The Case Of The Rusty Assassin

Three men lay dead in the anchor locker.

What they’d needed to live was all around them except in one place:

the air they once breathed.

Listen To The Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Their names were Robert Ebertowski, Bob O’Brien and Findlay MacFadyen. Real names, real people. People like you.

The Ship

cTheir ship was emergency response and rescue vessel, ERRV, Viking Islay which serviced the Ensco 92 jack-up drilling rig in the Amethyst gas field about 25 miles off the East Yorkshire coast. She was classed with Lloyds Register and managed by Vroon Offshore services in Aberdeen.

The victims

Robert Ebertowski was a 40 year old Polish AB. He’d worked on LPG carriers as an engineer and had worked for Vroon since 2005. He was a day work seaman – he didn’t take a watch but carried out routine duties during the day.

Bob O’Brien was British. Like Robert Ebertowski he was a day work seaman. He was 59, had worked for Vroon for seven years and was the ship’s advanced medical responder. It was a task he was well qualified for, previously he’d been a medic with the British army. On the day of the incident Bob O’Brien was the leading hand, the seaman designated by the ship’s master to be in charge of Robert Ebertowski.

Findlay MacFadyen was a big man. He had been a motorman oiler in the British merchant navy for several years. He’d worked in the ERRV industry for seven years and for Vroon for nearly two years. Now he was the 8/12 seaman, who took the 8 to 12 watch in the morning and evening.

These were experienced, qualified seafarers, used to the ship and their jobs.

Clanking Anchors

On Friday, 21^st September Viking Islay docked at Immingham after 28 days on station, for a crew change. On her way into Immingham her starboard anchor had been walked out a short distance to make sure that it was clear to run out in case of emergency.

Her anchors weren’t used much. It was forbidden to anchor near the Ensco 92 rig and she was tied up in port at Immingham. There wasn’t much reason to go into the anchor cable locker except, once in a while, to secure the anchor cable where it entered the spurling pipe that lead to the windlass to stop it making a noise. Most of the time the anchors were in their hawse pipes and the spurling pipes sealed with expanding foam to prevent seawater getting in.

The next day, at 1150, Viking Islay set sail for Ensco 92. The starboard spurling pipe was resealed with foam and at 1625 took up her station to start her 28 day standby.

We can’t know the fine details of everything that happened over the next 24 hours, those who can tell us are no longer alive, but it must have gone something like this:

Page 1 of 7 | Next page