Two Attack-Damaged Black Sea Ships Wash Ashore in Turkey

Two ships badly damaged by attacks in the Black Sea ran aground on Turkey's coast over the weekend, the latest in a string of stricken vessels piling up as strikes on Black Sea shipping continue.

On August 30, the product tanker Golden Sapling beached near Alacham in Samsun province after drifting unmanned for four days. The Hong Kong-flagged, Chinese-owned tanker was struck by a drone on August 26, roughly 90 nautical miles off Sinop. The deck house and bridge were badly burnt. Her 21 crew were evacuated by the Greek ship Maran Pythia before the abandoned tanker drifted onto the Turkish coast.

Hours later, a second ship appeared on a Turkish beach. The Russian-flagged Omskiy-107 grounded at Alacali Beach in the Sile district of Istanbul. The crew abandoned it. For nearly four weeks the 108-metre cargo ship, built in Romania in 1981 and operated by Moscow-based Avomar Shipping, had drifted south-west across the Black Sea after being attacked near Novorossiysk in early August. Images from the scene show the bridge area gutted by fire.

Turkey's foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to protest the attacks. MSC has suspended its Novorossiysk container service, according to Maritime Executive.

The Black Sea area near Gerze recorded a 9.0x surge in MarineRadar tracking activity over the past 24 hours. Nine unique devices were logged on August 31, up from just one the day before. The region had not reached this breakout level before in the current monitoring window.

The two groundings follow a string of recent Black Sea incidents. The sinking of PROGRESS IV in Romania's Black Sea exclusive economic zone four days ago showed strikes extending into Romanian waters. Before that, five drones destroyed the bulk carrier Anna S northwest of Novorossiysk near the port the Omskiy-107 had left when it was hit.