In an incident at the Baltic Shipyard, the Project 23470 vessel sank after flooding in the auxiliary engine room. The case will be investigated.
A new Russian Navy tugboat, the Kapitan Ushakov, Project 23470, sank near the quay wall at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg on the night of August 8, according to local outlet Fontanka.
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The vessel was at facilities leased by the Yaroslavl Shipyard, responsible for its construction. According to Aleksandr Lebedev, head of the public relations department at the Baltic Shipyard, shipyard crews and emergency services worked to stabilize the vessel:
“We were fighting for the ship the whole time. Baltic Shipyard workers helped their colleagues stop the list,” Lebedev said.
Preliminary information indicates that flooding in the auxiliary engine room caused the vessel to list and subsequently sink. An investigation team is on site to determine the cause of the incident.
The Project 23470 seagoing tugboats are designed to tow ships, floating objects, and structures in seas and oceans without navigation limits. They are capable of operating in ice conditions of Arc4 class and can also perform search and rescue missions, firefighting, and other tasks.
Currently, two tugboats of this class — the Sergey Balk and the Kapitan Nayden — serve with the Black Sea Fleet, although the former was tracked in the Baltic Sea before its AIS system was switched off. Another vessel, the Andrey Stepanov, serves with the Pacific Fleet.
The Kapitan Ushakov was the fifth tugboat of the project, built at the Yaroslavl Shipyard starting in 2017 and launched on June 14, 2022. In October–November 2023, it was transferred via Russia’s inland waterways to the Baltic Shipyard for completion. It was scheduled to be ready by the end of 2024 and to join the 566th Support Ship Detachment of the Northern Fleet, based in Murmansk.
Sources: Fontanka | Telegram @RBC_ua_news | Militarnyi. This content was created with AI assistance and reviewed by the editorial team.
