Damaged ship with potentially explosive cargo to leave Norfolk port soon

Great Yarmouth's town hall
-Credit: (Image: Owen Sennitt)


The saga over a damaged ship which docked in a Norfolk port laden with a potentially explosive cargo has taken a new twist after it emerged the stricken vessel is due to head out to sea again. MV Ruby, a container vessel carrying 20,000 tonnes of fertiliser, is scheduled to embark from Great Yarmouth port later this week.

Its departure will come 33 days after its controversial arrival on October 28. The ship, which had sailed from Russia and was heading to Africa, suffered damage in a storm.

On board was more than seven times the amount of ammonium nitrate involved in a blast in Beirut in 2020 which killed 218 people and injured a further 7,000. This prompted the authorities in Sweden and Lithuania to deny it entry into their territorial waters.

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The fate of the ship has been unclear, with many in the Yarmouth saying it should never have been allowed to dock and should leave. Last week, the ship briefly sailed from Yarmouth’s outer harbour and dumped around 300 tonnes of its cargo, which had become contaminated with fuel oil and seawater, in the North Sea around 20 miles off the coast.

It then returned to shore. It is now scheduled to leave again on Friday at 6pm.

Its destination is not currently known, prompting speculation it could return once again. But according to Peel Ports’ – the firm that manages Great Yarmouth Port – arrivals and departure board, it does not intend to return.

Ruby Enterprise, the Maltese-registered company that owns the ship, did not respond to a request for comment on its movements. The MV Ruby’s 20,000 tonnes of cargo is currently being transferred to another ship, the Zimrida.

This is necessary for the ship to undergo repairs and she is expected to sail to another British port for these to be completed. It follows the hull being damaged when it ran aground in bad weather after leaving the north Russian port of Kandalaksha in July.