A new tugboat under construction suddenly took on water during the outfitting stage, resulting in a serious capsizing and sinking accident, causing heavy losses.
According to foreign media reports, last Friday (August 8), the Russian Navy’s ocean-going icebreaking tugboat “Kapitan Ushakov” suddenly tilted severely to starboard while undergoing outfitting work near the Baltic Shipyard pier in St. Petersburg.
In order to stabilize the tilted tugboat, the shipyard project team and emergency services worked through the night but were still unable to right the tugboat. By the early morning of August 9, the Kapitan Ushakov had capsized and sunk to the seabed near the pier.
According to reports, the Kapitan Ushakov was designed and built based on the 23470-type ocean-going tugboat launched in 2014. It is 69.75 meters long, 15 meters wide, has a crew of 33, a cruising range of 30 days, and a displacement of approximately 3,200 tons. It is designed to tow ships, floating objects, and offshore structures in any navigation area and meets Arc4 ice class requirements. This type of tugboat is capable of performing search and rescue, firefighting operations, and other tasks and is equipped with a helipad.
The Kapitan Ushakov began construction at the Yaroslavl Shipyard in 2017 and was launched in June 2022. At the end of 2023, the tugboat was transported via inland waterways to St. Petersburg for outfitting and other subsequent construction processes. It was originally scheduled to be commissioned before the end of 2024 and to join the 566th Support Ship Flotilla of the Russian Northern Fleet stationed in Murmansk.
Due to an unexpected accident, this icebreaker tugboat lost its operational capability before it was even commissioned.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched an investigation into safety violations during the operation. Preliminary findings indicate that the initial flooding occurred in the auxiliary engine room, and as the water level increased, the vessel began to list severely. The cause of the further sinking is under investigation.
The accident has raised questions within the industry about safety supervision during critical outfitting stages and may have broader implications for the combat readiness of the Russian Navy. The Kapitan Ushakov is a new ship nearing completion, and its capsizing and sinking will result in significant losses.
A shipbuilding expert said that this accident was a rare mistake in the normal production process of a shipyard: “Ships in the outfitting stage are essentially under control. Various tests are carried out gradually, and the stability of the ship can be basically grasped. The fact that a ship of this size sank and capsized near the pier indicates that there were major flaws in the shipbuilding process or safety monitoring.”
While accidents can happen at any shipyard, the expert stressed that the unique circumstances of this incident made the losses particularly severe: “By the time the tugboat was launched and entering the final outfitting phase, most of the high-risk structural work had already been completed. Any flooding should have been controllable. The fact that a 70-meter-long tugboat was unable to right after an entire night of effort suggests that either the tugboat had a watertightness issue or that the personnel on site lacked the correct equipment or training to deal with a list incident.”