Russian captain blames “Unsafe UK shipping conditions”

These ships are always anchored some way off the coast in Falmouth Bay. I have no idea how long it takes to prepare a ship's diesel engine for moving a ship, but I would suggest that there was no one on 'anchor watch', which may have given the engine room crew sufficient time to get things moving. Hopefully it will all come out in the 'wash'!
 
Appledore said:
I have no idea how long it takes to prepare a ship's diesel engine for moving a ship, but I would suggest that there was no one on 'anchor watch', which may have given the engine room crew sufficient time to get things moving.
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When using the anchorages at the eastern end of the Isle of Wight all ships have to have their main engines ready for immediate use in times of bad weather.
 
Having previously thought that the UK model of providing public and charity resource for free to help stricken mariners and vessels, I now believe there should be certain exceptions to that rule. This being the first. In response to a threat of a damages claim, the MCA/RNLI should be encouraged to put in a claim for salvage.
 
Angele said:
Having previously thought that the UK model of providing public and charity resource for free to help stricken mariners and vessels, I now believe there should be certain exceptions to that rule. This being the first. In response to a threat of a damages claim, the MCA/RNLI should be encouraged to put in a claim for salvage.
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My first thought was that the ship may not be insured, for an insurance company would surely have exercised its subrogation rights to prevent such an unhelpful media show.

As to your point: 100% agree, putting lives and equipment at risk to support the refloating of a ship, an almost entirely commercial operation, in the absence of co-ordination with the owners and/or insurers, does on the face of it seem wrong.

Also the Russian Embassy investigating, if true, seems most odd. In fact, the whole story is kind of odd.
 
Well just perhaps the authorities should not have intervened and let the ship drag higher onto the beach then let the Cornwall beach squad loose to sort out the ship's crew and contraband as they might so do
 
I wonder if the translation was as bad as the journalism?

The ship had more than 100 faults at its latest inspection and was held in the Netherlands for seven months before driving to the UK. However, the company has blamed unsafe conditions and said it could bring legal action to recoup the cost of damage to the ship and the Russian Embassy has launched an investigation.
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My bold.
 
She was anchored in Falmouth Bay, which is well protected from the west and north but open to the south and east. Popular large ship anchorage, often has 10 or more ships at anchor “waiting at Falmouth for orders”. I didn’t notice her anchored before the grounding but the wind was from the south at 50+ knots, so I’d have expected the ship to have had her engines running and a full watch on. Clearly, she didn’t have time to react once the anchor(s) dragged, which suggests to me that the engines weren’t running and there probably wasn’t a full watch on either.
The incident caused traffic chaos in Falmouth with lots of folks coming for a look.....
On the topic of salvage costs; the RNLI never makes a charge and won’t in this instance but the tugs will be charging for their work. They came from Falmouth docks, hence the rapid response. If they’d had to come from further afield it’s possible that the ship would have been stranded for more than one tide, increasing the chance of real damage to her hull.
 
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