# MV "Tycoon" ashore at Christmas island.



## Iangb (Aug 28, 2009)

Skyline Navigations vessel "Tycoon" is reported to be 'breaking up' after breaking her moorings and drifting ashore in heavy swells.
http://www.smh.com.au/wa-news/phosphate-ship-breaks-apart-off-wa-coast-20120109-1pqzw.html

"Tycoon"
BUILT 1983
DWT 4780
GRT 2638
NRT 1499
LOA 84.65
BM 14.50
DRAFT 6.83
CAP G/B 5841/5340
DERR 3X12T /2HH/SINGLE DECK (AA WOG)


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

I thought the phosphate ran out on Christmas Island years ago. Ships used to drift off the island for days and (often) weeks, waiting for a break in the weather in order to go alongside and load. 

John T


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## Long gone (Jun 20, 2009)

Did the 'drifting' bit on 'Britsh Gull' in 1974/5; engines on half-hour notice, etc., whilst waiting to go alongside to discharge.


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## Gollywobbler (Dec 4, 2010)

Christmas Island is actually about 1600nm from the West Coast of Australia. The Island is actually much closer to Indonesia. 

In recent years, Christmas Island has become the main centre for "processing" the claims from wannabe Asylum Seekers. If they could, the wannabes would get their feet onto the soil in mainland Australia but the Aussie Government prefers to treat Christmas Island as it used to treat the now-discredited Processing Centre on Nauru - which is somewhere in the Pacific. 

There is a people-smuggling racket going on, with leaky old tubs setting out from Indonesia, heavily overloaded with people, aiming to get the people to Australia if possible and to Christmas Island if that is too difficult. It is not uncommon for these Refugee/Asylum Seeker boats to turn up off Christmas Island on a clear, calm day. They hover about a mile offshore, waiting for a Welcome Committee from the Australian Department of Immigration to go out to them in RIBs etc. If no-one turns up, the Refugee boats phone the Australian Federal Police in Perth, which soon gets the authorities running around!

About 15 months ago, one of the Refugee boats got into trouble near Christmas Island in bad weather. It was a wooden boat in a decrepit state and it broke up when it hit the rocks off Christmas Island. The staff of the Detention Centre rushed around and rescued as many as they could but the official figure is that 32 people drowned. (I'm not sure whether there had ever been an accurate head-count of the number of people aboard but if there was, no-one was prepared to admit much to the authorities.) 

There is some kind of crab that is indigenous to Christmas Island alone. This crab is deemed to be ecologically important. Apparently there are millions of them but only a couple of times every year. The coral might well be a more immediate ecological concern. 

Have the crew of the Panamanian ship claimed Asylum in Oz, I wonder? If not, they needn't worry. If the specialist Humanitarian Visa expert lawyers from Oz have not reached Christmas Island today, they will surely get there tomorrow! 

I've heard rumours that the Immi staff tell the detainees on Christmas Island that it is too far to swim to the mainland and that the water is patrolled by special security officers with grey dorsal fins and a fairly murderous turn of mind. It wouldn't surprise me if the rumour is true.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

The crabs live in the rainforest at the top of the island and once a year they swarm down to the sea to breed (about now!). There doesn't seem to be any shortage of them, but maybe a lot of water pollution won't help. 

Christmas Island is an eco-goldmine with a lot of other stuff apart from the crabs. You have to wonder what the ship was doing under the cantilever in that kind of weather.

Latest report is that she has sunk.

John T


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