Two vessels suffer mechanical failures in Turkish waters, no spills reported

Turkey's Directorate General of Coastal Safety (KEGM) reported that two vessels suffered mechanical failures off the Turkish coast on October 9 and 11. The first, the supply vessel Can D, lost power off the Pendik shipyard while heading to the Tuzla shipyard area, and was towed without major incident to the Gemtiş shipyard. Two days later, the chemical tanker Ivyan suffered an engine breakdown in the Bosphorus Strait, near Kanlıca, and was left adrift before being safely moved to the Küçükçekmece anchorage area. Neither case reported pollution.

The Ivyan, Malta-flagged, with a length overall of 100 meters and a deadweight of 6,600 tonnes, built in 2021, was carrying 6,000 tonnes of vegetable oil from the Bulgarian port of Varna to the Italian port of Monopoli when it suffered the breakdown. Videos circulated on Turkish seafarers' websites showed the vessel spinning out of control clockwise on its own axis and dangerously approaching a pier and the Kanlıca shoreline, raising concern for the local ferry terminal and historic waterfront properties. The crew managed to avoid a collision by dropping anchor and stopping the vessel before it reached land.

Traffic in the Bosphorus was briefly suspended as part of the emergency response, coordinated by the Istanbul Vessel Traffic Services Center. The operation involved a pilot captain, the tug Kurtarma-7, the tug Kurtarma-11 and the salvage vessel Tahlisiye-9, which escorted the Ivyan to the Küçükçekmece anchorage area, after which traffic returned to normal. In the case of the Can D, a tug moved and moored it at the Gemtiş shipyard under the coordination of the İzmit Vessel Traffic Services Center.

According to official statistics from Turkey's Ministry of Transport, 89 vessels were towed in the Bosphorus Strait during 2025, a year in which a total of 40,172 vessels transited the waterway. Engine and steering failures are common in this narrow strait with strong currents, where last April traffic had already been suspended for nearly six hours after the container ship Kappa ran aground, coming to a halt just a few meters from luxury homes along the coast.