Gavin Morgan

18 September 2007

THE MASSIVE floating dock that was kept under tow just miles off Shetland all day yesterday finally left for Murmansk last night (Monday).

A spokesman for Shetland Coastguard confirmed late yesterday afternoon that the Russian tug Stakhanovets had secured a tow wire to the 177 metre dock and was ready for departure.

Shetland Coastguard had been busy with the dock for almost three days after the Stakhanovets with 22 people on board had lost her tow in gale force winds, around 50 miles east of Sumburgh Head, in the early hours of Saturday.

After several unsuccessful attempts to re-connect the tow, the emergency towing vessel Anglican Sovereign eventually managed to pick up the broken tow and hauled the dock towards Lerwick, arriving there at about 3pm on Sunday.

The dock belongs to the large Ukrainian dock building specialist Pallada, based in Kherson, on the Black Sea.