Damaged Tanker Mentor Drifts in Black Sea After Towline Failure

The product tanker Mentor, already a casualty of the conflict in Ukraine, is drifting unmanned in the Black Sea after breaking its towline during a severe storm. The incident has escalated a complex salvage operation into a search-and-rescue mission and a potential environmental hazard for the Bulgarian coastline.

The 13,000 dwt vessel was being towed toward Turkey by two Turkish tugs, Ramazan Bey and Ayaz Bey, when the towline parted in heavy seas off the coast of Romania. During a subsequent attempt to restore the connection, the Ayaz Bey collided with the tanker, sustaining heavy damage that left the tug in danger of sinking. Romanian authorities rescued three crewmembers from the damaged tug, while four others remained on board to bring the vessel to an anchorage.

Compounding Risks of War-Damaged Hulls

The Mentor has been a derelict since September 24, when it was struck by a Russian drone off Odesa. That attack killed the vessel’s master and left the bridge destroyed by fire. The current situation highlights a critical second-order implication for regional maritime safety: war-damaged vessels in the Black Sea represent a persistent, long-term liability for littoral states that extends far beyond the initial kinetic strike.

As the Mentor drifts toward the Shabla region of northern Bulgaria, the responsibility for monitoring and intervention shifts across national jurisdictions. The vessel is reported to be carrying 11,000 tons of sunflower oil. While not a petroleum product, a cargo spill of this magnitude in a sensitive coastal region would still present a significant environmental and recovery challenge for Bulgarian authorities.

Operational Challenges in the Black Sea

The failure of the tow underscores the high operational risk of moving “dead ships” with compromised structural integrity or destroyed navigation bridges through the Black Sea during the winter storm season. Standard salvage procedures are complicated by the lack of on-board power and the inability of a skeleton crew to remain on a vessel with a burnt-out superstructure.

Bulgarian officials have ordered the remaining tug, Ramazan Bey, to stand by the drifting tanker while a coordinated response is finalized. The Mentor remains unmanned and subject to the prevailing weather as it approaches the border between Romanian and Bulgarian waters.

Source: The Maritime Executive