The Yong Xing 56, a Chinese dry cargo vessel, was rescued after its sister ship sank, and the crew of twenty-one will return home after March 10. DEA News, citing sources from the press service of Rusal, reports that the ship’s crew had been involuntary passengers aboard a vessel that encountered severe conditions in Arctic waters. The grounding and subsequent distress were tied to a bow failure that left the hull breached and the vessel temporarily unable to maneuver. The response involved rapid coordination among maritime authorities and rescue services to ensure the crew’s safety and to protect the valuable cargo aboard.
The merchant ship, which was carrying a substantial load of alumina—amounting to 29 thousand tons—from Rusal, sustained damage to the bow during operations in the ice-laden waters of the Tatar Strait. After a distress signal was picked up by the Marine Rescue Service, the tug Otto Schmidt arrived at the scene to render assistance. Crew members were evacuated from the ice floe and brought to safety, with the operation conducted under challenging weather and sea-ice conditions typical of the region, where ice coverage can complicate rescue efforts. The evacuation was accomplished with careful risk management to prevent casualties and to stabilize the ship’s condition while awaiting further arrangements.
Presently, all 21 members of the Yong Xing 56’s crew are stationed in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. They are scheduled for transfer to the port of Vladivostok on March 10, after which Chinese nationals will proceed toward their homeland by coach transport. The plan reflects standard procedures for repatriation in such incidents, ensuring that the sailors receive medical checks, necessary documentation, and onward travel support in a structured sequence. The move from an inland holding location to a main port helps centralize logistics and monitoring during the final leg of the journey home.
Earlier reports describe a related incident dated February 23, when a Chinese vessel encountered a hole in its ice pathway while en route to the working village of Vanino in the Khabarovsk Territory. Despite immediate attempts to seal the breaches in the bow tanks and forepeak, and to keep the ship afloat, the vessel eventually sank at a depth of 253 meters on March 1 after the crew had been rescued. This sequence underscores the persistent hazards posed by ice jams and frigid Arctic conditions, where even with rapid emergency responses and salvage efforts, the sea can claim a vessel when structural integrity is compromised and cold, dense waters hinder stabilization.
In both cases, authorities emphasized the importance of robust ice operations, effective distress signaling, and coordinated rescue protocols to minimize risk to crew members. The episodes also highlight the international nature of maritime safety in the Arctic, where ships from different nations navigate shared waters and rely on multinational rescue services. Ongoing investigations will likely examine the cause of the bow damage on the Yong Xing 56 and the sequence of events that led to the later sinking of the other vessel, with findings expected to inform future safety measures in similar operations. This coverage notes the critical role of the tug Otto Schmidt and the rescuers who responded under severe weather constraints to secure lives and preserve cargo, where every minute counts in the icy environment.
Cited sources indicate that the Yong Xing 56 remains a subject of maritime safety analyses and that the crew’s safe return home is a priority for both the sending and receiving nations. After completion of the transfer to Vladivostok, the voyage home will continue by land to the crew members’ final destinations, marking the end of a difficult chapter in a season already fraught with ice-related risks and operational challenges for vessels navigating the region. The events serve as a reminder of the resilience of maritime crews and the relentless vigilance of rescue teams who operate in some of the world’s most unforgiving waters, where cooperation across agencies and national borders saves lives and supports ongoing commercial activity in Arctic routes.