On the night of Sunday, the underwater cable was damaged between Gotland and Latvia. The night after, the national intervention force struck against the ship M/S Vezhen, which was seized – and an investigation into gross sabotage began.
In Bulgaria, it has become an issue that is being handled at the highest political level because the ship belongs to the Bulgarian lake Navibulgar. A representative from the country’s embassy in Stockholm is reported to be on his way to the ship.
“We are waiting for a permit for him to board the ship and communicate with our sailors,” says Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev at a press conference.
The shipping company: did not notice
At the same time, Navibulgar’s CEO Alexander Kalchev repeats that it was bad weather that caused the anchor to come off and that it took time before the crew noticed that it was dragged along the seabed.
An explanation that sounds incredible according to several experts.
– It would shake and sound throughout the ship. It is completely unlikely that it happens, if it is in the middle of the night, you wake up, says Johan Östergren, principal at the seaman’s school in Stockholm.
He is supported by Peter Sigray, a researcher at the Faculty of Marine System at KTH.
– It sounds and rattles, you notice. You wonder why the speed goes down and why the engines work so hard and why you have difficulty controlling. There are many indicators. It is not possible to miss, he says and continues:
– There are two variants. Either it is very bad seamanship and poor education, or they have done it with diligence. But I make no assessment which it is, here experts have to come in and make the assessment.
Dropped an anchor of 25 years
Lars Höglund, sea captain at the Donsöreriet, has once lost anchor at sea at sea. He agrees that it is unreasonable not to notice if the anchor is dropped.
– You get a very large impact on the ship if an anchor should drag on the bottom. There is a braking and twisting step, he says.