A tugboat that ran aground froze into ice for a month in the port of Shakhtyorsk. Sakhalin.Info

10:08 January 28, 2022

Recall that on December 30, due to difficult weather conditions, when entering the port, regarding 40 meters from the coast, the Shakhtyorsk-1 sea tug ran aground. The crew of four on board was not injured. Later, the issue of a possible fuel leak began to be discussed among the residents of the area.

Dmitry Tsukanov (then acting mayor, but since yesterday mayor Uglegorsky district – approx. ed.) visited the enterprise, where he met with the executive director of UMP “Shakhtyorsk” Alexei Tkachenko. The head of the port spoke regarding the plan of action to refloat the Shakhtersk-1 vessel, previously agreed with the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Administration of the seaports of Sakhalin, Kuriles and Kamchatka”.⁣

“Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, we might not start the rescue operation for a long time. The reason for the delay is that there are not many specialized rescue services on Sakhalin that have their own divers. Only the Marine Rescue Service “MIDO” agreed to get down to business.⁣ And finally, thanks to good weather conditions, the rescuers were able to proceed with the first stage of the operation to refloat the tug – sealing a crack 0.5 wide and 50 cm long, formed on the ship in the engine room departments. As soon as they cope with this task, they will begin to pump out water from the tug’s premises. During the process, we will observe the behavior of the vessel: if the tug restores its stability, and we do not see the risk that it may sink, only then will we begin the operation to refloat the vessel – we will hook it up with one or two tugs and drag Shakhtyorsk-1 into a safe place.⁣ If everything goes according to plan and the weather continues to be ideal – the sea is calm, the ship may be in the port bucket in 2-3 days. The situation is aggravated by the fact that a lot of effort goes into chipping the ice that has formed on the ship. Every day all 12 members of the crew are engaged in knocking down ice from the tugboat. If the weather worsens, we will have to wait once more. To prevent the ship from being blown out to sea during a storm, it was secured to the shore with two special ropes. There was no spill of oil products and environmental pollution, there are supporting documents regarding their absence, said Alexey Tkachenko.⁣

Measures for the rescue operation in the port are under the personal control of the mayor, the administration of the Uglegorsk district reports.

Recall, on December 30, it became known that a small tugboat ran aground in the port of Shakhtersk. At the same time, the shipowner made a decision to carry out work to remove the vessel from the shallows approximately on January 2. However, it took almost a month before the work eventually began. Local residents attribute this to the fact that the workers who should have been involved in this are employed at work with Chinese cargo ship, which nailed to Kholmsk.

The Sakhalin Investigation Department for Transport of the Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the Russian Investigative Committee is conducting a procedural check.