea.
I wonder if anyone has any links to information as to why the crash happened in the first place. I know that there was thick fog and that the Paracas had ignored shipping lanes, but did neither ship notice the other on their radar? Was there human error involved? Were there any navigational errors made (aside from being in the wrong shipping lane)?
Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

*Cheers,"Beefchrist"*

Thankyou very much for your reply.I hope your do***entry is a success.Please let me know if you find out the broadcast date.I dont know of all the reasons for the collision,but i,m sure that a member of this forum maybe able to help.Do you have any interviews with original crew members?,would go to make a great do***entry.Maybe if you could research some of the court hearings,this might be of help.Most of the information i have that concerns the event is mainly of the "Brandenburg".Although nearly 40 years on,this tragedy will never be forgotten.I wish you well with your research...


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## deepseatiger (Jul 4, 2005)

Texaco Caribbean actually sailed from the oil refinery at Canvey Island in the Thames, not from the Netherlands.


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## dpezzo (Oct 22, 2011)

i am a daughter of one of the survivors. I am from italy, i am looking for information about this accident. My father, Francesco Pezzo from Genoa, is recently dead and i wish to see the do***entary about this disaster. Anyone know something more when or where this program will be broadcasted again ? I will very happy to receive too other information about the accident.
Thank you.


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## strangelights (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi Depezzo,i have also a great interest in this disaster,the do***entry was shown more than 1 year ago so it probably wont be available to view on the BBC iplayer.It was originaly shown on BBC4.Maybe you could email the BBC for more information,maybe the programme is available on DVD.I am very sorry to hear of the loss of your Father.As you are Italian i presume your Father was a crew member of the Texaco Caribbean.If you can,please check this website, "Kent history forum"and look at the title on main page which is "Boats,Ships and Wrecks.There is a very detailed post on the third page which is titled "Texaco Caribbean disaster,Dover straits,1971.This is a topic which i started and has many replies and information which you may find of interest.It is the most i have found so far on the internet and i am still searching for more.Maybe you could help with crew names from your fathers ship?I wish you best luck with your search.Also i should add that the do***entry was shown on BBC4 as part of their "Sea fever"series.The first of the three do***entrys is titled "For those in peril"in which is featured The Texaco Caribbean disaster.The do***entry is not all about the Texaco Caribbean as this only features in part of it.


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## Barry Summers (Oct 4, 2008)

strangelights said:


> hi,i,m looking for pictures/info of ships involved in the 1971 disaster in the dover straits.the Texaco Caribbean,Paracus,the Niki or spelt Nikki,and last the west german freighter,Brandenburg,built in 1951.i,ve spent hours searching the net for pictures of the Brandenburg.this ship has been the most difficult to find information about.i,ve not been able to find single photo of it.if any members have any info/pics,anything it will be most appreciated.


Hi I worked on the Salvage ship Topmast 18 that had the contract to clear the seabed, we demolished the Brandenburg and then one sections of the Texaco Caribbean, the sister ship the Topmast 20 and the Queen Mother worked on the other sections, nothing was salvaged, it is all still there.


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## Biggles Wader (Jul 18, 2013)

Barry Summers said:


> Hi I worked on the Salvage ship Topmast 18 that had the contract to clear the seabed, we demolished the Brandenburg and then one sections of the Texaco Caribbean, the sister ship the Topmast 20 and the Queen Mother worked on the other sections, nothing was salvaged, it is all still there.


As a 14 year old local lad I used to walk my dog around the docks and recall going aboard one of those salvage vessels in the Wellington dock for a cup of tea and a chat with the crew.The dog was popular(Pint) as he liked a beer.Im sure I remember seeing some tractors salvaged from one of the ships?


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