We are publishing a qualified opinion from reader @SlickPict on the Norwegian excuse for not taking the Russian sailors on board of the Norwegian ship “Oslo Carrier 3”, as presented at the end of the previous article The attack on Russian dry cargo ship “Ursa Major” in the Mediterranean. The text was first published on our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

The reader has been a participant of the events surrounding the disaster of a rig during the Montara oil spill.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

I’ve spent a long time at sea, on offshore installations and pipelay barges, plus the odd deep sea fishing trip…😁

I have witnessed and been directly involved in a sizable international incident where the crew of a drilling rig lost control of the well and abandoned the rig, right next to us on a pipelay barge.

We recovered the crew safely. The rig later burnt totally.

I can only think of one excuse for not taking a crew aboard from a life-raft or life-boat and that would be because it was unsafe to do so for some good and solid reason.

This excuse, (the only possible excuse) was not tabled by the Norwegians.

“There’s another ship on the way” communicated properly or not, is not good enough.
“There were no injured aboard” is not good enough.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a life-raft or lifeboat will tell you that it is more comfortable drinking tea or coffee in the warm accommodation of a ship, than tied up to it in a life-raft or lifeboat. Every minute you are in these life-rafts in the open sea is dangerous. Being tied to a large vessel even more so.

The simple test here is, what would the Norwegian Government & media have to say if the position was reversed? Say for arguments sake that a Norwegian crew were not aided by a Russian vessel?

I think we know the answer.

They would scream blue murder.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

The photographs from the rescue operation are by the author, with the following additional comment:

[The rig crew] were picked up by an anchor handling/supply vessel and transferred to our barge.

This point is of significance. No waiting for other vessels, transfer if needs be, but get them out of the sea asap.

Another reader came with a similar comment:

Yes, both professionally and recreationally I have many years at sea. The MRCC would absolutely be coordinating with both ships and have advised them of the rescue plan. Unless the Spanish ship was less than 10 minutes out (extremely unlikely) it simply makes no sense for them to tell the Norwegian ship to not allow the Russians to board – it would take them at least that long (probably longer) to tether them to the ship. As mentioned by someone earlier, they can only say no if rescuing would place their own ship in peril. For it to make sense, the Spanish would have to have eyes on the lifeboat and be able to reach it before it could be tethered, in which case they would likely waive off the Norwegian ship. But even based on what the Norwegians are saying, that isn’t what happened. I mean, the act of tethering the lifeboat to the ship in itself would require communication between the two vessels and someone on the Norwegian ship had to toss a line to the lifeboat so they could tie up. They talked to them on comms, looked at least one of them in the eye, and then left these victims of a shipwreck just bobbing along and bouncing against their hull. It’s nasty. Imagine it – you’ve just survived a shipwreck, you are frightened, likely in low level shock, you have found temporary safety in a lifeboat and push off safe in the knowledge that you will soon be picked up and rescued by a passing merchant or recreational vessel. And then they say no. They violate international law and custom – the most sacred of all maritime covenants- and they say no. They treat you like a diseased animal and keep you in your little orange can rather than allowing you onboard their ship. It was a dehumanizing and disgusting act. Even if, and that’s a big if, the Norwegian captain was told to just tether the lifeboat, as a mariner he should have told them to stuff it, brought those men onboard, and offered them a warm cup of coffee and had their medic check in on them. That’s the custom.