Ruby to be admitted to UK port for repairs
Ruby is docked at Great Yarmouth after a month at anchorage off UK (Source: MarineTraffic.com)
The vessel left the Russian port of Kandalaksha on August 22nd with 20,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, only to ground in a storm and suffer hull, propeller and rudder damage. It then underwent temporary repairs in Norway before being escorted southward by Malta-flagged anchor-handler, Amber II.
The vessel was set to undertake a potentially perilous voyage through the Channel, around Spain and Portugal and onward to the Maltese port of Marsaxlokk, until other ideas prevailed.
As well as being potentially hazardous, responsible for the 2020 explosion that levelled most of the Port of Beirut, ammonium nitrate fertiliser is also potentially ruinous to the deep-sea ecosystem, meaning that various countries along the vessel’s troubled route had refused to provide a port of refuge.
Denmark denied the vessel access to the Strait of Denmark, meaning it was unable to reach the Russian Baltic to offload its cargo there.
“The owners and managers of the Ruby would like to take this opportunity to thank the UK authorities for their support throughout the vessels stay in UK territorial waters, while we express gratitude to Peel Ports Group for accommodating our request to complete a transhipment at Great Yarmouth,” said Ruby’s operator, Serenity Ship Management, in a statement on Sunday.
