The disaster of the motor ship "Alexander Suvorov": the worst wreck on the Volga. Tragedy on the Volga: the motor ship "Bulgaria" sank
Unknown ship of the times Civil War lay in the water for about a hundred years.
The sunken ship was discovered at a depth of 20 meters near the village of Svetly Yar. Historians have already called this find unique. But the whole point is that the ship and its crew did not die during the Great Patriotic War(there are more than enough such ships at the bottom of the Volga), but much earlier. Most likely, we are dealing with a ship from the Civil War, built back in the 19th century. The sensational discovery brought together Volgograd divers, who made more than a hundred dives, examining the ship, which had lain on the river bottom for about a century.
And it all started at the end last summer, when instructor Konstantin Redkin and his students from the Dive Guide club decided to dive near the village of Svetly Yar. During one of the dives, the students pointed out an unidentified sunken object - apparently a pile of iron, overgrown with algae and shells. Unfortunately, there were no treasures on board, but the ship did not lose its value because of this.
For a very long time we could not even find out the approximate age and origin of the ship. This is all due to minimal visibility and frantic currents, says one of the most experienced divers who examined the find, Sergei Tsypkin. - Only at the beginning of December the current calmed down, visibility improved by one and a half meters. Now we plan to dive every weekend.
In the coming days, divers will again descend to the depths with one sole purpose - to find out the name of the ship by clearing the sign on its side of growths and river debris.
"Vanya the Communist"
Sergei Tsypkin admits that this is one of the oldest ships he has ever seen.
The ship was built approximately in the 19th century. The ship is most likely a military one, he suggests. - The designs themselves speak about this: riveted fastenings of parts, metal sides sealed from the inside wooden beam. On board we found spent cartridge case sea artillery piece. And on it the date of manufacture is 1913!
But that's not all. Every meter of the surveyed vessel was filled with discoveries: here are the details steam engine, followed by a wheelhouse with a surviving steering wheel.
What kind of ship was this? According to divers, some signs indicate that the Volgograd ghost ship is similar to the legendary gunboat Vanya Kommunist. This paddle steamer was produced back in 1905, and during the Civil War it was converted for combat use. As part of the Volga military flotilla, he took part in the capture of Kazan, for which he was awarded the Red Banner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The ship and its captain sank during a battle in 1918 on the Kama River.
How the ship found by Volgograd divers perished remains to be determined by historians. However, it is already clear that the ship took part in hostilities during the Civil War. Divers are sure that he was either shot or blown up by a mine. In favor latest version it says that one of its wheels was damaged by the explosion.
Our “Vanya” fell apart into several parts; a steam engine was installed on the front, which rotated two wheels on the right and left sides. The arches above the wheels have been preserved, the paint is still visible on them, the name of the ship should be written here, but everything is overgrown with shells, it is impossible to read it, states Tsypkin.
So far only by appearance it can be assumed that this is a river steam tug. Similar ones were built at the Saratov shipyard, and during the war, similar vehicles were converted into combat vehicles, installing cannons and machine guns on them.
Based on the shell casings found here, it can be assumed that the ship was equipped with Kone and Hotchkiss cannons, as well as Maxim machine guns. Perhaps their remains will be found, but this will take time.
"Vanina" tourists
Divers hope to find out the exact name and fate of “Vanya” in the coming days. But it is unlikely that it will be possible to lift the ship ashore. After all, few people will want to fork out two or three million rubles - this is the amount, according to the most conservative estimates, that the operation would cost.
In addition, it can be simply deadly. It cannot be ruled out that there were live shells on the ship that could detonate.
In the meantime, the future of “Vanya” seems illusory, just as it was for those hundred years that it lay in the muddy Volga water.
However, there is still hope to see the ship in person: divers promise to organize extreme underwater excursions here.
Following the route of the tourist cruise Rostov-on-Don - Moscow, June 5, 1983 at 22:45, the motor ship "Alexander Suvorov" entered at full speed under the non-navigable span of the Ulyanovsk bridge over the Volga and hit the structure.
The Soviet motor ship "Alexander Suvorov" collided with a bridge across the Volga near the city of Ulyanovsk. 176 people died. June 7, 1983 Telegraph Agency Soviet Union(TASS) transmitted the message “From the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. June 5 this year On the Volga, near the city of Ulyanovsk, an accident occurred on the passenger ship "Alexander Suvorov", which resulted in human casualties. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR express deep condolences to the families and relatives of the victims.”
Surprisingly, the agency’s statement called the disaster an accident... The motor ship “Alexander Suvorov”, assigned to Rostov, was the flagship of the Volga-Don Shipping Company, its crew was considered one of the best. The ship was luxurious. His cabins were beautifully decorated. During the ill-fated flight, the Suvorov was overloaded. In addition to 330 passengers, there were 50 crew members and 35 service personnel on board. There were also people whose names cannot be found on any tourist list. These were acquaintances of the crew members, relatives who needed to go to Moscow... But what actually happened on June 5. The evening was fun. During dinner, the cook was congratulated on her birthday over loudspeaker. 
There was applause in the restaurant; the Suvorov had excellent cuisine. Then they announced an auction. Therefore, everyone immediately rushed to the hall on the upper deck - and not only for the sake of the auction, many wanted to watch the detective story “The Return of St. Luke” on television. 22 hours 45 minutes. It's a five-minute walk to the bridge. Visibility is clear, although it is twilight. In the wheelhouse there is a navigator on watch, also known as senior mate Vladimir Mitenkov, and next to him is helmsman Uvarov. Captain Vladimir Kleimenov was resting in his cabin; he had to keep a watch at night. The bridge that ended so many lives is the only one in Ulyanovsk. Length - 2200 meters. The railway across the Volga to Siberia passes through this bridge. Some passengers saw how a freight train flew onto the bridge at full speed when the Suvorov was a hundred meters away from it. The ship was traveling at maximum speed - 25 kilometers per hour. Everything went as usual. Except for one thing - the ship was heading into the sixth span of the bridge, through which ships of smaller dimensions could not pass. The coastal dispatch service, seeing that the ship was moving towards the sixth span, was horrified and began to warn the watchmen on the Suvorov by radio. There was no response. The dispatchers, in complete despair, managed to fire warning flares, since it was clear that it was no longer possible to stop the ship or force it to deviate even slightly. Without slowing down, the Suvorov crashed into the span. The ship's impact distorted and destroyed the rail track, and the bridge failed, interrupting traffic from the European part of the country to the east. Many of those who remained in the cabins on the lower decks did not even notice the impact - exactly like on the Titanic - it responded in the hull with a dull, indistinct roar. In addition, music was played through the loudspeakers. This quiet, quickly extinguished blow cut off, like a blade, the pilothouse and the entire upper deck along with the cinema hall, packed to capacity with people. The heavy train thundered overhead. And, it would seem, a slight blow, which went unnoticed for some, shook the bridge trusses to such an extent that the carriages overturned, and coal, logs, and grain fell down onto the ship... The ship did not stop immediately. The inertia of speed and the huge mass dragged him under the bridge and another three hundred meters after. And only then “Suvorov” froze on the surface of the river.
Witnesses reconstructed the terrible picture. Vladimir P. immediately after dinner went to the cabin with his wife. About half past ten she said, “Let’s go upstairs, there’s a city nearby, but we won’t see it - we’re sitting like cockroaches...” He waved it off, he didn’t want to. She left. He never saw her alive again. Vladimir felt some kind of extended, not sharp, but terrible blow, as if the ships had collided. The ship slowed down. Vladimir jumped out of the cabin and rushed up the stairs. Before the last one, leading to the upper deck, he pulled back. Blood flowed from above in a continuous stream. Overcoming himself, he went upstairs. A terrible sight greeted his eyes. Mountains of bloody, moving stumps of bodies. A blond girl lay nearby. She was missing both legs, but she was still breathing and looked at him with a crazy look. She clearly said, “Tell mom that I’m alive...” And then she died. He saw his wife not far from the place where the entrance to the cinema hall was supposedly located. She lay with a broken head... She was just a few days short of her birthday. Before the start of the film, many people looked into the cinema hall, but when they saw the crowd, they left. Hakob A. and his wife also tried to enter, but it became stuffy. We went down to the cabin. Feeling that the ship was shaking, he ran upstairs and pulled back streams of blood, severed limbs, heads, twisted insides... Hakob threw off his jacket and began waving it, trying to attract attention on the shore or on a passing ship. But help arrived only forty minutes later. Two friends were saved by a bottle of vodka. The investigator asked to explain why their wives died, but they were alive. It turned out that the wives, dressed up, went to watch a movie, while the husbands preferred to drink a bottle of vodka in the cabin...
The captain of the Suvorov, Kleimenov, miraculously survived this disaster. He didn't immediately realize what had happened. Kleimenov was picked up near the bridge support, on the dam. He was wearing only swimming trunks and did not remember how he ended up here. Apparently, he was thrown from a height of twelve meters. At first he said that he pulled a dying man out of the river and only then lost consciousness. However, during another interrogation he told the investigator that he did not lose consciousness. The whole city shook with horror. Workers were mobilized at Ulyanovsk enterprises, and student detachments gathered. They worked in hospitals and transport. There was a catastrophic shortage of coffins, and people who had never before imagined that they would ever have to make coffins began to work. The surgeons worked as if in a field hospital. Their work was complicated by the fact that the victims only had lacerations. It was very difficult to wash and process them. Fine coal chips and especially grains got into the wounds and, stained with blood, became invisible. It would have been much easier if there was just dirt... It was almost impossible to get to Ulyanovsk immediately after the tragedy; the city was closed; documents were checked even when leaving the railway station. In transport, on the streets, people could not talk about anything other than the disaster. But no one knew anything! Rumors spread that several repeat offenders had escaped, hijacked the ship, and that the disaster was their doing. They also said that the crew on the Suvorov were drunk and were celebrating the birthday of one of their own. Near the plane's ramp, KGB officers asked if there were any relatives of the victims among those who had arrived. Those who responded were taken to headquarters, their names were looked for on the ship's passenger lists, and they were given the first and fragmentary information. The administration of the hotel where the relatives of the unfortunate people lived was forbidden to give out any information, even just their last names. The investigation faced many tasks, and the main one was to find the pilothouse with the bodies of the watch navigator and helmsman at the bottom. The medical examination must find the answer to the question of why the Suvorov rushed into the obviously impassable sixth span.
At dawn on June 6, no one imagined the scale of the tragedy. None of the members of the government commission, headed by member of the Central Committee G. Aliyev (later President of Azerbaijan), and none of the members of the investigative team could name the number of victims. The mutilated, dismembered, crushed, crushed bodies could not be counted... The difficulty was also that it was never possible to find out the exact number of passengers. The captain was required to know how many people were on board his ship. He did not know. The XO didn’t know either. But the first mate (as well as the watch navigator, as well as the helmsman, as well as the radio operator and his wife, who was also in the crew) died. Everyone was interested in the cook who was being congratulated on her birthday. Many people believed then that there was no other reason than drunkenness. It was even assumed that fatal moments No one was driving the ship at all. Evgeniy Ivanovich Chestnov, one of the experts in the disaster case, is sure that the main culprits of the tragedy were the dead. The main ones, but not the only ones. Chestnov has reason to believe that the railway workers are also to blame.
Then, in 1983, experts identified four reasons that led to the disaster
1) negligence of the first navigator;
2) negligence of the helmsman;
3) the absence of signal lights on the bridge (it was twilight);
4) signal lights not turned on by anyone.
On the sixth span, through which such a vessel could not pass, there was a lineman's booth, its outline reminiscent of a signal board indicating a shipping span. Such a signal in the form of a diamond is for ships going down the Volga, and a rectangle for ships going up it. A light booth could be perceived as a rectangle... A special story with signal lights. It turns out that no one was responsible for turning on the lights. One person looked after the electrical wiring, another was responsible for the lamps, and the trackman turned it on. And one more detail. The captains repeatedly reported to the Kuibyshevskaya Department railway(Ulyanovsk is their site) that in the area of the bridge there was emergency situation. And the senior shipping inspector of the Ulyanovsk section, S. Koreshkov, wrote to the head of the railway department and the head of the industrial and transport department of the regional party committee. In short, the guilt of the railway workers was exposed. But the Minister of Railways at that time was Beshev, Stalin’s minister, and Aliyev, according to the expert, covered for him. The investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office, who was in charge of the Suvorov case, said that they managed to find witnesses who came into the wheelhouse a few minutes before the disaster and saw the helmsman, daydreaming and delving into 
reading the navigator's detective story. Mitenkov walked under the bridge for the eighteenth time and apparently felt too confident. This killed 176 people. The bodies of these two were lifted from the bottom of the Volga. No alcohol was found in the blood. The investigation concluded that Captain Kleimenov withdrew from rescuing the victims; no bodily injuries were found on him, and since he could not ensure discipline on the ship, the court sentenced him to ten years in prison. The Suvorov captain spent about six years in prison, then he was released due to health reasons; he suffered from hypertension. But at home, in freedom, he did not live long. He died in 1990 from a heart attack, suffering until the last hour from his involvement in the terrible events...
On May 30, 2008, another accident occurred with the passenger ship “Alexander Suvorov”. The motor ship was traveling along the Moscow Canal from the Northern River Port of Moscow to Tver. According to some reports, there were about 300 passengers on board the ship. While passing through the lock, the ship touched its side, as a result of which the steering control failed. As a result of the damage received, the ship was unable to continue moving. Immediately after the collision, the lock was filled with water, as a result of which the ship managed to get back out. All passengers were returned to Moscow by bus, and no one was injured as a result of the incident. At the moment, as far as we know, the ship continues to make cruise trips, in particular from St. Petersburg to Valaam.
The motor ship "Bulgaria", which sank on Sunday, July 10, in the Kuibyshev reservoir on the Volga, sank to the bottom in just a few minutes. The ship tilted to the right side and sank to the bottom in three minutes... Nobody understood anything... They claim that two ships passed by the people who found themselves in the water after the Bulgaria sank and did not stop.
Interfax reports from the words of a surviving passenger that there were many minors on the ship. He said that shortly before the disaster, about 30 children were gathered at the stern so they could play together.
The agency's interlocutor noted that the ship was very old and this could have caused the disaster.
An operational headquarters has been created in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Tatarstan. The phone works hotline:
227-46-56 - to clarify the current situation and lists of rescued and injured.
There is also a helpline “112”.
Horror. Not on the open sea, not in the ocean - in the Kuibyshev Reservoir... And in just 3 minutes the ship sank...
The double-deck motor ship "Bulgaria" of project 785, built in Czechoslovakia, meets all safety requirements for river navigation, is equipped with modern navigation equipment and reaches a speed of up to 22 km/h. The number of seats is 140. Guests are offered 1, 2, 3, 4-bed cabins with partial amenities, as well as superior cabins. The cabins have 220 V sockets, except for the cabins in the hold. On board the ships there are two restaurant lounges, 2 bars, a music salon, and a solarium. You can purchase excursions in cities along the route on board the ship.
(from here)
There are also advertisements for cabins...
1-room 2-bed superior cabin on the middle deck. The cabin has two beds, a folding chair, can accommodate up to 3 people, a refrigerator, TV and DVD, air conditioning, shower, radio, 220V socket
Etc.
However, in fact, not everything was good with security there:
It is known that the double-deck motor ship with a displacement of 77.4 tons "Bulgaria" was built in Czechoslovakia in 1955. It belonged to the Argorechtur company. Unlike most ships operating cruises on the Volga, The motor ship "Bulgaria" did not undergo major repairs or re-equipment.
“There are only three motor ships of the same series as the “Bulgaria” left on the Volga. Their design feature is the absence of internal bulkheads, which leads to the fact that in the event of an accident and a large hole in the bottom, such ships sink within a few minutes.", - Dmitry Voropaev, general director of the company engaged in river cruises on the Volga, told RIA Novosti.
(from here)
By the way, a native of Chuvashia, Academician A.N. Krylov outlined the basic principles of the theory of ship buoyancy back in the 19th century. The results of this work soon became classic and are still widely used in the world... His famous unsinkability tables are widely used.
But now it’s the 21st century, and the lessons have still not been learned! But there is TV and DVD, air conditioning, shower, radio... and people died...
my condolences to everyone who lost their relatives, friends and acquaintances on this day...
On July 10, 2011, the largest river disaster on the Volga since the early 80s occurred in Tatarstan. Not far from Bulgar, the tourist ship "Bulgaria", which was on a weekend cruise along the Volga, sank in a matter of minutes. According to the latest data, there were 208 people on the ship, built in 1955, and 79 people were rescued.
update July 12
Lifting work castaway motor ship "Bulgaria" from the bottom of the Volga will begin on July 16.
Sequence of events after the shipwreck on the Volga:
Day one, July 10, 2011, Sunday
13.58
On the Kuibyshev reservoir near the village of Syukeevo, Kamsko-Ustinsky district of Tatarstan, during rain, strong wind and waves (wave height - two meters), the double-deck motor ship "Bulgaria", built back in 1955 in Czechoslovakia, sank - within three to five minutes - to a depth of 20 meters. The pleasure boat was traveling from the city of Bolgar to Kazan.
An hour and a half later
On the next three-deck motor ship Arabella to Kazan, the captain’s command “Man overboard!” was heard. Red rescue boats were spotted one and a half kilometers from the ship. The first to board the Arabella was the first mate of the Bulgaria, who shouted: “Let's sail forward, there are women and children there!” The "Arabella" crew acted harmoniously and professionally, quickly bringing everyone who was alive from the bots on board. 78 people were rescued.
Total on board | 208 people | |
With vouchers 148 | Saved 50 |
|
Crew 35 | Saved 23 |
|
Not registered 25 | Saved 6 |
|
APD.11.July 12.00
As a result of the shipwreck, about 120 people were killed or missing. There were 196 people on board the ship at the time of the crash, some of them unregistered tourists. 80 people were rescued from the water.
The carrier did not have a license to carry out cruise trips on the motor ship "Bulgaria", which sank on July 10 in the Kuibyshev Reservoir. The tourist trip was carried out illegally, a representative of the Volga transport prosecutor’s office said during a meeting of the emergency response headquarters.
The carrier also committed serious violations of the rules of operation of the vessel: the permissible number of passengers on the vessel was exceeded by 50 people. At the same time, the ship set off on a voyage with a faulty left engine, and three hours before the crash, the ship tilted heavily to the right side.
Investigators intend to confiscate the necessary documentation from the owner of the vessel and the lessee company, as well as give a legal assessment of the activities of the dispatch service employees of the State Basin Management regarding the timeliness of reporting the shipwreck. It is known that two ships passed through the disaster area, but they did not help the drowning people for an unknown reason.
Development of events:
Sunday, 14.00 The Central Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Republic of Tatarstan receives a message from the traffic controller of the Kazan waterway from the captain of a passing ship that near the village of Syukeevo, Kamsko-Ustinsky municipal district The pleasure boat "Bulgaria" suffered a disaster and sank. The motor ship "Bulgaria" was en route from Bolgar to Kazan. The people in distress were afloat on rafts and other homemade watercraft.
Around 14.30-15.00 The forces of the Kamskoustinsky fire brigade, the GIMS Center and the Search and Rescue Service are leaving for the site. A Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations takes off from Kazan with a group of rescuers on board.
16.00 The Ministry of Emergency Situations updates the data - 78 people out of 173 on board the ship were rescued from the ship, including 140 passengers and 33 crew members. They are transported to Kazan on a 3-deck ship "Arabella", on a meteor. The motor ship OM-249 also left Kazan. One victim was taken to the Bulgar district hospital, it becomes known that one woman drowned.
Emergency Situations Ministry employees report that the ship sank to a depth of 20 meters. The location of the emergency is 3 km from the shore, Kamsko-Ustinsky district.
An operational headquarters has been created in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Tatarstan.
There is a hotline number: 227-46-56 to clarify the current situation and lists of rescued and injured people.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations is sending an Il-76 with divers on board to Tatarstan. In the place where the disaster occurred, the width of the Kuibyshev Reservoir is 7.5 km, the ship sank approximately 3 km from the shore at a depth of about 20 m. In parallel with the rescue operation, an investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway: the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has opened a criminal investigation into the incident with the ship case under the article “violation of safety rules for the operation of ships.” According to one of the versions voiced by federal television channels, the cause of the emergency could have been depressurization of the bottom of the vessel. In an interview with the NTV channel, Svetlana Imyakina, director of Agororechtur LLC (the lessee of the vessel), claimed that the Bulgaria was in technically sound condition. The ship was performing a weekend tour along the Kazan-Bulgar route. The cost of vouchers (the main operator of their sale is the Kazan agency Inturvolga) ranged from 1,200 to 5,000 rubles, depending on the level of the cabin. Today the ship was supposed to deliver passengers to Kazan, and tomorrow it was supposed to leave for Samara. Judging by the schedule published on the website of the Inturvolga agency, very intensive operation of the ship was expected this summer. The agency's general director, Alexander Eliseev, told RIA Novosti that the passengers of the Bulgaria were not insured.
On the blog lyan_lyanych the following is reported:
“We just found out that Dimych and I worked as “entertainers” on this ship more than once. True, it used to be called “Ukraine”. And I’ll tell you what, this ship is not just old, but very old. His speed is very low, because of this he was constantly late to the ports, and so we went, for example, to Nizhny, instead of 6 stops - well, there is the Diveevo monastery, for example - we didn’t stop because we were walking very slowly. And they walked slowly because (I repeat) because he is old. 50s release. A rarity, yeah. Once we ran aground on it, it jerked like hell, and then the sailors below patched and repaired it until late at night.
There are so many violations there that you could open hundreds of criminal cases if necessary. There are violations at every turn, they always take more passengers, on all the flights where we were passengers slept on mattresses on the floor, I am silent about the quality of food. In every port they repaired it, patched it up - what are we even talking about! And the main thing on all sites is advertising for him like this: www.straus-69.ru/index.php/-lr»
| The sunken motor ship "Bulgaria" |
“The old galosh, pompously called “Bulgaria”, according to all the rules, should not be allowed for passenger transportation at all. On July 3, he was returning from a cruise voyage along the route Kazan - Perm - Kazan. During the voyage, the engine stalled three times. Last time one hundred meters before the quay wall of the Kazan port. When the engine was turned off, the power supply system was de-energized. So, even the radio communication did not work (the question is, where are the emergency batteries?!). The departure for this ill-fated flight was delayed for a week until the money for the vouchers was collected in order to patch up the technical flaws. As a result, there was not enough money to feed tourists. There wasn't even enough bread. While the ship was standing in the lock of the hydroelectric power station (Tchaikovsky), the crew’s sailors were running for bread. On board as drinking water passengers drank outboard Volga (Kama) beer. The speed of movement of this old galosh turned out to be such that every time she was several hours late in arriving at the port. Because of this, excursions were reduced or even cancelled. But the owners of this vessel, not wanting to lose their profits, have already sold tickets for the next voyage. In order to return to the port of Kazan on time, the planned and promised excursions to passengers in Tchaikovsky, Sarapul, and green parking were cancelled. Despite the fact that the passengers on this flight were disabled people and pensioners - people who had been saving money for this trip all year. They asked the captain (who, by the way, never came out to the public during the entire voyage) not to deprive them of the promised excursions. But he was adamant and carried out the will of the huckster-hostess, making up for being late. But there is justice in the world! And 100 meters before the pier the engine stalled once again. So we had to supply power from the tug to raise the anchor. And with two tugboats put Bulgaria against the quay wall. You cannot offend innocent people and profit at their expense, receiving money for services not provided and very unobtrusive “service”!”
Reference
The diesel-electric ship "Bulgaria" of Project 785 was built in 1955, originally belonged to the Volga Shipping Company, then was transferred to the Kama Shipping Company (port of Tchaikovsky). From 2003 to 2010 the vessel was not in service. During navigation in 2010, it worked from the Vodaflot company, since 2011 - from ArgoRechTur LLC (Kazan). From the moment of construction until February 2010 it was called “UKRAINE”.
Main characteristics:
Number of decks: 2
Travel speed: 20.5 km/h
Engine power: 273 kW
Number of engines: 2
River register class: "o"
Passenger capacity: 233
Length: 80.2 m
Width: 14 m
Draft: 1.9 m
Recently, specialists from the Saratov region waterways and shipping discovered another ship sunk in the Volga. Now in official list There are about 70 Volga Titanics listed.
Mine at the bottom
But this list of sunken ships is far from complete. One can only guess about the environmental damage they cause.
Ship lifting work in the Saratov region has been carried out since 1998. During this time, it was possible to raise or collect 78 flooded, half-submerged, or even simply abandoned watercraft on the shore. And yet the river is not becoming cleaner, since every year up to a dozen new ownerless objects are discovered in the Saratov section of the Volga alone.
First of all we're talking about about barges and ships sunk in recent decades. But, according to river workers, if you look hard enough, then, for example, between Saratov and Engels you can even find paddle steamers that plied a hundred years ago. There is information that near one of the supports of the road bridge at depth lies an icebreaker built in 1896, and in the area of the railway bridge there are even downed german planes. Last year we found a minesweeper on the Engels side. Now it has already been raised, but there are other ships at the bottom, and they also represent a time bomb. They won't explode, but they do a lot of damage. For example, last year, on the Engels side, a pleasure boat with children on board came too close to the shore and ran straight onto a sunken ship, as if it were aground.
But still the main problem is that over the course of decades, hundreds of thousands of tons of metal decompose in the Volga water (there are ships weighing 150-200 tons or more). It should not be forgotten that the Volga is the main source of drinking water supply for a number of cities in the region, including Saratov itself.
More than 70 tons of fuel were extracted from the tanks of already raised objects, Vladimir Fedotov, assistant prosecutor of the Saratov Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor's Office, told an RG correspondent.
In particular, the raised wheeled steamer "1 May" contained 8 tons of fuel oil, one of the oil barges contained 20 tons, and the motor ship "Professor Mechnikov" contained 40 tons of oil products. The Volga current carried all these “additives” throughout the water area for years.
Ships without owners
Most of the objects on the “underwater list” do not have owners. But even when it is known that the found pile of metal was once owned by one organization or another, forcing the owner to scrap the ship turns out to be unrealistic. Thus, after the bankruptcy of the instrument-mechanical plant, a 650-ton dry cargo ship, sunk within Saratov, also unexpectedly found itself ownerless.
At first, the plant management said that there was no money for ship-lifting work. Then the ship completely disappeared from the company’s balance sheet. It was not included in the bankruptcy estate put up for auction, says the head of the department for supervision of water bodies and safety of hydraulic structures of the Rosprirodnadzor department for the Saratov region Vladimir Syrov.
True, recently the controlling structures have acquired a very effective lever of influence over the owners of scrap metal. In March last year, a method for determining damage caused environment sunken ships.
When environmentalists were able to estimate a specific amount of damage (for example, 5 million rubles), it immediately became clear that raising the ship would be cheaper than paying sanctions, says Vladimir Syrov.
Iron catch
At the end of the 1990s, about a dozen objects were raised in the region at the expense of the federal environmental fund. But with its liquidation, work to clean up the Volga water area from scrap metal came to a standstill. Today, the main work to rid the Volga of rusty iron is being done by entrepreneurs. The ever-increasing demand for metal made this work profitable.
According to river workers, although this business requires a large investment of effort and money, it brings good profits. However, strange as it may seem, there are fewer and fewer people who want to earn money by doing a good deed. If five years ago there were 4-5 companies officially operating in the region involved in the recovery of sunken ships, then this year only two announced their intentions to clean up the Volga.
And it’s all about an inescapable bureaucratic chain. To obtain permission to dispose of a watercraft, a legal business today takes on average about a year. “The go-ahead” must be obtained from a huge number of different authorities, starting from the fishery inspectorate (which, by the way, currently does not have its own department in Saratov, and therefore documents have to be sent to Astrakhan for approval) and ending with the hydrometeorological service monitoring pollution of the Volga.
We started paperwork in November last year and only completed it on June 4,” Sergei Byaigo, deputy general director one of the companies starting to develop the Volga bottom.
Another serious problem for ship lifting entrepreneurs is metal hunters illegally working on semi-sunken objects.
These pirates cut off the tops, and the remains of the ship are then silted up. When only one “sole” remains, costs increase significantly, explains experienced entrepreneur Vladimir Kulapin.
Besides the fact that lifting such a vessel is both more difficult and more expensive (pumps for pumping water out of the holds and pontoons are no longer enough - you will need a powerful floating crane), there is a minimum of useful metal left in it. And often it becomes simply economically unprofitable to dispose of such objects.
It happens that the life of the “Volga orderlies” is complicated by the unexpected appearance of the owners of sunken ships. Before the rise, most often you won’t find them during the day, but after that the citizens actively declare their rights to the pile of iron and try to negotiate their share from the entrepreneurs. If the parties do not reach a consensus, work may take a long time.
According to Assistant Environmental Prosecutor Vladimir Fedotov, it would be advisable to give not only municipalities, but also other interested parties the opportunity to go to court to demand recognition of the right to ownerless watercraft. Moreover, local authorities most often do not use their rights. Perhaps then the cleanup of the Volga banks would have gone faster.
