On this day in 1972, the AP Møller-owned oil rig supply vessel ‘Maersk Fighter’ floundered in the North Sea off the coast of Esbjerg during a storm.
Nine of the ship’s 19 crew members perished in what was one of the biggest shipwreck disasters in recent Danish history.
The ship was later recovered, rebuilt and put back into service a year later.
A later investigation revealed that the Esbjerg-based ‘Mærsk Fighter’ – which was laden with cement and drilling pipes among other things – sank because it had taken on water through an insufficiently tightened hatch cover.
