On the last day of August 1986, a huge passenger steamer "Admiral Nakhimov" with a displacement of seventeen thousand tons departed from the Novorossiysk pier right on schedule, at 22 o'clock, the size of a five-story building, shining with lights and proceeded to the exit from the Tsemesskaya bay. His speed at that moment was small - twelve knots, and he was heading for the port of Sochi. Onboard there were nine hundred passengers and 340 crew members.
It was a German-built steamer, taken as a trophy after World War II. It was already more than sixty years old, the ship had been working on internal lines for a long time and, in fact, had served its time. But it was a pity to part with the handsome steamer, the interior decoration of which corresponded to the passengers' ideas of the luxury and comfort of the 1930s: mahogany trim, carpeting, mirrors. However, the very design of the steamer has long failed to meet the requirements of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, adopted in 1948. Moreover, it did not comply with the conventions of 1960 and 1975. And at the beginning of the summer of 1986, the steamer was generally recognized as unfit for operation or even for repair. Nevertheless, the ship sailed and carried passengers. It was commanded by the experienced captain V. G. Markov,who for thirty years of service in the Navy was awarded the honorary title "The best captain of the Black Sea Shipping Company".
A few minutes before leaving the port water area "Nakhimov" headed for the open sea. The hands of the clock showed 22 hours 45 minutes. Captain Markov handed over control of the ship to his watch officer, Captain Chudnovsky.
The weather on this August evening was windy, and the waves reached a height of three or even more meters. Nevertheless, music was still thundering on the upper decks of the steamer, orders were being taken in the restaurant, some passengers stood at the side and admired the lights of Novorossiysk that was receding.
At the same time, a huge dry cargo ship "Petr Vasev" with a displacement of about forty thousand tons was moving towards the Tsemesskaya Bay. Its holds contained about thirty thousand tons of barley from Canada. It was a modern vessel, equipped with many of the latest navigational aids and computers. It went at the same speed as the "Admiral Nakhimov" - twelve knots an hour, and commanded by Captain V. I. Tkachenko.
In this situation, one of the ships should have slowed down, while the other had to pass by. The captains of both ships were notified of the approach. They asked the ship traffic control post (PRDS) what they should do: who to slow down, who to let through. PRDS offered its own version - promised to take over all the wiring. The PRDS also worked out the optimal variant of the divergence of the dry cargo ship and the steamer. The dry cargo ship was recommended to slow down, as it was entering a narrow bay, and let the passenger steamer pass. This decision of the dispatch service was communicated to the captains via a direct radio link. And both of them agreed to this decision.
Captain Markov entrusted the escort of the Nakhimov from Tsemesskaya Bay to his assistant and left the captain's bridge. Chudnovsky, realizing that in such a situation it would be good to once again secure himself and the ship, once again called the captain of the "Petr Vasev" by radiotelephone and secured a guarantee that he would give way to him.
It would seem that the dry cargo ship had to act according to the verified recommendation of the dispatchers, let Admiral Nakhimov through and only then head to the port. But the captain of the "Petra Vaseva" knew that his powerful ship was equipped with modern navigation and radar devices, and was guided not by the situation at sea, but by the readings of the radar. On them, two green dots were at a fairly decent distance from each other. Then, perhaps, try to slip ahead of "Admiral Nakhimov"? And "Peter Vasev" began a very risky maneuver. He decided to follow the previous course without slowing down, that is, still moving at full speed. The ships did not have visual observation, and they approached in complete darkness.
Promotional video:
Nevertheless, Chudnovsky on the Admiral Nakhimov understood that an emergency situation could arise in complete darkness. He again and again reminded Captain Tkachenko of the need to slow down and let the Admiral Nakhimov go ahead. He reluctantly agreed, but continued to do everything in his own way.
Only at the beginning of twelve o'clock in the morning (and then under the influence of repeated requests from Chudnovsky, who died in this disaster), Captain Tkachenko slowed down and switched from full speed to medium. The illuminated vessels were approaching and, despite the night, had already entered the line of visual observation. Could the collision have been avoided at that moment? “You can,” the commission later replied to investigate the causes of the tragedy.
The captain of "Petr Vasev" Tkachenko stepped onto the bridge and was convinced that he had made an obvious mistake: the "Admiral Nakhimov" was approaching them right along the course. The most effective in such an extreme situation would be to give the order to take the cool "Right aboard!" and skip "Nakhimov". In an extreme case, the situation could still be saved by the desperate "Full back!" However, the captain of the "Petra Vasev" still hoped for his powerful dry cargo ship, for its ability to maneuver, and gave the order to give "low speed". He obviously did not quite understand that his gigantic 40,000-ton vessel had already picked up speed and would be moving by inertia for some time. By the very inertia that cannot be slowed down.
And so it happened. The ships inevitably approached each other. And only at 23:00, Tkachenko finally gave the command "Small back!" And immediately on the radiotelephone I heard the shout of the watch officer from the Nakhimov: “What are you doing? Immediately let's “Full Back!””. It was a cry of despair, but it sounded too late.
The technical side - inertia, and along with it human arrogance has once again played its sinister role. At 2312 hours a huge steel underwater bulb "Petr Vasev" made a hole in the hull of the still moving (also by inertia) "Admiral Nakhimov". The ships collided. The hole widened, and in a matter of seconds, water flooded two compartments, including the engine room.
The lights on the steamer immediately went out. The vessel immediately began to list to starboard. Screams rang out. None of the passengers could understand anything: pitch darkness, rumble, unexpected roll of the ship. Captain Markov gave the order to launch the boats, but the roll turned out to be so strong that many of the floating craft simply did not have time to launch: “Admiral Nakhimov” was rapidly sinking under the water. The best position was for those who remained on the upper deck - they could jump from the sinking steamer. Tragic moments came: "Admiral Nakhimov" was hiding under water. Six minutes later, he disappeared from the surface, taking with him 423 lives - passengers and crew members.
The imperfect design of the passenger steamer and its technical condition were the reason for its rapid flooding and the death of a large number of people. It is well known that the "Titanic", which ran into an iceberg in the Atlantic, which, like a can opener, opened its hull ninety meters in size, stayed on the water for two hours and forty minutes. The Italian steamer "Andrea Doria", collided in 1956 off the coast of the United States with the Swedish motor ship "Stockholm" with similar damage to the "Nakhimov", remained on the surface for eleven hours, and all its passengers were rescued. The doomed "Mikhail Lermontov", who was driven by the pilot's fault on the rocks off the coast of New Zealand, also remained afloat for several hours, and all passengers were saved.
"Admiral Nakhimov" sank in a record time for a vessel of this class - in seven to eight minutes. During this time, there was practically no way to launch all the floating craft. Night, the open sea, a storm of about 3.5 points, the rapid sinking of the ship to a depth of fifty meters … The possibilities for rescuing people were minimal, and still help came.
The city on the shores of the Tsemesskaya Bay has shown courage and heroism more than once. And on this tragic night, he also took on the brunt of the disaster that happened at sea. First aid from the shore came in 25 minutes. A pilot boat LK-90 arrived at the site of the sinking of "Nakhimov", along with several other small coast guard ships. The sailors immediately threw themselves into the sea and, by the light of searchlights, lifted the victims on board from the darkness. Engineer V. Vologin saw a woman with a child in the water and immediately rushed to their aid. The woman, holding out the baby, asked: "Save him!" The sailor took off his life jacket in the water, gave it to the woman, and he himself picked up the child. Then he took them both aboard the boat.
The distress signal was received by both military sailors and border guards. In a matter of minutes, they went on their ships to the crash site.
Here is the recollection of one of the rescued, the Lithuanian boyfriend Edmundas Privan, who, together with his girlfriend Egli Aglinishite, set off on a journey across the Black Sea.
“When the collision happened, we were dancing in the bar on the upper deck,” he said. - It all happened so quickly, an unexpected blow, a shaking of the whole hull, the lights went out and this terrible roll began. I don’t know how we ended up in the water. First he pulled out Egli, put her on a raft that floated beside him, and then began to save others."
This strong athletic Lithuanian was in the water for three hours, helping to pull out women and children. True, at the same time he did not know where his Egli disappeared. And only a day later he managed to find her already on the shore in the city hospital, where she was in the intensive care unit.
On September 1, by nine o'clock in the morning, all who could stay on the water were saved - only 836 people. Then they began to get the bodies of the dead. The sailors still had the hope that an air cushion could form in the upper part of the "Admiral Nakhimov" and people could be there. But after a few hours of the divers' work, it became clear that no one else could be saved. The Admiral Nakhimov was lying on its side at the bottom, ripped by a dry cargo ship. The steamer was completely filled with water, and it was not possible to lift a single living person.
Then there was the trial, which took place in Odessa. Under pressure from the central party apparatus, he found both captains guilty of the death of the ship, passengers and crew. None of the efforts of the lawyer who defended Captain Markov and cited exculpatory facts did not have the desired impact. Of course, the understandable emotional mood of the relatives of the victims, who demanded punishment for both captains, also played a role. Both captains - Markov and Tkachenko - were sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS". N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev
