Shipping
Full chaos about the horror ship - was refused by Malta
Hans Österman
Updated 01.16 | Published 00.53
The damaged ship Ruby continues her journey in no man's land.
On Monday evening, the mystery increased.
First it was reported to be on its way to Malta - then new information came.
The cargo ship Ruby has 20,000 tonnes of Russian ammonium nitrate on board – seven times the amount that caused the massive explosion in Beirut four years ago.
Now the boat is traveling in the North Sea with damage to the propeller, hull and rudder.
Where it will go is unclear.
According to earlier reports on Monday måndagen, the ship was on its way to Malta, the same country where it is flagged. On the website Marine traffic, it appeared on Monday evening that the vessel has indicated the Maltese port of Marsaxlokk as its destination and that arrival is estimated for October 8.
- What is visible on Marine traffic is what the crew themselves key in on theirs AIS, says Jörgen Hansson, rescue leader at the Swedish Maritime Administration's sea and air rescue centre.
Malta: No!
But the responsible authorities in Malta give different notices. The country's Ministry of Transport does confirm that the captain has sent a request to have the ship repaired - but the answer is no as long as the ammonium nitrate remains on board.
- The ship will only be allowed to enter port in Malta if it empties its cargo. Otherwise, it will not be allowed into Malta's territorial waters, says a spokesperson at the ministry to the Malta Today newspaper.
At midnight on the night of Tuesday, Ruby was in the North Sea, approximately at the height of Danish Esbjerg.
- They were relatively quiet until 1:16 p.m. Then they started to go, at first to the south-southwest but at 22 they changed course to south-southeast. Now it looks like they are heading down towards Germany, said Jörgen Hansson during the late Monday evening.
The port of Marsaxlokk in Malta.
Norway: No!
Ruby was loaded in Kandalaksja on Russia's Kola Peninsula and was due to go to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands when on August 26 she requested shelter from a storm in Norway's Vannøya.
A few days later the boat docked in Tromsö.
There, the authorities set up a protection zone of 500 meters radius and stated that the ship had hull damage that needed to be repaired. But the captain was ordered to leave the port after Norwegian police deemed it "undesirable" for the repairs to take place in the densely populated city.
- It is central for the Norwegian authorities to manage the risk and the requirements for moving, anchoring and repair so that it can be carried out in a safe and secure manner, said police chief Anita Hermandsen in a press release.in a press release.
Lithuania: No!
On the night of September 4, Ruby was pulled out to sea by two tugboats.
The following week, the crew had pushed in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda as their new destination. But the authorities in Lithuania said no.
- The cargo will not be allowed to enter the port, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said.
The information that the ship was going to Lithuania via the Baltic Sea set Swedish authorities on fire last week.
- We follow the development. We monitor and keep an eye on the issue, in case we need to act, said Ann-Sofie Masth, press secretary at the Swedish Transport Agency, to Aftonbladet.
The police: "Possible tsunami effect"
Last Friday, MSB held a so-called collaboration conference where Ruby's journey was discussed. The police, the Coast Guard and several county administrations were also involved, according to Dagens Nyheter.
In the minutes of the meeting, which DN took part in, it appeared that the county administration in Västra Götaland went into staff mode over the weekend and that the Coast Guard was getting ready for aerial reconnaissance if the ship were to enter Sweden's economic zone.
The police also commented on the enormous explosiveness of the cargo. The risk of an accident at sea was assessed as low, but the consequences could be devastating.
"The same explosive effect as Hiroshima/Nagasaki, possible tsunami effect in case of explosion," the police wrote in the protocol according to DN.
The Times of Malta newspaper reports that Ruby's Syrian owners are now considering several options. One of them must be that the ammonium nitrate is transhipped to several smaller ships out at sea.
FACTS
This is ammonium nitrate
Produced from ammonia and nitric acid. Is not an explosive in itself but can, under certain circumstances, be caused to explode. If it is mixed with oil and aluminum powder, however, you get an explosive.
Ammonium nitrate is used for artificial fertilization, but has also been used to make bombs in a series of attacks around the world - including in Oklahoma in 1995 and in Bali in 2002.
The Norwegian mass murderer Anders Bering Breivik used the substance for the bomb that detonated outside the government quarters in Oslo in 2011, and it was also used in the suicide attack in Stockholm in 2010.
In 2020, over 200 people were killed and several thousand injured in a giant explosion in the port of Beirut. It was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in the port for over six years without adequate safety measures.
Source: TT.
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