April 10: On This Day in World History … briefly

1991:  Italian ferry collision kills 140

The Moby Prince disaster was a major naval accident resulting in 140 deaths in the late evening of Wednesday, April 10, 1991, in the harbour of Livorno, Italy. It is the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World War II.

At 10.03pm on April 10, the Moby Prince left Livorno, heading to Olbia for a regular service, manned by a crew of 65 and 75 passengers. The ship was commanded by Ugo Chessa. While taking the usual dedicated route out of the harbour, the ferry’s prow struck the Agip Abruzzo standing at anchor and sliced through its tank number 7. The tank was filled with 2 700 tons of Iranian light crude oil. At 10.25pm, the ferry’s radio operator broadcast a Mayday from the portable VHF transmitter. He did not use the fixed radio set because he was not at his post at the moment of the disaster, which was later confirmed with the location of his corpse.

Mayday … Mayday … Moby Prince … Moby Prince … We are in a collision … We are on fire … Firemen needed … Mate, if you do not help us we will burn … Mayday … Mayday … — (Moby Prince radio operator call)

It is considered one of the two worst environmental disasters in Italian history, along with the explosion and loss of the tanker ‘Amoco Milford Haven’ on the following day in an unrelated accident near Voltri.

The only survivor of the crew and passengers of the ferry was a young ship’s boy, Alessio Bertrand from Naples. The other 140 on board were killed by fire or toxic fumes. On May 28, 1998, the ship’s hull sunk while impounded in a dock in Livorno harbor – it was later refloated and sent to be scrapped in Turkey.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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