Emergencies ministry: No one was hurt in a barge-ship collision on Moscow Canal

The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations reported on Saturday that no one was hurt when two barges collided with a passenger ship on the 73rd kilometer of the Moscow Canal last Friday. “The accident occurred at 23:54 Moscow time on August 30. Two barges collided with the Mikhail Tanich cruiser on the Moscow Canal. One of the barges was slightly damaged above the flotation line,” an Emergencies Ministry source said. The incident had almost no consequences. The vessels parted after the collision, and the cruiser continued its way. There were 90 people, including 43 passengers and 47 crewmen, on the Mikhail Tanich passenger ship. One of the barges got a hole on the left side above the line of flotation. A bulwark was knocked down in the nose section of the Mikhail Tanich ship. Besides, the cruiser also got a hole in the cabin of the ship’s restaurant director above the flotation line. No fuel or water leaks were reported. The Moscow Canal, named the Moscow-Volga Canal until 1947, connects the Moskva River with the Volga. It is located in Moscow and the Moscow region. The canal is 128 kilometres long. It was constructed in 1932-1937 by Gulag prisoners under Stalin’s rule. Thanks to the Moscow Canal, Moscow has access to five seas: the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The canal also provides for about half of Moscow's water consumption. The banks of its numerous reservoirs are used as recreation zones. One of the world's tallest statues of Vladimir Lenin, 25-meter (82 ft) high, built in 1937, is located at Dubna at the confluence of the Volga River and the Moscow Canal. The accompanying statue of Joseph Stalin of similar size was demolished in 1963 during the period of de-stalinization.