Anyway, what we can now confirm is as follows:
The “Dollard” was a 52.7m by 8.5m coaster with a draught of 3.0m, constructed in Haarlem, Netherlands in 1957. After ten years in Europe the ship was acquired by Indonesian owners and moved to the far east where it variously went by the names of “Pariaman”, “Maria Fortune” and “Lady Maya”. In 1989 the ship became the “Ajman Glory” when it was purchased by middle-eastern owners and brought to the Arabian Gulf. After less than a year under its new name, the vessel sank on 28 August 1989 whilst sailing from Hamriyah to Bandar Abbas in Iran carrying a cargo of vinyl acetate monomer. It had been abandoned by its crew at the time of the sinking making its final location highly uncertain. What caused it to go down we don’t know, but there was probably a combination of factors including bad weather and engine trouble (the engines were by now 32 years old), maybe possibly an inexperienced crew.
So is this the vessel that we’ve been diving? As reported last week, the dimensions match almost exactly and seeing the photographs, all of us who have dived the wreck were sure we had a positive identification. Nevertheless, something more systematic was needed so on Friday we headed out to the site, armed with the pictures and intent on having a closer look. PJ made a “video tour” which can be seen above, but we can confirm that the details visible in the picture were found on the wreck. The basic shape, the six drainage openings, the four vertical pipes in front of the bridge, the trapezoidal cut-out at the bow, the anchors, the masts, the two holds and other features were all present and correct. We’re now confident that the “Ajman Glory” has been discovered at last.
On Sunday we went back out there, this time as a joint trip with DSDC. Although it was us who came up with co-ordinates, it was Brian Lugg who realised the possible connection to the “Thinner Wreck” and thence to the “Ajman Glory”. After one dive we left them to it and did a second dive on the “Tek”, the small tug-boat about half way back to Hamriyah. By now the current was picking up so after clearing a few more nets from the boat and doing a few circuits, we headed back to the club for some hard-earned refreshment.
IN CONCLUSION:
From: Ian Hussey
Sent: 18 August 2012 05:49
To: Mceachan Nelson
Subject: Re: Ajman Glory
Nelson
We dived the wreck again yesterday. Peter is putting together a “video tour” which will be uploaded to youtube shortly but I can tell you that every detail matches what can be seen in the photos and there’s no doubt in my mind that we have a positive i.d. Would you agree with this or is more required from a hydrographic office point of view?
Regards
Ian
Below are pictures of the Ajman Glory in her first life as the Dutch MS Dollard, hosted on the net by a former crew member Mr Cor Dijk – clearly its Engineer and visible in some of the images (see pages from his merchant “ticket”!). While a few of his images may not be of the Dollard/Ajman Glory, they very well capture life on a small freighter.
