Ship in Need of Repairs Has Explosive Cargo, but No Dock

The MV Ruby has meandered around Europe’s northwestern coastline under a cloud of suspicion over its thousands of tons of Russian fertilizer.

The MV Ruby has languished off the coast of Britain for more than a week, its hull cracked, its propeller damaged. Yet no port will let the ship dock, fearing that the thousands of tons of Russian fertilizer it carries could lead to a disastrous explosion.

Over the weekend, the MV Ruby remained 14 miles off the coast of Kent, in southeastern England, where it has been since last month.

For weeks now, the ship has sailed around northern Europe’s coastline, looking for a friendly port. But no country has allowed it to approach, fearing a repeat of the explosion in 2020 in Lebanon that destroyed the Port of Beirut and killed more than 190 people.

The ship is reportedly ferrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a substance used for fertilizer. An explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate devastated the Lebanese port and was felt as far away as Cyprus in the Mediterranean. The MV Ruby may be carrying more than seven times as much.

The ship’s stalled journey underscores the distrust and suspicion that vessels linked to Russia have faced since the start of the war in Ukraine. While the MV Ruby is registered in Malta and owned by a Maltese company, Ruby Enterprise, and is managed by Serenity Shipping, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, the Russian fertilizer it is ferrying has caused some governments to worry that the ship may be a Trojan horse, sent to sabotage vital shipping and port infrastructure.

The ship’s managers and some maritime authorities have tried with little success to assure the public that the cargo poses no threat.

Speculation about the 600-foot ship began almost as soon as it left the Port of Kandalaksha, on Russia’s northwestern coast, in August. Soon after, the ship ran aground, sustaining damage that would prevent it from continuing to several ports in Africa, where it was meant to deliver its cargo, according to a statement from the ship’s owners.

The ship then went on to Norway, where it was detained outside the port city of Tromso and had its damage examined by inspectors, the Norwegian Maritime Authority said. Shipping data shows the ship arrived in Tromso on Sept. 1 and had left by Sept. 4.

“There were damages to the rudder, propeller and some cracks in the hull,” a spokesman for the authority, Dag Inge Aarhus, said in an email. “As far as we know, the damages have not affected the cargo on board.”

The cargo did not pose a threat while it was detained in Norwegian waters, Mr. Aarhus said. Still, the authorities sent the ship to seek repairs elsewhere, with the requirement that it be accompanied by a tugboat. That vessel, hired by the ship’s owners, has remained nearby ever since.

The Swedish and Danish maritime authorities monitored the MV Ruby as it slowly moved toward the North Sea, looking for a port that would allow it to dock. But on its way to Lithuania, it sailed into a political storm.

A small Baltic nation that struggled for decades under Soviet occupation, Lithuania has long been wary of Russia. Lithuania’s prime minister, Ingrida Simonyte, told Parliament that the MV Ruby would not be allowed to enter the country’s port, at Klaipeda, and the foreign minister warned of diplomatic consequences, according to reports by Lithuania’s national broadcaster, LRT.

While there was no evidence of malicious intent, Lithuania could not risk being unguarded in any interactions relating to Russia, said the foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

“When we are dealing with Russia or other international actors that are unfriendly to us, he said, “we always keep this possibility in mind.”

Despite flying a Maltese flag and being owned by a company registered in Malta, the ship was not allowed to dock in Malta, either. The transportation ministry said it could do so only if it discharged its cargo first, according to reports in the Maltese news media last month.

The MV Ruby then turned to Britain. But as it approached, Lithuania’s former ambassador to Britain, Eitvydas Bajarunas, described the ship as a “floating megabomb” in a column for a European policy think tank, warning of possible Russian sabotage. The British news media quickly took note.

“Unfortunately, due to the media speculation that has surrounded this vessel, port terminals in the U.K. are reticent to take the vessel in,” the ship’s manager said last week in a statement.

The MV Ruby has asked to dock so it can transfer its cargo of ammonium nitrate to another vessel and undergo repairs, but it is still awaiting a response from the British authorities, the statement said.

In the meantime, the ship has refueled while remaining anchored at sea, the British Coast Guard said in an email last week.

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