Qualla: MV Tricolor https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: MV Tricolor https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor MV Tricolor: Introduction https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 4 January 2003, three different ships had hit the same shipwreck in three weeks, and the world's most heavily policed stretch of saltwater had run out of excuses. The wreck was the Norwegian car carrier MV Tricolor, sunk on 14 December 2002 some 32 kilometres off Dunkirk after a collision with a Bahamian container ship called the Kariba. The Tricolor lay just under the surface in thirty metres of water, in the seam where two lanes of the Dover Strait Traffic Separation Scheme merged. Three guard ships circled her. Lighted buoys marked her ends. Marine radio carried hourly warnings in English, French, Dutch, and German. None of it kept the next ships from running into her.

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Image: Leo Johannes | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full MV Tricolor: Two Ships on a Collision Course https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. MV Tricolor had launched in 1987 in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture as Nosac Sun, a 190-metre pure car carrier built to move thousands of vehicles in one trip. By December 2002 she was operated by Wilh. Wilhelmsen of Norway. Just after midnight on 14 December she was heading from ...

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Image: Leo Johannes | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-two-ships-on-a-collision-course.mp3 0:06 2 full MV Tricolor: Strike One: The Nicola https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. French authorities marked the wreck with a guard ship and a buoy and broadcast warnings. Less than twenty-four hours after the sinking, on the night of 15 December, the Dutch coaster Nicola was heading southbound in the same lane. Despite the radio calls and the lighted buoy, she...

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Image: Leo Johannes | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-strike-one-the-nicola.mp3 0:06 3 full MV Tricolor: Strike Two: The Vicky https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 1 January 2003, eighteen days after the sinking, with three guard vessels on station and seven buoys around her, the Turkish-flagged fuel carrier Vicky struck the wreck. The Vicky was loaded with light oil. She rode up over the submerged hull and grounded on top. The rising ti...

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Image: Leo Johannes | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-strike-two-the-vicky.mp3 0:06 4 full MV Tricolor: A New Buoy for the World https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Tricolor case forced the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities, IALA, to invent something it had been deferring for years: a standardised emergency wreck buoy. The new buoy was alternating blue and yellow, with vertical stripes that...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-a-new-buoy-for-the-world.mp3 0:06 5 full MV Tricolor: Slicing Up a Car Carrier https://qualla.com/mv-tricolor/ Photo credit Leo Johannes, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Dutch salvage firm Smit International led the consortium that lifted the Tricolor in pieces. The operation began in July 2003 and finished on 27 October 2004. The technique involved a long carbide-encrusted cutting wire dragged through the steel hull like cheese-wire through ...

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Image: Leo Johannes | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/s/mv-tricolor-wp/u11s-mv-tricolor-slicing-up-a-car-carrier.mp3 0:06 6 full