The 'Ruby' and the threat it poses
I don't know how many of you have been following this story, but it doesn't seem to be getting the attention it deserves in the mainstream news. Nothing really current on the BBC News website, anyway. Yet one spokesperson, speaking to Andrew Marr on LBC, has said that this is as important and as 'potentially explosive' a story as the Russia-Ukraine war or the Israel-Gaza-Lebanon one.
The basic facts are that the Ruby, a Russian cargo ship, is currently stuck on the edge of the English Channel, about 15 miles off Margate in Kent. It has cracks in the hull and its rudder is damaged beyond use as a result of a grounding. It is under tow and wants to get to its original destination of Malta - but no one seems to want it in their waters because of the cargo it's carrying: 20,000 metric tons of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, which is highly-explosive. People may remember the Beirut explosion in 2020, where a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate caught fire, and the AN eventually exploded. The resulting blast devastated the city and was felt 150 miles away. It was recorded by the US as a 3.3 magnitude seismic event, and was one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history... basically the equivalent of 1.1 kilotons of TNT.
The cargo of the Ruby is seven times the amount that was stored in that Beirut warehouse. So if that went up, you can imagine the consequences. But that's not all. Wrecked about a mile off the coast of Sheerness in the Thames estuary is the WW2 US munitions ship SS Richard Montgomery, packed with 1,400 tonnes of explosive materials. Expert advisors have always said that the explosives on board would remain stable providing the wreck remained undisturbed - which certainly wouldn't be the case if the Ruby went up. So the Montgomery would go up, too.
It seems to be a no-win situation that's developing. No one wants the ship, so it seems to have nowhere to go - but it looks like the plan is still to tow it down through the English Channel and around the Bay of Biscay towards its original destination. If, for whatever reason, it explodes in the Channel, the impact would be huge to all surrounding countries: Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, etc. That's before we even get to the resulting tsunami, and the disruption to one of the world's major shipping lanes. If it sinks, the environmental impact would be equally catastrophic.
Fair warning. This is a story to keep a very close eye on.
Here's the Andrew Marr piece, followed by a reminder of the Beirut explosion in 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIFrVip_y0s&t=71s
Beirut: