Damaged Bulker With Explosive Cargo Finds Port of Refuge at Last

The damaged cargo vessel Ruby is headed for the Port of Great Yarmouth, carrying a controversial cargo of Russian fertilizer. The vessel has been denied entry to a port of refuge in at least three countries over concerns of the risk of an explosion, and has been unable to make much-needed repairs.

Ruby loaded a 20,000-tonne cargo of ammonium nitrate and departed the port of Kandalaksha, Russia in late August. She ran aground in a storm shortly after getting under way and sustained damage to her propeller and hull. The vessel called at Tromso, Norway for repairs in early September, but was forced to leave after media speculation over perceived risks posed by her cargo. She was also turned away from a repair yard in Lithuania, and ultimately wound up waiting at anchor in the English Channel, just off Margate. 

Ammonium nitrate is a ubiquitous fertilizer and is shipped in vast quantities every day. If ignited, it can be a dangerous explosive, and much smaller quantities have caused devastating damage. 800 tonnes of the substance caused the massive Tianjin blast in 2015, and a cache of 2,700 tonnes was enough to destroy the port of Beirut in 2020. Mainstream media outlets noted these past incidents and drew parallels to Ruby's 20,000-tonne cargo, and the Russian source of the cargo drew additional suspicion. The vessel's owner blamed breathless news coverage for the vessel's inability to find a port of refuge. 

"The media speculation has had a negative prejudicial effect on the vessel’s ability to undergo, what would be considered, routine operations to transfer the cargo of ammonium nitrate to another vessel, so the Ruby can undergo repairs, following a grounding incident shortly after leaving Kandalaksha," the owners' representative complained earlier this month. 

Port operator Peel Ports confirmed Sunday that Ruby would be docking in Great Yarmouth, which has a small commercial harbor located just south of the town's popular public beach. As of early Monday morning, Ruby was just offshore and under way for the port's entrance. 

"The vessel is scheduled to enter Great Yarmouth port whereby she will go alongside to unload the packages of ammonium nitrate, which will immediately be transferred onto another vessel following which both vessels will depart from the port," the vessel's owners told local media. "We express gratitude to Peel Ports Group for accommodating our request to complete a transhipment at Great Yarmouth."

Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, confirmed that the port could lawfully accept a call from Ruby because the ship itself is not Russian-owned - only the cargo, and ammonium nitrate is not a sanctioned commodity.