The MV DERBYSHIRE, British flagged, owned and crewed, disappeared virtually without trace when the vessel became involved with Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan on about 9 September, 1980. All on board - 42 crew and two wives - were lost. The DERBYSHIRE was a modern (built 1976), fully equipped and well-managed ore-bulk-oil (OBO) combination carrier. At over 90,000 gross tons she was, and remains, the largest UK ship to have ever been lost at sea.

Since the MV DERBYSHIRE was lost at sea a number of Investigations and Reports have been completed to determine what the circumstances were surrounding the sinking of the MV DERBYSHIRE. After the assessors' report into the MV DERBYSHIRE surveys were completed and published on 12 March 1998, the Deputy Prime Minister ordered that the Formal Investigation be re-opened.

For more information visit a web site that will have the court transcripts and video still images that were presented in court - delayed by 24 hours. The data was obtained by Woods Hole Oceanographic deep-sea laboratory in 1997 from a depth of 4000m.