Here’s a frightening video of the 370-foot cargo ship Arvin breaking in two and sinking at an anchorage in the Black Sea off Turkey. On the video, you can hear the captain, Vitaly Golenko, call, “Mayday, mayday, my vessel is broken.” He then ordered the crew to put on wetsuits, after one shouts, “We’re going down.”
Built in 1975 and flagged in Palau, the Arvin had a crew of 12, ten Ukrainians and two Russians. After the sinking, rescue crews saved six crewmen and found the bodies of four others; two are missing.
The ship was sailing from Georgia to Bulgaria, and anchored off the Port of Bartin when it ran into heavy winds and seas. The captain made the mayday call just after noon, as the hull flexed and seemed ready to break apart. It sank a few minutes later.
“In this video, we see how the lives of seafarers are played with by going through surveys even though the sheet metal of a 46-year-old ship has reached the breaking point,” said the Platform of Sea Workers, the Turkish maritime union. An inspection last year in Georgia found extensive deficiencies on the Arvin, including deck corrosion. Read more and see the video here: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/video-coastal-freighter-breaks-up-at-anchor
