In this episode, Sal Mercogliano—a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — discusses the loss of Russian freighter Ursa Major in the Mediterranean en route to Vladivostok.
I just finished watching the 15+ min. video by marine historian Sal Mercogliano. He provides a lot of information about this ship, Ursa Major, and its very poor condition including having around a dozen major problems identified in a fairly recent German safety inspection. The problem in general is that Russia does NOT do preventive maintenance on its machinery. They often don’t fix things pointed out to them. Between the theft of allocated funds by Oligarchs, inadequate supplies of parts, and relative incompetence and poor morale of crews/workers nothing Russian is properly maintained, whether ships, submarines, aircraft, or tanks. Poor leadership (captains) can make it worse as crew are afraid to complain for fear of being sent to the meat wave department.
While the speaker mentioned the possibility of sabotage, he seemed inclined to lean toward the poor maintenance side of the argument. Apparently there was an explosion within the engine room at the rear of the ship which was strong enough to blow a hole in the metal hull. The problem of requiring ships to do jobs they were not suited for was an issue. Russia has been using vessels for river and lake use at sea in sea conditions. This ship came down from England to Portugal in a major storm and was hugging the indented French coast the whole time rather than taking a straight course. When it sank in the Mediterranean, the sea was clear and calm. When the 3 tankers recently came part in the Black Sea and sank causing a major oil spill, they had very stormy conditions. Cutting large ships in two, removing a middle chunk and welding the front and back parts together does not make a storm worthy craft. Russians are also reluctant to seek help, for fear an inspection may discover illegal cargo stored below. An interesting history fact is that when Putin failed to accept US help recovering the crew of his sunken submarine, the 5 day delay in rescue guaranteed a crew of corpses.
There were many, many comments. I read about 100, and of those at least 1/5th added interesting information to the discussion. One provided a very effective way to set up an explosion to occur days after the ship went to sea. The commenters seemed more inclined to guess sabotage than the historian. They were struck with 5 recent ship sinkings, but did not know the facts behind the 3 tankers coming apart at the welded seams. There was general agreement on the rotten condition of Russian equipment—air, sea, and ground.
I recommend this interesting link. Merry Christmas, and to all, a Good Night.
What We Know About The Russian Cargo Ship That Sank In Mediterranean
Ukrainian intel claims the cargo ship was headed to Syria to take Russian materiel out of the country, but Moscow says otherwise.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/what-we-know-about-the-russian-cargo-ship-that-sank-in-mediterranean
—
New Coast Guard Heavy Icebreaker Construction Finally Underway
The first Polar Security Cutter was supposed to have been delivered this year, but construction has just began after multiple delays.
https://www.twz.com/sea/new-coast-guard-heavy-icebreaker-construction-finally-underway