Russian Navy Fleet Tug Rescues Philippine Seafarer Adrift in S. China Sea
On Monday, a Russian Navy salvage tug rescued a Philippine national who had gone over the side of his vessel and had managed to stay afloat for days, Russian sources report.
According to Russian state media, the fleet tug Alatau picked up the survivor from the waters of the southern sector of the South China Sea on Monday. The survivor had gone over the side of a tanker, identified as the "S Grace." No vessel of this name exists in shipping databases.
The seafarer reported that he had been floating and hoping for rescue for two days, a remarkable achievement for a survivor without ans immersion suit or a flotation aid. On recovering him from the water, the crew of the Alatau gave him a medical checkup and determined that he had a clean bill of health.
Alatau is under way for Vladivostok, where it will rejoin Russia's Pacific Fleet. The Alatau's crew plans to keep the survivor on board for the full voyage, at which point he will be offered an opportunity for repatriation.
Alatau is an Ingul-class fleet tug assigned to the Russian Pacific Fleet. The vessel was built in 1983 and continues to serve the salvage and emergency-response needs of Russia's far eastern seaboard. Like other Russian naval vessels, she does not transmit AIS under her own name or IMO number.
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In the later years of the Cold War, Alatau was a familiar sight in the Pacific, but in the post-Soviet era she fell into disrepair. She was reportedly cold-stacked in Vladivostok in the 1990s and left idle for about 15 years. She was reactivated in 2010-11, refitted and put back into operation. In 2024, she deployed to the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea for a security mission.
The class was fitted for submarine rescue and long-distance heavy towing. With a top rated speed in the range of 19 knots and a range of up to 15,000 nm, the vessels were designed to keep up with the fleet. Russian Navy task groups often deploy with fleet tugs alongside; the practice was particularly notable in the case of the aircraft carrier Adm. Kuznetsov, which had reliability challenges in service and has since been sidelined due to persistent problems in shipyard.
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