MV Rhosus

MVRhosuswas ageneral cargo shipthat wasabandonedinBeirut, Lebanon, after the ship was declaredunseaworthyand the charterers lost interest in the cargo. The 2,750 tonnes ofammonium nitratewhich the ship was carrying was confiscated and brought to shore in 2014, and later contributed to the catastrophic2020 Beirut explosion. The vessel's owner at the time of abandonment wasCyprus-based Russianbusinessman Igor Grechushkin. The ship sank in thePort of Beirutin 2018.
Rhosuswas a single-deck general cargo ship with a length of 86.6 metres (284 ft), beam of 12 metres (39 ft), and draught of 4.9 m (16 ft). The ship'sgross tonnagewas 1,900;net tonnage964; anddeadweight tonnage3,226tonnes, and it had two cargo holds with a grain capacity of 4,136 cubic metres (146,100 cu ft) and bale capacity of 3,837 cubic metres (135,500 cu ft).The ship was normally run by around nine or ten crew members.Rhosus's single main diesel engine, a 4-stroke 6LU32G unit manufactured by Hanshin Diesel Works, was rated at 736 kW (987 hp), drove a single fixed pitch propeller, and gave the vessel a service speed of 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph).
The ship was built byTokuoka Zosen K.K.inNaruto,Japan, as thegrab suction dredgerDaifuku Maru No. 8for the Japanese shipping company Daifuku Kaiun KK and delivered in October 1986.In 2002, the ship was sold to another Japanese shipping company, Nishi Nippon Kaiyo, but was reportedly sold already in March of the same year to a South Korean owner and renamedSeokjung No. 505.
In March 2005, the ship was sold to Hong Kong Zheng Long Shipping Co Ltd, renamedZheng Longand registered briefly under theBelizeanflag. In June of the same year, the ownership changed to another Hong Kong-based shipping company, Rui Hua (HK) Shipping Co Ltd, and the vessel was reflagged toPanama. In June 2007, the ship was sold to a Panamanian-registered company, Sea Star International Shipping Group Inc, and renamedNew Legend Glory.
The ship's most recent reported registered owner, Panamanian-registered Briarwood Corp, acquired the vessel in August 2008 and renamed itRhosus.After lengthening the hull from 53 metres (174 ft) to 86.6 metres (284 ft) and converting the ship to a general cargo vessel,Rhosuswas reflagged first to Georgia in 2009 and later to Moldova in 2012.By 2012, the vessel was effectively owned by  Cypriot businessman Charalambos Manoli, who sold it that year toKhabarovsk-born Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin, who was reported to be living inLimassol, Cyprus, in 2020.This was Grechushkin's first foray into running his own ship.
On28 July 2013,Rhosuswas detained at thePort of Sevilleby Spanishport state controlauthorities due to a number of deficiencies.
In September 2013, the freighter was chartered to carry a cargo of high-densityammonium nitratefrom Georgian fertilizer maker, Rustavi Azot LLC, inGeorgiato be delivered to Fábrica de Explosivos Moçambique (FEM) inMatola,Mozambique.On27 September 2013,Rhosusset sail fromBatumibound toBeiracarrying 2,750tonnesof ammonium nitrate in bags,a cargo which the captain regarded as "dangerous", but not so dangerous that it could not be transported.On21 November 2013, the ship ported in Beirut.Some sources stated that it was forced to port due to mechanical issues and possibly engine problems,while other sources said that the owner did not have sufficient funds to pay tolls for theSuez Canaland attempted but failed to take on a shipment of heavy machinery from Beirut toAqaba,Jordan.The heavy machinery was stacked over the hatch leading to the cargo space containing the ammonium nitrate, causing the hatch covers to buckle and damaging the ship.After inspection byport state control,Rhosuswas found unseaworthy, and it was forbidden to set sail.Eight Ukrainians and one Russian were aboard,and with the help of a Ukrainian consul, five Ukrainians were repatriated, leaving the Russian captain and three Ukrainian crew members—the chief engineer, the third engineer, and theboatswain—to take care of the ship.
The owner ofRhosus, Igor Grechushkin, claimed to have become bankruptand, after the charterers lost interest in the cargo, he abandoned the ship.Rhosusthen quickly ran out of provisions, while the crew were unable to disembark due to immigration restrictions.The captain sold some fuel in the ship in order to pay for lawyers to free them from their confinement on the ship.Creditors also obtained threewarrantstoarrest the ship.According toLloyd's List, the Beirut port authority seized the ship on 4 February 2014, due to US$100,000 in unpaid bills.The ship had accrued port fees and been fined for refusing cargo.Lawyers argued for the crew's repatriation on compassionate grounds, due to the danger posed by the cargo still aboard the ship, and an Urgent Matters judge in Beirut allowed them to return home after having been stuck aboard the ship for about a year.The dangerous cargo was then brought ashore in 2014 and placed in a building, Hangar 12, at the port, pursuant to a court order, until itexploded, with catastrophic consequences, on4 August 2020.
In a 2020 interview, the former master ofRhosusstated that there was a small hole in the hull and, with no crew on board to periodically pump the sea water out, the vessel sank "two or three years ago" after the cargo had been unloaded.Euronewsreported that the records ofLloyd's Listshowed thatRhosuswas seized in February 2014, and that it sank without a crew in the breakwaters of the Port of Beirut in February 2018.The New York Timesconfirmed viamultispectralsatellite imagery that the ship sank between16and18 February 2018alongside a Beirut pier.Subsequent analysisshows the ship to still lie there.
Since 2018,Rhosus's flag has been reported as "unknown" in official databases and the vessel's status was updated to "total loss" in August 2020.
A thorough investigation byDer Spiegeland theOrganized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project(OCCRP) into the2020 Beirut explosionconcluded that:
In October 2020, Lebanon's state-runNational News Agencysaid that the country's state prosecution had askedInterpolto detain two Russian citizens, the captain and the owner ofRhosus, as its cargo of ammonium nitrate was blamed for the explosion.
33°54′21″N35°31′07″E﻿ / ﻿33.9059°N 35.5186°E﻿ /33.9059; 35.5186