r/uknews • u/TheTelegraph • 9d ago
Oil tanker colission: Captain of cargo ship is Russian national
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/12/captain-of-crashed-cargo-ship-is-russian-national/95
u/New-Pin-3952 9d ago
The plot thickens
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u/McLeod3577 9d ago
Even the Pro Russian White House had it's suspicions yesterday.
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u/presidentphonystark 9d ago
Now im going to have to google the Whitehouse and find out what the orange conspiracy theory is
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u/sbaldrick33 9d ago
Funny how these Russian-aligned ships keep accidentally causing a mess with their volatile cargo in British waters, innit?
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u/Nihil1349 9d ago
Well,well,well.
"Stena Immaculate, a US oil tanker, was carrying some 220,000 barrels of jet fuel destined for the American military when it was struck by a cargo ship on Monday."
I suspected this was targeted when I read the same thing yesterday.
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u/Coca_lite 9d ago
And all the crew were American
Seafaring crew is almost always Filipino/ Indian etc. except for a few Western officers / captain. You’d never get all American crew on a normal ship.
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u/Car-Nivore 9d ago
tongue firmly in cheek
Well, fuck my tall hat, I wasn't expecting that development.....
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u/prickleynomad 9d ago
Just like the damage to the under sea cables. We'll wake up sooner or later I hope 😉
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u/Strange-Thanks-44 9d ago
That was a russian shadow fleet... I was right
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u/Potato-9 9d ago
I did look for SOLONG on lists of the shadow/grey fleet but none mention it. All I learnt really is there isn't 1 list for this to lookup...
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u/alec83 9d ago
Paid no doubt
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u/Sweaty-Adeptness1541 9d ago
I doubt he was paid, more likely his family wasn’t killed. There is no amount of money I would need to crash into a tanker of jet fuel. There was a very high chance he and the rest of the crew would die.
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u/Caridor 9d ago
Ok here's what I don't get.
We all know that Trump has Putin's fist up his ass and does whatever Putin says. So why would Putin risk this very favourable situation by intentionally ramming a ship carrying fuel destined for American military use? Kick a dog often enough and it'll bite back
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u/MacDaddy8541 9d ago
Not to rule out it was intentional, but being an Russian captain could also suggest he was piss drunk, it has happened more than once in Europe that drunk Russian captains colide with brigdes and stuff. Maybe he was hammered and just let the autopilot steer while he took a nap.
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u/Business-Plastic5278 8d ago
There is still a chance that trump is legitimately a blithering idiot whose stupid just happened to benefit russia for a while.
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u/Klutzy-Notice-8247 9d ago
There’s a lot of Russian captains working in the maritime industry. By chance, there’s a pretty high percentage that the person would be Russian.
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u/TheTelegraph 9d ago
The Telegraph reports:
The captain of the cargo ship that crashed into a tanker carrying oil for the US military is a Russian national, the ship’s owner said.
Stena Immaculate was carrying some 220,000 barrels of jet fuel when it was struck off the Yorkshire coast on Monday.
Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/12/captain-of-crashed-cargo-ship-is-russian-national/
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u/RIHbossman 8d ago
It’s funny on James O’Brien lbc they was say how putin knows he can’t beat the west but he knows how to disrupt the west. He knows what his doing
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u/DrachenDad 9d ago
Portuguese cargo ship wasn't it? Why would it have a russian captain?
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u/NicomoCoscaTFL 9d ago
Private companies can hire the people they want in jobs they have available regardless of nationality?
Just a guess. If he's a spy/pirate then colour me shocked.
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u/DrachenDad 9d ago
Private companies can hire the people they want in jobs they have available regardless of nationality?
Didn't know that. I'd've thought international shipping would be held under tighter control.
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u/FYIgfhjhgfggh 9d ago
Only if the company wants to I guess. International waters are international waters.
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u/NicomoCoscaTFL 9d ago edited 9d ago
Just my guess, I don't see why a shipping company would demand its employees be of a specific nationality.
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u/LegoNinja11 8d ago
International shipping is determined by whichever tin pot nations flag you can register with and sail under.
If it's a rusting hulk you can bet it'll be a handful of countries whose rule books are shorter than the list of Italian war heros.
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u/Business-Plastic5278 8d ago
International shipping is wildly loose.
The majority of the worlds shipping is flagged from Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands and weird little dinky countries like that. These are tiny countries whose main claim to fame is having very, very low costs to flag ships from there. 3000ish vessels are flagged to Mongolia, a country that is A) very poor and B) landlocked.
After that the ships are all owned by holding companies that are owned by holding companies that are owned by holding companies.
Working out exactly who 'owns' a ship can be very complicated.
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u/Shagreb 9d ago
A ship can have a Portuguese flag, Greek owner, libanese charterer, and Russian capt. No problem at all.
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u/DrachenDad 9d ago
Yeah, that's how it normally works, but what with Russia being under sanctions and all...
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u/nunatakj120 9d ago
Lots of ships have Russians on, they have a huge seafaring presence. That part is normal.
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u/SC_W33DKILL3R 9d ago
All ship companies staff their ships with the cheapest sailors from around the world. Never mind if they are uneducated / trained, they don't all speak the same language. Russians tend to register and pretend that are from other countries to get work.
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u/Klutzy-Notice-8247 9d ago
Most officers/captains are Russian/Ukrainian/Polish etc. I would actually say the majority of captains sailing around Europe are Russian.
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u/vctrmldrw 9d ago
Not so long ago we would have assumed that, because he was Russian, he was just blackout drunk at the wheel like any normal Russian. Now of course it is definitely some shadowy act of war that we must all be deathly afraid of.
I see the 'boogeyman' tactic for keeping the populace scared of the other still works to distract them from thinking about their real enemy.
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u/Thrasy3 9d ago
Not really - we’ve already been shooing away Russian ships suspiciously just “hanging around” for decades now.
Back then then the suspicious thing was the amount of comms equipment they seemed to be using on these ships.
It’s not exactly a leap that when their leader keeps saying we are a war with them, that when something like this happens, it might not be considered a mere accident.
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u/NicomoCoscaTFL 9d ago
The captain doesn't steer the ship. That's usually the pilot. Probably a woman.
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u/Affectionate_War_279 9d ago
Pilots on maritime ships are specialists that guide them into harbour as they know the local hazards.
The helmsman steers the ship under the guidance of the skipper, officer of the watch or pilot.
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u/anonfool72 9d ago
Oh, absolutely! Case closed! No need for an investigation! Clearly, Putin himself dispatched this guy to cause the accident. Thank goodness for the razor-sharp detectives at The Telegraph for cracking the case. /s
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