Of all the experiences Boris Prokoshev had during his long career at sea, none matches the disastrous last voyage of a crippled rust-bucket called the Rhosus.
It began after a mutiny, led to his being held hostage on board and, to his horror, resulted seven years later in catastrophe — the explosion that ripped apart Beirut on August 4.
Prokoshev, a bearded 70-year-old, was born in western Siberia but has retired to Russia’s warm south where he tends his vegetable garden in a village near Sochi, President Vladimir Putin’s favourite Black Sea resort.
Boris Prokoshev (right) and boatswain Boris Musinchak next to a freight hold loaded with ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut in 2014
BORIS MUSINCHAK
When Prokoshev read the news from Beirut 12 days ago, he made no immediate connection to his bitter experiences as captain of the Rhosus, he said last week. As the truth dawned
