Blue Marlin and her sister ship were owned by
Offshore Heavy Transport of
Oslo, Norway, from their construction, in April 2000 and November 1999, respectively, until 6 July 2001, when they were purchased by Dockwise. The
U.S. Navy hired
Blue Marlin from Offshore Heavy Transport to move the destroyer back to the United States after the
warship was damaged by
Al-Qaeda suicide bombers while anchored in the port of
Aden,
Yemen. During the latter part of 2003, work done on
Blue Marlin boosted her capacity and added two retractable
propulsors to improve maneuverability. The ship re-entered service in January 2004. Following these improvements,
Blue Marlin delivered the oil platform
Thunder Horse PDQ, weighing 60,000 tons, to
Corpus Christi, Texas, for completion. In July 2005
Blue Marlin moved the
gas refinery Snøhvit from its construction site in
Cádiz to
Hammerfest, an 11-day trip. This transport was filmed for the TV show
Extreme Engineering on the
Discovery Channel, and also the TV show
Mega Movers on the
History Channel. In November 2005,
Blue Marlin left Corpus Christi to move the massive
sea-based X-band Radar to
Adak,
Alaska, via the southern tip of South America and
Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. It arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 January 2006, having travelled 15,000 miles. In January 2007, the
Blue Marlin was employed to move two
jackup rigs, the
Rowan Gorilla VI and the
GlobalSantaFe Galaxy II, from
Halifax Harbour to the
North Sea. On 16 June 2012, the ship arrived in
Ferrol harbour in preparation for transporting the incomplete amphibious warship
HMAS Canberra to
Melbourne. The Australian ship was lifted onto
Blue Marlin on 4 August 2012 and was scheduled to sail on 12 August, bound for the BAE Systems Australia shipyard in
Williamstown. The ship passed the
Port Phillip Heads and arrived in Melbourne on 17 October 2012. On 5 May 2019,
Blue Marlin was briefly hijacked off the coast of
Equatorial Guinea. The crew took shelter in the ship's
citadel, while pirates shot up the
bridge in frustration. The pirates fled before the arrival of the Equatorial Guinean frigate and Spanish patrol boat .
Post-2004 • Max sailing draft: • Max draft submerged: • Water above deck submerged • aft • forward • Propulsor output: each • Conversion yard:
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard,
Ulsan, South Korea ==See also==