MV Summit Venture was a Japanese-built bulk carrier, built in 1976, which collided with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in 1980, causing the partial collapse of the bridge, which killed 35 people.
The ship was repaired and returned to service and was subsequently resold, trading as Sailor, Sailor I, KS Harmony and Jianmao 9. It sank off the Vietnamese coast in November 2010 when the holds took in water.
Building and delivery
Summit Venture was a bulk carrier built in 1976 by Oshima Shipbuilding of Nagasaki, Japan, as Yard Number 10006. Its length overall was long, breadth , depth and draft ; the ship's gross tonnage was 19,735, net tonnage 13,948 and deadweight tonnage 33,912. Summit Venture was propelled by a diesel engine of Sulzer design, made in Japan by Sumitomo Heavy Industries and driving a single screw.
Launched on May 18, 1976, the ship was completed on August 26 that year for Hercules Carriers Inc of Liberia, where it was also registered. Venture Shipping (Managers) Ltd of Hong Kong were the ship's operators. A section of the steel cantilever highway bridge collapsed, causing a Greyhound bus, a truck, and six other vehicles to fall into the bay, killing thirty-five people.
thumb|[[Mayday call made after the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collision]]
thumb|A noise reduced, condensed version of the above [[Mayday call.]]
That day the pilot of Summit Venture was John E. Lerro. He was cleared of wrongdoing by both a state grand jury and a Coast Guard investigation. Although Capt. Lerro resumed his shipping duties soon afterward, he was forced to retire months later by the onset of multiple sclerosis, dying from complications caused by the disease on August 31, 2002, at the age of 59.
Wesley MacIntire was the only person who survived the fall. His truck fell off the bridge but bounced off the bow of Summit Venture before falling into Tampa Bay. He was pulled from the water by the ship's crew. Physically, MacIntire only suffered from a cut on the head and water in his lungs. He died in 1989 of bone cancer at the age of 65, and always regretted being the sole survivor among those who fell. Each year he drove to the bridge on the accident's anniversary and saluted those who did not survive.
In November 1993, the ship was sold by its original owner, Hercules Carriers, to Greek-owned Sailor Maritime Co Ltd, Malta, and managed by Endeavor Shipping Company in Piraeus, and renamed it Sailor. Three years later it was rechristened Sailor I, then transferred by Endeavor to a Panama owning company Mediterranean Prestige SA. During this time the ship mostly traded into US West Coast ports. All 27 crew members on board were rescued from liferafts by two container ships, 26 by NYK Aquarius and one by Kota Nelayan.
See also
- Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse