}
The SS ''Bratstvo'' (russian: Братство) was a multi-purpose
tweendecker
Tweendeckers are general cargo ships with two or sometimes three decks. The upper deck is called the ''main deck'' or ''weather deck'', and the next lower deck is the ''tweendeck''. Cargo such as bales, bags, or drums can be stacked in the ''twe ...
freighter owned by the
Black Sea Shipping Company
Black Sea Shipping Company (russian: Черноморское морское пароходство, uk, Чорноморське морське пароплавство) is a Ukrainian shipping company based in Kyiv.
The company was established ...
in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. It was a
Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ship
The ''Leninsky Komsomol class'' (also Romanization of Russian, transliterated as ''Leninskiy Komsomol'' or ''Leninskij Komsomol'' (Russian: ''Ленинский Комсомол класс'') was a class of 25 ocean-going dry cargo ships; tweendec ...
, with steam-turbine engines, and was built in accordance with the specifications of Projects 567 and 567K.
Construction
Its keel was laid on 20 September 1962, the ship was completed in December 1963
and the ''Bratstvo'' was delivered to the Black Sea Shipping Company on 29 December of that year.
[
]
Early voyages
Due to the closure of the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
from June 1967 to summer 1975, the ''Bratstvo'' sailed around Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
on her voyages to the Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
or Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
ern ports and sailed to Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. The ship sailed from Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, on 19 January 1973, bound for North Korea via Las Palmas
Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spain, Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in th ...
and around Africa. In 1974 she sailed from the Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
to Umm Qasr
Umm Qasr ( ar, أم قصر, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr'') is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is sep ...
, Iraq, a voyage which again took her around the Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. The ship stopped at Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
for bunkering
Bunkering is the supplying of fuel for use by ships (such fuel is referred to as bunker), including the logistics of loading and distributing the fuel among available shipboard tanks. A person dealing in trade of bunker (fuel) is called a bunk ...
.
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
, also known as the Ramadan War, October War and the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, was fought by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and Syria against Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
from 6 to 25 October 1973. Twenty-three Soviet merchant ships carried military cargo to Syria and Egypt in October and early November of that year. The ''Bratstvo'' was one of eight Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ships which participated in the transport. According to the United States, the ''Bratstvo'' visited Syria once—sailing from the Black Sea, passing through the Bosphorus
The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...
on 18 October and arriving at Latakia
, coordinates =
, elevation_footnotes =
, elevation_m = 11
, elevation_ft =
, postal_code_type =
, postal_code =
, area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41
, geocode ...
on 20 October. The merchant seamen were witnesses to and participants in the war, since the ports were bombed by the Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...
. When the ''Bratstvo'' arrived in Syria on 20 October, she was unloaded despite the air raids.
Final voyage
The ''Bratstvo'', carrying a bulk shipment of Canadian wheat, sailed from Port-Cartier
Port-Cartier is a city in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Aux-Rochers River, exactly southwest of Sept-Îles, Quebec.
Port-Cartier had a population of 6,65 ...
bound for Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
in early September 1984. When the ship passed the Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
, she visited Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
for fresh water and bunkering. After fresh water and fuel were supplied to the ship, the ''Bratstvo'' left Ceuta for Odessa on 18 September. When the ship passed the port gates, she changed course to 98 degrees and her speed was 14.0 knots. The weather was favorable and the night visibility good, about .
Incident
At 23:33 local time on 18 September, a severe concussion occurred aboard the ''Bratstvo''. According to the memoirs of Captain Vadim Fillipovich Demchenkov, it felt like an explosion across the ship. Within 50 seconds, the ship's engine room was flooded up to the main deck.
Although the captain's memoirs indicate his belief that the ship should have sunk within a minute of the disaster, it did not capsize as expected. The engine room was flooded and the turbine generator had stopped, but the emergency diesel generator was started in 20 seconds. This, and the disruption of the ship's internal lighting for only 30–40 seconds, allowed the crew to evacuate. In 10 minutes, the lifeboats were lowered into the water and all crew members escaped.
The crew was near the abandoned ship. After a quick SOS signal, other vessels came to the aid of the ''Bratstvo''. The Bulgarian transport ship ''Pyatiero iz PMS'' arrived first. Her crew lowered their ship's motor-boat into the water, and its engine stalled; the captain did not take the Soviet seamen aboard until the engine could be started and the Soviet crew was towed to the Bulgarian ship. The Bulgarian crew welcomed each ''bratooshka''. The Soviet ship ''Kapitan Medvyedev'' soon reached the scene and took the Soviet sailors.
Although the crew had abandoned the ''Bratstvo'', a lifeboat was moored at the side of the ship to prevent looting. The captain and the chief radioman boarded her periodically to communicate with the shipping company. Her crew found a Spanish tug-boat, which towed the waterlogged ship to the Bay of Gibraltar
The Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeciras), is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay. It opens to the south into the Strait ...
onto a shallow sand bank. Demchenkov said, "Until the Spanish diver emerged from the flooded engine room, showed us pieces of rubber and shouted 'Russian submarine', everyone thought it was an explosion."
The hole in the ''Bratstvo'' was : above the keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
and long. It was later learned that a Soviet submarine accidentally struck the ship with its nose at the end of the third hold
Hold may refer to:
Physical spaces
* Hold (ship), interior cargo space
* Baggage hold, cargo space on an airplane
* Stronghold, a castle or other fortified place
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Hold (musical term), a pause, also called a Fermat ...
, damaging the engine room.
Soviet Navy version
Admiral Arkady Mikhailovsky, commander of the Soviet Navy Northern Fleet
Severnyy flot
, image = Great emblem of the Northern Fleet.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Northern Fleet's great emblem
, start_date = June 1, 1733; Sov ...
and a Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...
, was called by the Northern Fleet chief of staff and Vice-Admiral Vadim Konstantinovich Korobov on 19 September and informed of the incident. According to the Soviet Navy, the commander of submarine K-53 (the submarine which rammed the ''Bratstvo'') did not report the incident for nine hours. This failure to report led to the first news of the collision arriving from the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
, which had received the intelligence from the Spanish government; the normal route of information would have been the Ministry of Defence
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
. The central command of the general staff remained uninformed, since no alarm from the submarine had been received. K-53's eventual reporting of the incident evoked the indignation of Defence Minister Dmitry Ustinov
Dmitriy Fyodorovich Ustinov (russian: Дмитрий Фёдорович Устинов; 30 October 1908 – 20 December 1984) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and Soviet politician during the Cold War. He served as a Central Committee sec ...
and a dressing-down (russian: втык)["Втык", which can be translated in English as "dressing down" or "to insert a stick", is an obscenity in Soviet military jargon.] of Chief Commander and Fleet Admiral Sergey Gorshkov
Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (russian: Серге́й Гео́ргиевич Горшко́в; 26 February 1910 – 13 May 1988) was an admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union. Twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, he oversaw the exp ...
.
Summary
The ''Bratstvo'' collided with the Soviet Victor I-class submarine K-53 at the exit of the Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
in the Alboran Sea
The Alboran Sea (from Arabic , ''al-Baḥrān'') is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, w ...
on 18 (ship time) or 19 (submarine time) September 1984 and was towed to Algeciras
Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...
to be scrapped. The incident was described differently by three parties: the crew of the ''Bratstvo'', the crew of K-53 and the Soviet Navy. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, the ''Bratstvo'' was listed as decommissioned after an explosion due to engine failure. During the early 2000s, declassified information and reports from involved seamen detailed the actual events of September 1984.
The ''Bratstvo'' was decommissioned in March 1985 and scrapped in Algeciras
Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...
that year.
Crew
Anatoliy Matveyevich Romanov, staff master of the ''Bratstvo'', died in 2011. Viktor Snisarenko worked aboard the ''Bratstvo'' from 1969 to 1983, rising from junior deck officer to master of the ship. Vladimir Filipovich Demchenkov was the ship's captain in 1984, when the collision occurred.
External links
The ''Bratstvo'' during a visit to Cape Town
The ship anchored off Kuwait
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Branstvo
Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ships
1963 ships
Cold War ships
Ships built at Kherson Shipyard
Ships built in the Soviet Union