Captain of Solong is Russian

[Huckyfell]

Ok, so the captain of the Solong who crashed into the Stena immaculate, loaded with USA aviation fuel, is a Russian. I'm not usually into conspiracy theories, but am I being reasonable to suspect foul play?

Having dated a merchant navy captain (British) in the past, I wouldn't say it's correct that a majority of merchant navy captains are Russian! But obviously there are quite a few out there- both in the official Russian flagged fleet, the unofficial "dark" fleet, and in the wider shipping industry, because I imagine they'll accept lower pay.

They do have quite a reputation for drunkenness and incompetence mind you.

If guess he was watching porn on his iPhone.

The Stena Immaculate was radar dark, so was only going to be detectable visually (a bit like Titanic and the iceberg). It'd take 3 minutes and around 3 Km for the Solong to change course. The human eye can only see around 5km (unaided). Assuming that if this was a modern ship, there wasn't a lookout constantly scanning with binoculars, as they'd rely on radar, that's not a lot of time to make a correction. Also if Immaculate was radar dark, it may not be immediately clear she was anchored, as she was anchored in an unexpected place.

Of course the master has been arrested, that's standard procedure in a maritime collision, generally used to enable the collection of samples for toxicology. But rushing to denounce him with the main evidence being his nationality is very uncomfortable.....

Maybe it's just a big coincidence & it was a horrible accident, but on the other hand it doesn't at all surprise me that the Solong's captain is Russian.

Could you tell us more about the ship being radar dark?
How do we know, how do they do it, why (in peacetime), isn’t it a bit risky?

I agree with this^
especially as part of the team were Russian as well. They are not famous for following health and safety rules and procedures.

@roundaboutthehillsareshining

This post is some kind of weird nonsense.

Radar dark is bollocks.

Immaculate had been moored for hours, her position had been reported and was known to all ships in the area. There was nothing unusual about it.

There should always be a human lookout.

I suspect that bridge was unmanned.
Why? The investigation should throw some clues. But it is suspicious indeed. That is not a tiny vessel that they failed to spot....

Ships don't just rely on radar nowadays. There's also a system called AIS, which I understand is GPS based. This is how you can see all the ships pootling around on marinetraffic.com. Any ship can switch it off if it wants, and military vessels do do that sometimes. It would be a stupid thing to do if you happened to be parked in a busy area of the North Sea- QED, possibly.

But vessels should all keep an adequate human watch as well- especially if they're under way, but also if they're at anchor. Sounds that this did not happen if the Solong "came out of nowhere", although I do understand it was foggy. If the Solong was the only vessel at fault, you'd expect there to have been some increasingly panicked VHF messages from the Immaculata in the minutes before collision.

Re: "radar dark"- am I mistaken in believing that deflecting radar needs specialist equipment, more usually found on active military vessels, rather than tankers chartered by them? 🤔

Hang on, they'd buried someone at sea? Has anyone got a link to that please? I can't see it in any news articles.

Is that the missing crew member that was being searched for?! I'm so confused!

Oh, I should add that even if the Immaculata did spot the Solong bearing down on them, there's only so much they could have done in the space of a few minutes, other than energetically warn the Solong. But the fact that the Solong didn't alter their course at all suggests that they either weren't warned, or that nobody picked up 😬

Where on earth do you get that idea from?

By bizarre coincidence, I am currently watching Sppoks, and the episode I'm on is about a hijacked cargo ship heading towards the UK to take out a new warship being unveiled. Fortunately the Captain is undercover security services and has just heroically taken back control.

As to the reality of the Solong situation, even if it was something dodgy, I reckon we'd never know cos "national security" , unless it was in any way particularly politically useful.

And fuck me, once disaster was averted a "ministerial" character referenced being "needed at Mumsnet until the next catastrophe (sic)." Rewound to make sure I wasn't mistaken as well. That's quantum entanglement or something right? Lol .....

What time was that please? Can't see anything in the media about it elsewhere 🤔

In the BBC Verify clip I linked above it said there were several vessels in the area, all waiting in an area designed for them to wait for a short time.

To me that makes it even worse if there was nobody on watch, especially when it’s foggy.

Better link here. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cj0q11zje3po

@MistressoftheDarkSide 😮

Where's the bloody spilled cargo?

Sailing around the world. Lots of VHF interactions with commercial ships. AIS meant we could call nearby ships by name, checking that they knew we were there and weren't going to mow us down inadvertently! Watch officers were almost always Russian.

I heard on the radio (BBC R4, or possibly Classic FM) that the drums of sodium cyanide being transported were empty. I can’t find it online, though. Small mercies, if they were.

Agreed. She won’t have been sat there invisible, can you imagine how dangerous that would be!

While the capt has overall responsibility legally and morally, he will not have been the only person on watch. Someone was probably asleep with the alarms switched off, having told the other to nip off for a snooze or a coffee or whatever.

No excuse, but not all of the merchant ships operate under the same strict guidelines.

I’ve put feelers out for more information.

@roundaboutthehillsareshining

"if Immaculate was radar dark, it may not be immediately clear she was anchored, as she was anchored in an unexpected place."

Radar dark means the AIS has been switched off. A vessel is still visible on other radar systems that detect physical objects.

Also, Stena Immaculate wasn't anchored in an unexpected place, she was anchored in an "anchorage" - a known holding pen for vessels waiting for high tide to enter the Humber.

The Guardian says that the Immaculata definitely had its AIS switched on while anchored.

These were my thoughts exactly when I read it. I also shared the story with my Polish cousin who is a captain on a tanker checking if it’s not his ship. He is around UK atm bit the other side, thankfully. He said the crews are full of Poles, Russians, Indians, Filipinos because we are simply cheaper labour. So it could just be a coincidence but given the circumstances, I see how we’d jump to conclusions…

Where have you got this entirely inaccurate account from then?