Grigory Lovtsov was a small coastal trading vessel with a shallow draft of 2.9m (09.5feet), a length of 41.3m (135.5feet), and a beam of 9.4m (30.8feet). It had a summer deadweight of and a gross tonnage of, and operated with a crew of eight. Made of steel, the vessel was propelled by a single diesel engine, shaft, and screw.[1] [2] [3]
Grigory Lovtsov was built in Japan in 2002 by Watanabe Zosen K. K., who gave it the yard number 102.
On 4 January 2022, the ship was transiting through the waters of the Shantar Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk when it became stuck in the ice and suffered a power outage. The ship's captain issued a distress signal and ordered the crew to abandon ship, and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations dispatched an Mi-8 helicopter to perform an evacuation of the crew. By 0800 the next day, all eight crew had been successfully evacuated and airlifted to safety in Nkolayevsk, Khabarovsk Krai, without any injuries. The vessel was left to drift with the ice flows.[4] [5]
The ship was apparently recovered and was photographed in good condition Vladivostok in November 2022.[6]