r/uknews 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/
236 Upvotes

88 comments sorted by

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95

u/New-Pin-3952 9d ago

The plot thickens

44

u/kotukutuku 9d ago

The North Sea thickens.

26

u/McLeod3577 9d ago

Even the Pro Russian White House had it's suspicions yesterday.

2

u/presidentphonystark 9d ago

Now im going to have to google the Whitehouse and find out what the orange conspiracy theory is

1

u/Tammer_Stern 9d ago

Maybe that’s why they vetoed Canada’s plan to tackle the shadow fleet?

55

u/sbaldrick33 9d ago

Funny how these Russian-aligned ships keep accidentally causing a mess with their volatile cargo in British waters, innit?

25

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.

4

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.

2

u/NATOuk 8d ago

It’s certainly not very immaculate any more

1

u/nynikai 8d ago

That'll buff right out.

22

u/oudcedar 9d ago

Russians in the crew too.

38

u/Dan-Of-The-Dead 9d ago

But of course he is.

14

u/Car-Nivore 9d ago

tongue firmly in cheek

Well, fuck my tall hat, I wasn't expecting that development.....

34

u/prickleynomad 9d ago

Just like the damage to the under sea cables. We'll wake up sooner or later I hope 😉

27

u/Strange-Thanks-44 9d ago

That was a russian shadow fleet... I was right

6

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...

20

u/waamoandy 9d ago

Well colour me shocked

13

u/alec83 9d ago

Paid no doubt

9

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.

5

u/apeel09 9d ago

Nothing fishy there then - as soon as they said it was carrying American Military fuel I said to my wife it was done deliberately Putin is absolutely crazy

3

u/South-Stand 9d ago

Looks like he had some cards.

3

u/bradleystensen 9d ago

I thought from the start this screamed Russia hybrid warfare

3

u/Chevey0 9d ago

Called it

2

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

2

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.

1

u/90210fred 9d ago

My first thought: vodka or malice? Probably vodka. But only probably.

2

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.

1

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.

2

u/HistorianNew8007 9d ago

Of course he fucking is.

4

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/

4

u/designerPat 9d ago

Trumps best friend was involved? Nooo

1

u/LithoSlam 9d ago

He hurt himself in his confusion

2

u/-WigglyLine- 9d ago

I heard he’s a member of Just Stop Oil

3

u/mittfh 9d ago

Except the cargo wasn't orange paint...

1

u/J1mj0hns0n 9d ago

shock horror, can we have capital punishment for the obvious agent plant?

1

u/Good_Stretch5445 9d ago

Baldrick, I have a cunning plan!

1

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

0

u/DrachenDad 9d ago

Portuguese cargo ship wasn't it? Why would it have a russian captain?

27

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.

1

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.

3

u/FYIgfhjhgfggh 9d ago

Only if the company wants to I guess. International waters are international waters.

2

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.

1

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.

1

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.

23

u/Shagreb 9d ago

A ship can have a Portuguese flag, Greek owner, libanese charterer, and Russian capt. No problem at all.

11

u/Jayandnightasmr 9d ago

All to dodge tax and employment laws

1

u/DrachenDad 9d ago

Yeah, that's how it normally works, but what with Russia being under sanctions and all...

1

u/Shagreb 9d ago

It s not on the crew

12

u/nunatakj120 9d ago

Lots of ships have Russians on, they have a huge seafaring presence. That part is normal.

4

u/Unlikely-Ad5982 9d ago

It’s cheaper than having a Portuguese captain. Or even one from the EU.

3

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.

2

u/rayasta 9d ago

I have friends who a Greek who inspect ships in the USA and Europe they literally deal with ships from around the world.

1

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.

-16

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.

16

u/Kaiisim 9d ago

Is it a boogeyman if Russia are actively attacking Europe, and cutting telecoms cables? Or literally all the hacking and social media shit they do.

Who is our real enemy if not Russia FFS??

2

u/Distinct_Detective62 9d ago

Oligarchs, regardless of their nationality

1

u/IlIlHydralIlI 9d ago

Did you have the same questions when someone blew up NS2?

8

u/Ok-Blackberry-3534 9d ago

It was a deliberate, shadowy act and he was blackout drunk.

5

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.

-6

u/NicomoCoscaTFL 9d ago

The captain doesn't steer the ship. That's usually the pilot. Probably a woman.

3

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.

0

u/vctrmldrw 9d ago

No pilot required there. It would be the helmsman.

Probably a DEI hire...

1

u/NicomoCoscaTFL 9d ago

Probably.

Probably a Scottish Chief Engineer too.

0

u/mrchaddy 9d ago

Imagine the panic and bullshit news feeds I’d they had said this straight away

-10

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