Captain of container ship involved in North Sea collision arrested in the UK, identified as Russian citizen
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On the morning of March 10, the container ship Solong collided with an American tanker in the North Sea. British police subsequently arrested the 59-year-old captain of the Solong, whose name has not yet been disclosed. However, a Reuters report indicates that the captain is a Russian citizen.
The Solong, owned by the Hamburg-based international shipping company Ernst Russ, struck the anchored U.S. tanker Stena Immaculate, which was carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military. The impact caused fires to break out on both vessels, and as of March 12, the flames had not been fully extinguished. The crews were evacuated, but one Solong crew member remains missing. The captain is suspected of involuntary manslaughter due to negligence, as the missing crew member is presumed to have died as a result of the incident.
According to AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking data, Solong was approaching Stena Immaculate at a speed of 16 knots (approximately 30 km/h) and made no visible attempts to avoid the collision. An American sailor aboard the tanker told CBS News that the container ship appeared “out of the blue.”
Initial reports following the accident suggested that Solong was carrying 15 containers of toxic sodium cyanide. However, Ernst Russ later denied this, stating: “There are four empty containers on board that previously held hazardous chemicals,” according to a statement obtained by The Insider.
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On the morning of March 10, the container ship Solong collided with an American tanker in the North Sea. British police subsequently arrested the 59-year-old captain of the Solong, whose name has not yet been disclosed. However, a Reuters report indicates that the captain is a Russian citizen.
The Solong, owned by the Hamburg-based international shipping company Ernst Russ, struck the anchored U.S. tanker Stena Immaculate, which was carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military. The impact caused fires to break out on both vessels, and as of March 12, the flames had not been fully extinguished. The crews were evacuated, but one Solong crew member remains missing. The captain is suspected of involuntary manslaughter due to negligence, as the missing crew member is presumed to have died as a result of the incident.
According to AIS (Automatic Identification System) tracking data, Solong was approaching Stena Immaculate at a speed of 16 knots (approximately 30 km/h) and made no visible attempts to avoid the collision. An American sailor aboard the tanker told CBS News that the container ship appeared “out of the blue.”
Initial reports following the accident suggested that Solong was carrying 15 containers of toxic sodium cyanide. However, Ernst Russ later denied this, stating: “There are four empty containers on board that previously held hazardous chemicals,” according to a statement obtained by The Insider.
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If, and I guess it's a big if, if this is some hybrid warfare scheme from russia then there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
I just can't get my gead around anything positive coming out from this for putin.
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If, and I guess it's a big if, if this is some hybrid warfare scheme from russia then there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
I just can't get my gead around anything positive coming out from this for putin.
Usually the only conflicting power in Kremlin is the air resistance on some poor fucker's way down from his window.
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If, and I guess it's a big if, if this is some hybrid warfare scheme from russia then there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
I just can't get my gead around anything positive coming out from this for putin.
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Tbh, how likely is it that two big ships with sonar, radar, radio communications and (possibly impaired) visibility on both sides collide by freak accident? Impossible, no of course not. But likely? Very unlikely...
But then, there is one heck of a lot of marine traffic out there.
When you turn up the volumes, eventually even really improbable things can happen.
I'm not making any judgements either way.
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If, and I guess it's a big if, if this is some hybrid warfare scheme from russia then there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
I just can't get my gead around anything positive coming out from this for putin.
Usually I’m on this train. There’a a YouTuber called What’s Going on With Shipping that discusses the collision.
In this view, it shows navigation tracks for both ships over the last year. It looks like the Solong (dark green) routinely follows that track, and the Stena Immaculate, which was at anchor, happened to be anchored in the path.
Not saying it’s impossible this was intentional, but more likely the captain wasn’t paying attention, given how ‘routine’ the back and forth had become.
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Tbh, how likely is it that two big ships with sonar, radar, radio communications and (possibly impaired) visibility on both sides collide by freak accident? Impossible, no of course not. But likely? Very unlikely...
The chance of the captain and first mate just being drunk or really irresponsible ("the sea is big, what's the worst that can happen?") seems way more likely to me here than some nefarious plan. I just don't see what would be gained from it.
The various cable cuts related to russian ships are definitely suspicious though. There the motive would be clear - it sends a threatening message to other countries about how vulnerable their infrastructure is, potentially making them less likely to stand up to russian aggression. And the cost to fix the cables is much higher than the cost of a low-medium chance the (old, leaking, close to decommissioning) ship gets impounded.
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If, and I guess it's a big if, if this is some hybrid warfare scheme from russia then there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
I just can't get my gead around anything positive coming out from this for putin.
there must be conflicting powers at work in the Kremlin right?
For now. There's only so many windows (of opportunity).
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