Скачать "The tragic events of the Roksha lighter carrier."

carrierRoksha The tragic events of the Roksha lighter carrier. The Roksha lighter is a huge specially equipped barge with a displacement of 4.5 thousand tons, a length of 94 m and a width of up to 13 m. It took on board 3750 tons of sinter, the temperature of which was 600-650 °. There were 13 people on the barge, headed by a woman-captain A.I. Shibaeva. Agglomerate carriers are a fiery fleet that followed from Kerch to Mariupol. The agglomerate was loaded from wheels, and the ships moved one after another. In the early 1930s, the Azovstal plant was under construction. In those years, the Kamysh-Burunsky iron ore deposit was actively developed in the Kerch region. In 1952, the erected mining and processing plant began to produce an intermediate product for metal smelting - the ship agglomerate Roksha and transported it by the Azov Sea to Azovstal. Initially, the agglomerate was transported chilled to + 300 ° С, later - at temperatures up to + 800 ° С. The crew members were happy - they were paid extra for the increased risk ... The hot agglomerate was loaded onto barges in the Kamysh-Burunsky port, and the "fire fleet" followed from Kerch to Mariupol. The agglomerate was loaded from wheels, the barges moved regularly. Over three decades, the flow of such cargo has increased from four and a half to nine million tons per year. And yet half a century ago there was still not enough rhythm in the delivery of the agglomerate by sea for the uninterrupted operation of the Azovstal blast furnaces. The barges operating on the sinter line were old and worn out, there were often malfunctions and accidents. The Azovstal directorate appealed to the Council of Ministers with a request to oblige the country's Ministry of the Sea Fleet to urgently resolve the problematic issue. As a result, nine lighters (agglomerate carriers) with a carrying capacity of more than three thousand tons each, together with tugs, were transferred from the Northern Shipping Company to the Azov Directorate. The conveyor "Kerch mine - sinter plant - Mariupol blast furnace" was used more energetically, the ships ply almost non-stop, despite the bad weather. In the early morning of October 29, 1968 the sea tug "Kommunist" of the Azov Shipping Company took "Roksha" out of the port of Kamysh-Burun, heading for the port of "Azovstal". As public researchers of the shipwreck later noted, a strong northeast wind flapped the ship throughout the entire route, and at night a six-seven-point storm hit the barge not far from Mariupol - 17.5 miles southeast of the southern tip of the Berdyansk Spit. A tragedy broke out in the sea, the outer skin of the barge began to leak. The inner heat-resistant lining also did not withstand impacts. Cold water entered the hold and actually caused an explosion from interaction with the hot agglomerate. Having received about 700 tons of sea water, the lighter capsized and sank. In a tugboat pulling a barge from Kerch, we saw with horror a huge cloud of steam in the place of the lighter. The tug crew was never able to rescue the victims. All 13 crew members on the barge and several fellow passengers who were unable to purchase tickets for other ships sailing from Kerch in the direction of Mariupol were killed. Most of them managed to put on life jackets, but they were destroyed by the hot steam. The sea scattered the bodies of the dead. The body of the female lighter captain Hanifa Shibaeva, for example, was found in the area of ​​the Arabat arrow. You can imagine all the hell that the sailors got into. The circumstances of the crash of the agglomerate carrier "Roksha" were considered by a special government commission. The causes of the accident, said the sailors of those years of the former AMP, are not entirely clear. The shipbuilders assumed that the leak was due to the wear of the hull. The boatswain of "Roksha" Venedikt Groshev, who accidentally missed the fatal voyage, remained of the same opinion. He confirmed that the lighter was old, rusted, the register deadline for the ship's mechanisms had already been worked out, the ship embarked on a voyage without register documents ... But ... The transportation plan of the agglomerate was disrupted and it was carried out at any cost. This tragedy shook our city. The lighter's crew, or rather, what was left of it, was buried with honors at the local Kirov cemetery. But the "fiery line" continued to be used further. True, a decision was made: urgently to build specialized vessels - agglomerate carriers. Roksha was replaced by the Viga and Kavkaz lighters and the Loud tugboat.