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Drunk Russian Sailor Crashes Massive Cargo Ship at Full Speed

Container ship runs aground
Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/AP

The owners of the Lysblink Seaways, a 7,000-ton cargo ship, learned one crucial lesson after their prized ship ran aground off the coast of Scotland last winter: A ship, full of sailors, probably shouldn’t have a liquor store onboard. As an incident report released this week by a Scottish maritime agency details, the officer on watch was three sheets to the wind before he plastered the ship, at full speed, onto the rocky Kilchoan coast.

The sailor responsible for the falling asleep at the helm, a 36-year-old Russian man, who is very much unemployed at this moment, had imbibed approximately half a liter of rum — roughly 16 shots–worth — before starting his shift. The ship’s liquor store, the report notes, “was regularly replenished, and empty beer, wine and spirit bottles and cartons found on board after the accident indicated significant levels of alcohol consumption by the crew.”

The ship, new by maritime standards, had to be scrapped. A spokesperson for vessel’s owner told CNN, “It’s not a case we have seen before, and there is no excuse for it whatsoever.”

Drunk Russian Sailor Crashes Cargo Ship