A Ship Too Far: The Mystery of the Derbyshire

The Derbyshire, a British ship nearly twice the size of the Titanic, sank 200 miles off the coast of Japan during a typhoon in September 1980 with the loss of 44 lives. Evidence soon emerged that the ship was fatally weakened by a design fault, although this has always been denied by the ship's builders. The charge has been laid, and never satisfactorily refuted, that the Derbyshire suffered a catastrophic failure at "Frame 65", a point in her huge length where "spinal" girders had been prematurely stopped, contrary to the original design specifications. In the massive waves of a China Seas typhoon this fatal alteration caused her to snap like a twig. In the years since, three of her sister ships foundered or were scrapped, all due to this design fault. To this day, the Government view remains that the ships - including the Derbyshire - were lost due to human error. Now, evidence is growing that most bulk carriers over a certain size and age may suffer from structural flaws or from poor building standards and materials. In this book, Captain Ramwell and Tim Madge discuss this issue and the fundamental question of whether, for one reason or another, a major cover-up has not been behind the continuing failure to re-open the case of the Derbyshire or to pay adequate compensation to the relatives of the missing crew. David Ramwell is a master mariner and Tim Madge is the award-winning author of "Maiden". He is a former journalist turned writer, photographer and explorer.