Russian warship sinks Chinese merchant vessel

[Winner]

Probably in order to cement the "alliance" between the two countries

China Daily:

Ship sinks in Russia, 7 missing

Seven Chinese sailors are missing after a Chinese cargo ship sank in Russian waters near Japan on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

"Three of the 10 Chinese sailors onboard were saved but seven are still missing after the ship sank off the waters of Vladivostok," it said in a statement on its website.

The ministry didn't mention the cause of the incident, saying rescue efforts and an investigation into the incident are ongoing.

But the Global Times, a Chinese language newspaper based in Beijing, said yesterday the ship was fired on by the Russian navy before it sank, citing a Russian newspaper.

New Star, the cargo ship, was sequestered at the Russian port of Nakhodka earlier this month for alleged smuggling. It left the port not far from the Sino-Russian border without permission from Russian authorities last Thursday and was chased by a cruiser, the newspaper said.

Later, the warship shot at least 500 rounds onto the ship and forced it to sail back toward the port in force 6 winds.

However, the Chinese ship started to sink on the way. According to the report, in a period of almost 24 hours, Russian navy officers and soldiers onboard the cruiser watched the sinking boat and did not make any response to the cries for help from the crewmen.

In the end, 16 sailors onboard New Star got on two lifeboats. The Russian sailors managed to save one boat carrying eight people, while the other was engulfed in the waves.

Three of the missing sailors are Chinese while the other five came from Indonesia, the report said.

The coastal coordination and assistance center of Vladivostok announced on Sunday that a Russian coast guard cruiser saved eight foreign sailors trapped by bad weather. It did not mention the alleged fire from the Russian navy.

The Russian News Agency reported the incident yesterday and said the coast guard just found an empty boat in a three-day search. It also cited bad weather as the reason behind the accident.

According the International Maritime Organization, the owner of New Star is a shipping company of Zhejiang, while the operator is a company based in Guangzhou.

Russia Today:

8 dead after sea border incident

An investigation has been launched into an incident where eight people drowned after a cargo ship fled Russian border guards in the Far East.

The New Star vessel was under the flag of Sierra Leone and had brought rice cargo to the port of Nakhodka.

But it left without permission or notifying the authorities. The border guards following the ship and eventually opened fire.

But on its way back the vessel was caught in a storm and sank – out of 16 crew, only 8 people were saved.

The border guards say the ship ignored all warning signals while sailing towards the Chinese border at full speed.

”The Russian border guards followed the New Star for over 15 hours. They used all kinds of warnings including sound, light and radio signals. They had also made a gun signal, which was ignored. So they had to open fire at the vessel – it had violated not only Russian but International Maritime code. I must say, however, that it was a cargo vessel, and we aimed at areas we knew for sure didn’t contain any people,” Igor Rogatkin, Deputy Head of FSB Border Guards Department, said.

 

[RedRalph]

This isnt really funny Winner

 

[Winner]

Yeah, it is. I am sorry for the dead people, but this just shows how Russians and Chinese view each other. Friendship? Alliance? That's a lot of BS, really.

 

[RedRalph]

Yeah, it is. I am sorry for the dead people, but this just shows how Russians and Chinese view each other. Friendship? Alliance? That's a lot of BS, really.

8 sailors die and you think its funny... sick.

and BTW, yeah I'm sure this is the end of the SCO, just as France and the UK are probably on the brink of war now...

 

[Winner]

8 sailors die and you think its funny... sick.

I call the incident funny, Mr. Comprehension.

and BTW, yeah I'm sure this is the end of the SCO, just as France and the UK are probably on the brink of war now...

Like I said anything like that You need to stop making things up, Ralph.

 

[Longus]

Yeah. Not actually funny at all & I don't see what it has to do with the alliance either. RRW said it all really.

 

[classical_hero]

Winner is a dirty little troll for laughing at an incident between to "friendly" nations. Come on. Even though people died, it is funny since there should be better trust between the two nations.

 

[Winner]

Yeah. Not actually funny at all & I don't see what it has to do with the alliance either. RRW said it all really.

He made up things I didn't say and you take it. Congrats.

Winner is a dirty little troll for laughing at an incident between to "friendly" nations. Come on. Even though people died, it is funny since there should be better trust between the two nations.

At least someone got it...

 

[Longus]

I'm not sure smugglers necessarily count as representatives of their nation and would thus feel themselves bound by any treaties of trust.

 

[Longus]

He made up things I didn't say and you take it. Congrats.

Ta very much.

 

[Winner]

I'm not sure smugglers necessarily count as representatives of their nation and would thus feel themselves bound by any treaties of trust.

There are actually many versions of the story. The one I find as the closest to the truth is that the Chinese ship carried rice for some Russian company. The company wasn't happy with the quality of it, so the Russians had the ship seized. The ship tried to sneak out, the Russians sent a warship after it, fired upon it and then watched it sank.

Yeah, that's certainly the right and proper way how to solve trade disputes between two supposedly allied countries (or at least that's what Ralph keeps telling me - that Russia and China are good friends and allies).

 

[Longus]

Indeed. It's not the way to solve any dispute. I find it hard to fathom why a naval vessel would fire on an unarmed civilian ship, even if they were criminals; and if the rice was simply sub-standard... I guess consumer rights are really well defended in Russia.

 

[Dragonlord]

Huh? Who says Russia and China are friends?

Even when they were both 'socialist', there were serious rivalries between the two countries, including actual shooting incidents on the borders... I haven't heard of anything like that recently, but I also haven't gained the impression that they've suddenly become bosom buddies.

Given that background, I don't really see anything funny about the incident, either...

 

[RedRalph]

Huh? Who says Russia and China are friends?

Even when they were both 'socialist', there were serious rivalries between the two countries, including actual shooting incidents on the borders... I haven't heard of anything like that recently, but I also haven't gained the impression that they've suddenly become bosom buddies.

Given that background, I don't really see anything funny about the incident, either...

Not bosom buddies, but they have never been more friendly than they are now (apart form maybe the early 50s)

 

[RedRalph]

Incidentally, if incidents between allies means they arent allies, then how do you view the US threatening the UK judicial system for operating under its own laws Winner? Shows they arent really allies, dosent it?

 

[Gigaz]

Wasn't there an incident where a Russian carrier lost oil near the Irish coast? What if there's a connection and something is terribly wrong in the Russian military?

 

[RedRalph]

Wasn't there an incident where a Russian carrier lost oil near the Irish coast? What if there's a connection and something is terribly wrong in the Russian military?

I dont think that was a warship, yeah its heading towards our South coast, will hit in a few days, but apparently its not as bad as was first thought

 

[Longus]

There has been something wrong with the Russian military for 90 years now.

 

[Yeekim]

Nah, if anything the Russian naval competence has increased vastly over the course of last 100 years.

The Dogger Bank incident (also known as Incident of Hull or The Russian Outrage) occurred when the Russian Baltic Fleet mistook some British trawlers at Dogger Bank for an Imperial Japanese Navy force.[1] The Russians attacked on the night of October 21, 1904. Three British sailors died and a number were wounded. One sailor and a priest aboard a Russian cruiser caught in the crossfire were also killed. The incident almost led to war between Britain and Russia[2], until it was diplomatically defused.

The Russian warships involved in the incident were on their way to the Far East, to partake in the Russo-Japanese War. Because of wrong reports about the presence of Japanese torpedo boats, submarines and minefields in the North Sea, and a general nervousness of the Russian sailors, approximately 30 harmless fishing trawlers were attacked by the Russians, thousands of miles away from the enemy waters.

Accidents and rumors had already dogged the journey of the fleet, and there was general fear of attack amongst the sailors, which their command tried to quell by calling for increased vigilance and issuing an order that "no vessel of any sort must be allowed to get in amongst the fleet". This soon led to a first incident near the Danish coast unrelated to the Dogger Bank disaster, when fishermen bearing consular dispatches for the fleet were fired on, but escaped unharmed.[3]

The disaster of October 21 began in the evening, when the drunken captain of the supply ship Kamtchatka (Камчатк&#1072, which was last in the Russian line, took a passing Swedish ship for a Japanese torpedo boat and radioed that he was being attacked. Later in the night the officers on duty sighted the British ships, interpreted their signals incorrectly and classified them as Japanese torpedo boats, and consequently opened fire on the British fishermen. The British trawler Crane was sunk and two British fishermen lost their lives. On the other boats there were six fishermen wounded, one of whom died a few months later. In the general chaos, Russian ships shot at each other: when the protected cruiser Aurora (Aврор&#1072, which had yet to be involved, approached, she was taken for a Japanese warship, bombarded and slightly damaged. At least one Russian sailor was killed, another badly wounded. A priest aboard a Russian cruiser caught in the crossfire was also killed. More serious losses on both sides were only avoided by the extremely low quality of Russian naval artillery fire, with one battleship reported to have fired more than 500 shots without hitting anything.[3]

The incident led to a serious diplomatic conflict between Russia and Great Britain, which was particularly dangerous due to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. In the aftermath some British newspapers called the Russian fleet 'pirates' and the Russian admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski was heavily criticised for not leaving the British sailors lifeboats. The editorial of the morning's Times was partiularly scathing:

"It is almost inconceivable that any men calling themselves seamen, however frightened they might be, could spend twenty minutes bombarding a fleet of fishing boats without discovering the nature of their target."[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogger_Bank_incident

 

[Winner]

Incidentally, if incidents between allies means they arent allies, then how do you view the US threatening the UK judicial system for operating under its own laws Winner? Shows they arent really allies, dosent it?

Until the French or Americans actually sink a British ship for carrying a low quality stuff, don't come back...