INCREDIBLE PORT: Captain's Watches
September 4th, 1991. Following the proclamation of the Act of Independence of Ukraine, the blue-and-yellow flag is raised above the Verkhovna Rada for the first time. On the very same day, it also appears on the tugboat 'Trud' in the Port of Odesa.
Inspectors ordered Captain Petro Hrabyna to take it down: 'The flag of a non-existent state!'*
(According to the ship's documents, it was allowed to sail only under the USSR flag). He refused.
The crew, fearing fines, would raise the red flag. But whenever Captain Hrabyna took the watch, the blue-and-yellow flag flew again. Everyone knew: if he was on duty, the flag of freedom was on the mast.
This continued for several months, until at the beginning of 1992 all the port’s vessels received official Ukrainian flags.
And that first one - possibly the very first Ukrainian flag in Ukrainian ports - Captain Hrabyna kept for himself. As a memory.
*The State Flag of Ukraine was officially adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on January 28, 1992
