The April 10, 1991 in Livorno one of the occurred largest maritime disasters of Italian history, what involved the Moby Prince ferry and the Agip Abruzzo oil tanker. The collision between the two boats caused a violent fire – fueled by the release of oil – in which they lost their lives 140 people between ferry passengers and crew members: only one person was saved, the 23-year-old cabin boy Alessio Bertrand, throwing himself into the water. There dynamics of the accident is not entirely clear and the causes that led Moby Prince to hit the tanker have never been confirmed.
What happened to the Moby Prince ferry: chronological reconstruction of the disaster
Livorno, 10 April. The sad protagonist of this story is the Moby Prince ferry which, at 10pm that day, was leaving the port to head to Olbia. There were 141 people on board and no one had any idea of what would happen in a few minutes.
In fact, between 10.24pm and 10.25pm, approximately 3 nautical miles away from the coast (i.e. about 5.5 km), the Moby Prince hit the Agip Abruzzo oil tanker which, at that moment, was waiting to unload its cargo at the port. The collision was so violent that drill the tank number 7: oil began to flow, impregnating the ships and creating a terrible fire.
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Of the two boats, the Moby Prince fared the worst: the flames they enveloped the entire vessel and were of little use to me mayday sent. In fact, these were not detected correctly and therefore the authorities did not immediately understand that a ferry was present in the midst of that black smoke and, consequently, they concentrated their relief efforts on Agip Abruzzo.
For this reason the only survivor of the Prince was Alessio Bertrand, a 23-year-old cabin boy who embarked with his uncle, who jumped from the ship's deck to save his life, and was subsequently rescued. After the tragedy Bertrand would never board a ship again. Unfortunately, all the other passengers on the ferry lost their lives.
What were the causes of the collision: the hypotheses and the obscure points
This is undoubtedly the most difficult knot to untie, so much so 33 years since the disaster We still don't have a certain answer. At first it was thought that the fault lay with the pilot of the Moby Prince who due to the fog he would not have seen the tanker: the weather reports for that day, however, indicated instead clear skies and excellent visibility, therefore this hypothesis must be discarded. The option of arudder failure of the ferry but, even in this case, the reports denied this hypothesis.
The currently most probable explanation – as also emerged from a Fanpage investigation – is that that night at the port of Livorno there were militarized ships That they clandestinely trafficked weapons with the approval of the Italian and US secret services. This would have resulted in numerous boats entering and leaving the port in a furtive and unregistered manner: one of these would have crossed the path of the Moby Prince who, to avoid it, would have performed a sharp and sudden maneuver, going to impact against the Agip vessel.
Unfortunately, even in this case we do not yet have sufficient data to provide an accurate reconstruction of what happened.
