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DEEP DIVE – On January 10, the oil tanker Eventin was steaming westward from Russia along Germany’s Baltic coast, bucking eight-foot waves and biting winds, when its systems shut down in a total blackout. The 19-year-old Panama-flagged vessel, the length of three football fields, was drifting and declared “unmaneuverable.”
Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies scrambled a team of specialized operators to rescue the 24-man crew, struggling to survive the lashing winter storm without heat or light, and to prevent the ship from crashing into rocks and disgorging its cargo – 109,000 tons of Russian crude oil destined for Egypt – onto the pristine beaches and chalk cliffs of Germany’s storied Rügen Island. The risks of environmental disaster and a shutdown of vital commercial shipping lanes loomed.
