New Russian Military Tugboat Kapitan Ushakov Sank in St. Petersburg

A new Russian naval tugboat, the Kapitan Ushakov, project 23470, sank near the quay wall In St. Petersburg.

The local media outlet Fontanka reported on the issue.

The incident occurred at the Baltic Shipyard, whose production facilities are leased by the Yaroslavl Shipyard.

On the evening of August 8, the tug tilted, and the city’s special services and the company’s emergency services were on site.

“We were fighting for the ship the whole time. Baltic Shipyard workers helped their colleagues to stop the roll,” said Aleksandr Lebedev, head of the Baltic Shipyard’s public relations department.

An investigative team is working at the site to establish the circumstances under which the Russian Navy tugboat sank.

According to available information, the auxiliary machinery room flooded, after which the ship tilted and subsequently sank.

Marine tugs of the 23470 project are designed to tow ships, floating objects and structures in the seas and oceans without limiting the areas of navigation.

They can operate in ice conditions according to the Arc4 class. They are also designed to perform search and rescue functions, extinguish fires, etc.

Brief technical specifications:

• Displacement : 3200 tons
• Length : 69.75 meters
• Beam : 15 meters
• Carrying capacity : 200 tons
• Crew : 33 people
• Autonomy : 30 days

There is a helicopter landing site.

Other project representatives:

Two of the tugs, Sergey Balk and Kapitan Nayden, are part of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, although the former was in the Baltic Sea, according to VesselFinder, after which the AIS system was turned off.

The other of the three tugs, Andrey Stepanov, is part of the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet.

The fifth tugboat of Project 23470, under the serial number 414, named Kapitan Ushakov, was laid down at the Yaroslavl Shipyard in 2017.

It was launched on June 14, 2022. In October-November 2023, it was transported via Russia’s inland waterways to the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg for completion.

It was expected to be completed by the end of 2024, and then it would become part of the 566th detachment of support vessels of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy based in Murmansk.