Video: Ukrainian Trawler Burns and Sinks off Mauritania
The Ukrainian trawler Ivan Golubets sank off Mauritania on Monday night, killing two fishermen, according to Ukrainian diplomat Boris Babyn and Odessa-based outlet Dumskaya.
A fire broke out in the Golubets' engine room on July 19, Dumskaya reported, and the crew abandoned ship onto another fishing vessel, the Marshal Krylov. A third vessel managed to take the Golubets in tow, but the fire accelerated quickly. Images published by the outlet showed the Golubets under tow with her superstructure in flames.
The vessel went down in about 35 meters of water off the coast of Mauritania on Monday, Babyn said in a social media post.
Three cadets from the Kerch State Marine University in Russian-occupied Crimea were on board at the time of the fire. The cadets were not among the victims and are presently on shore and waiting to be repatriated, Capt. Sergey Timchenko told Russian media.
The Golubets is flagged in Georgia and owned by state-owned Servis State Enterprise of Kiev, Ukraine, according to her Equasis record. The vessel's last received AIS transmission showed her departing the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou on July 10.
The Golubets was last in the news in 2012, when she responded to a distress call from the trawler Amaltal Columbia off the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand.