MV Tampa

MV Tampa at Papeete, French Polynesia
History
Name	Tampa Barber Tampa
Owner	Wilhelmsen Lines Shipowning
Port of registry	Norway
Builder	Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan, South Korea
Yard number	248
Launched	10 October 1983
Completed	1984
Identification	Call sign: LMWO3 IMO number: 8204951 MMSI no.: 257497000
Fate	Scrapped 2 August 2013
Notes	[1]
General characteristics
Type	Container ship
Tonnage	39,900 DWT 66,532 GT
Length	262.3 m (860 ft 7 in)
Beam	32.26 m (105 ft 10 in)
Draught	9.78 m (32 ft 1 in)
Decks	12
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Crew	25
Notes	[2]

MV Tampa was a roll-on/roll-off container ship completed in 1984 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in South Korea for the Norway-based firm, Wilhelmsen Lines Shipowning.

In 2001, the vessel was at the centre of the Tampa affair when its crew rescued 433 refugees in international waters, but the Australian government refused permission for them to disembark on Christmas Island.

Service history

Tampa was launched in late 1983. It was a so-called ro-ro ship. Ro-ro is an abbreviation of roll-on/roll off. These ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle, such as a self-propelled modular transporter. This is in contrast to lift-on/lift-off (LoLo) vessels, which use a crane to load and unload cargo.

Tampa affair

In August 2001, under Captain Arne Rinnan, a diplomatic dispute brewed between Australia, Norway, and Indonesia after Tampa rescued 433 Afghans from a distressed fishing vessel in international waters. The Afghans wanted passage to the nearby Christmas Island. The Australian government sought to prevent this by refusing Tampa entry into Australian waters, insisting on their disembarkment elsewhere, and deploying the Special Air Service Regiment to board the ship.^[3][4]

At the time of the incident, Tampa carried cargo worth A$20 million, and 27 crew. The crew of Tampa later received the Nansen Refugee Award for 2002 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for their efforts to follow international principles of saving people in distress at sea.

Cocaine smuggling bust

In October 2006, Tampa was one of two Wilhelmsen ships involved in a cocaine-smuggling operation intercepted by the New Zealand Customs Service and the Australian Federal Police. Twenty-seven kilograms (60 lb) of cocaine was allegedly attached to the side of the two cargo ships bound for Australia in purpose-built metal pods, although New Zealand authorities stated they did not believe the ship's crew or owners were involved.^[5]

See also

• MV Taiko
• Ruddock v Vadarlis

References

Bibliography

• David Marr, Maria Wilkinson: Dark Victory - How a government lied its way to political triumph. Allen & Unwin 2004, ISBN 978-1-74114-447-5.

Further reading

• Decision of Justice North, Federal Court of Australia 11 September 2001
• Decision of Full Court overturning decision of Justice North, 18 September 2001
• David Marr & Marian Wilkinson Dark Victory. ISBN 1-74114-447-7
• McPhedran, Ian (2005). The Amazing SAS. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-7322-7981-X.
• News.com.au: Reflections by Julian Burnside on Tampa with public comments published to coincide with 5-year anniversary of the event
• Daniel Ross, Violent Democracy, ch. 5.
• Mary Elzabeth Crock: In the Wake of the Tampa: Conflicting Visions of International Refugee Law in the Management of Refugee Flows. Pacific Rim Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 49–95, 2003.
• Peter Mares: Borderline: Australia's Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the Tampa. UNSW Press 2002, ISBN 0-86840-789-5.

External links

• NauruWire, an Australia based site Update on status of detainees. Accessed 25 June 2005.

This page was last edited on 27 November 2023, at 03:46