Library Reference Number: 144
Postscript To The Finneagle Story
Some time ago, Bill Campbell recounted events concerning the sea vessel Finneagle and the rescue of her crew. In this section, he adds a postscript to the events. If you haven't read the original article listed as Reference 139, you can read it now by clicking here and using the link at the base of that page to come back here.
After we had departed the scene in the early hours of 2"a October 1980, a German salvage tug `Caribic' played its hoses on the Finneagle and followed it till eventually its engine stopped when its immediate source of fuel in the day tanks ran out. By midday the tug had put a salvage crew aboard who continued the fire fighting operations and managed to tow Finneagle to a safe anchorage in the Lerwick Roads by late afternoon on 3`° October. The main fires were extinguished the following day but secondary fires in certain containers burned till 6t'' October. On the 8~' the deck of ~he cooling ship split from one side to the other necessitating temporary repairs before the ship was towed to her home port of Vallhamn over the period 12'h-10 October. Over 500 tons of steel was required to replace damaged structures. Finneagle went to sea again but in the less demanding waters of the Middle East, renamed `Qatar Express'.
In 1989, the German media reported a collision between Helgoland and Bremerhaven involving the German ferry `Hamburg' and a vessel called 'Nordic Stream'. The bow of the Nordic Stream plunged at right angles deep into the side of the Hamburg, ripping the floor out of a cafe bar. As the momentum of the vessels dragged the Nordic Stream out of the Hamburg, the furnishings of the caf6 bar were scooped out on the bow of the Nordic Stream. An extraordinary picture of the debris-strewn bow appeared in the next day's papers. The features of the bow seemed awfully familiar to me, reminiscent of the vessel we had hovered over for more than 90 minutes 9 years previously. Sure enough, a check in Lloyds' Register of Shipping revealed that `Nordic Stream' was none other than our `Finneagle' of 1980, but this time there were serious casualties; 3 passengers on the Hamburg died and 5 passengers and 2 crew were seriously injured.
Both vessels survived and Finneagle made the port of Hamburg under her own power for another repair job. She subsequently had a succession of new owners and name changes over the next 10 years. There is a new `Finneagle' but I wonder if the old one is still afloat in 2008 and if so what name is she sailing under?