Ukraine
I think this is a case of our attention is now on what is going on with this fleet of russian sister ships. Today's 109 story happened aboard one the elder of that class.
Here's his photo;
What is described as happening sounds pretty routine and is a ongoing state not a real emergency. Normal stuff for old retiring boats and ships.
This mention of a ballast tank sounds odd to me because he is clearly of the double bottom tank design. The fuel tanks are the bottom of the hull, they are ballast tanks when they do not contain fuel. My guess would be that the bottom four feet of that vessel are the fuel/ballast tanks. They have one of those tanks leaking into one of the other tanks adjoining it.
He looks like the other two of that elder aging fleet.
The problem of pushing a steel ship or boat over 50 years is that it becomes too brittle with age. I'm talking about the fabric of the steel itself. A large vessel is most flexible, and has to be most flexible. Ships, boats, and car or truck springs wear out, the flexible part steels lends to anything made of it wears out after about 50 years.
1 (A side note about pronoun usage, Russian vessels are gendered as men. Our vessels are gendered as women.)
2 (A side note about tankers, they haul liquid so they flex more at sea, as a result they as a class of ship tend to be retired before 50 years, whereas dry cargo ships have to flex less, so they can last a bit longer.)
3 (Military ships can last the longest of all because frankly, they don't get used as much.)
I think this is a case of our attention is now on what is going on with this fleet of russian sister ships. Today's 109 story happened aboard one the elder of that class.
Here's his photo;
What is described as happening sounds pretty routine and is a ongoing state not a real emergency. Normal stuff for old retiring boats and ships.
This mention of a ballast tank sounds odd to me because he is clearly of the double bottom tank design. The fuel tanks are the bottom of the hull, they are ballast tanks when they do not contain fuel. My guess would be that the bottom four feet of that vessel are the fuel/ballast tanks. They have one of those tanks leaking into one of the other tanks adjoining it.
He looks like the other two of that elder aging fleet.
The problem of pushing a steel ship or boat over 50 years is that it becomes too brittle with age. I'm talking about the fabric of the steel itself. A large vessel is most flexible, and has to be most flexible. Ships, boats, and car or truck springs wear out, the flexible part steels lends to anything made of it wears out after about 50 years.
1 (A side note about pronoun usage, Russian vessels are gendered as men. Our vessels are gendered as women.)
2 (A side note about tankers, they haul liquid so they flex more at sea, as a result they as a class of ship tend to be retired before 50 years, whereas dry cargo ships have to flex less, so they can last a bit longer.)
3 (Military ships can last the longest of all because frankly, they don't get used as much.)