On the 15 September the Russian tug ‘Stakhanovets’ reported loosing her tow, a large floating dock, in a Force 9 gale east of the Shetland Islands. Stakhanovets is a 1980 built tug of 72.07m LOA and 3,120 gross tonnes, with a bollard pull of 65 tons. The vessel, with a crew of 22 persons, was enroute from Kerson in the Ukraine to Murmansk towing a floating dry dock measuring 176m x 50m X 3.80m when the towline parted. Attempts to reconnect the tow in the severe weather conditions were unsuccessful and the ETV ‘Anglian Sovereign’ was tasked to assist.

Arriving on scene the same evening, Anglian Sovereign, under the command of Captain Jorge Kanthack, manoeuvred close to the floating dock, retrieved the broken towline by grappling and succeeded in making a connection to his own towing gear. The entire operation was carried out in a swell of approximately 6m. Anglian Sovereign continued to tow the dock towards Lerwick whilst arrangements were made to return the tow to the Russian tug. Matters were complicated by language difficulties and Shetlands Coastguard, who were in charge of the incident had to make use of the national interpreting service (working through an interpreter in Canada) in order to establish effective communication between the Russian tug and other parties involved .

After considerable discussion regarding the Russian tug’s towing gear and method of transferring the tow, the floating dock was finally handed over to the Stakhanovets two days later. The transfer was made at sea in calmer conditions and the tug and tow continued on passage to Northern Russia.

Not all incidents involve errant floating objects as large as a dry dock. Two weeks earlier the ETV ‘Anglian Monarch’, operating in the Dover Strait, was tasked to search for and recover a ships hatch cover reported adrift by a passing ship.

Anglian Monarch located and recovered a 25 ton ship's hatch cover and transported it, on deck, to Folkstone. The object was reported to be 12 m2, in good condition and estimated to come from a ship of some 60,000-70,000 tons or larger.

Toby Stone, MCA Head of Counter Pollution said, ‘This hatch cover had to be removed from the busy shipping lanes and would certainly be capable of causing catastrophic damage to a small vessel like a yacht and could even damage the hull of a larger vessel if hit at speed.’

Interestingly, a similar hatch cover was retrieved in the southern North Sea by the Dutch ETV ‘Waker’ a few days later. It has not been confirmed whether the two items came from the same ship.