Languages

German vessels ready for the Northern Sea Route

Beluga Family (Photo Maritime Bulletin)

Three vessels from the German Beluga Group will this summer sail the Northern Sea Route from East to West. This is the first time since WWII that vessels under foreign flag travel this Arctic route.

Location

The mission, which is to be made without icebreaker assistance has been planned for a long period. As BarentsObserver reported last year, the Beluga Group already then intended to conduct the sailing. However, the operation was postponed following lack of official approval from Russian authorities.

Now the operation is a fact, Maritime Bulletin reports. Three vessels from Beluga Group will this summer sail the Northern Sea Route from East to West, delivering equipment for a new heating and power plant in Surgut, Khanti-Mansi Autonomous Okrug on the way. The cargo, which includes two 270 tons generators and 44 constructions of 100 tons each, will be unloaded in the port of Novy, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and then transported further on barges.


The Beluga Group’s sailing along the Northern Sea Route comes amid a rapidly growing interest in Arctic shipping. Arctic warming and ice melting is making major parts of the area open for summertime shipping. That has made Russia heighten its focus on the Northern Sea Route. As reported by BarentsObserver, the country is currently in the process of approving a new law on shipping along the route.

The first of the vessels, the 12 744 dwt “Beluga Family” is planned to reach Novy on August 7. It will then continue to Murmansk and Rotterdam. The next vessel, the 13257 dwt “Beluga Fraternity”, is currently in the port of Vladivostok awaiting permission from Russian authorities to sail the Northern Sea Route. The third vessel will be the 12 669 dwt “Beluga Foresight”.

All of the vessels are of ice class and are designed for transport of heavy and large-scaled cargo.

According to Maritime Bulletin, the last foreign vessel to sail the Northern Sea Route in modern times was the German Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser “Komet”, which in August 1940 in a covert operation sailed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean to attack British ships.