99-Year-Old Russian Tall Ship Completes The Legendary Northern Sea Route

The journey of the fabled Northern Sea Route was successfully transited by a 99-year-old tall ship, Sedov. The ship was originally built in Germany in 1921 and was acquired by the Soviet Union in 1945 as war repatriation.

The Sedov departed from Vladivostok in mid-August, it then completed the east-west passage bypassing the easternmost point of Europe, the southern tip of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, this week. The vessel is expected to arrive in Murmansk, Russia sometime next week.

The journey was made possible due to unprecedented low levels of sea-ice. In fact, Sedov’s captain said that during the journey they experienced hardly any sea ice at all.

“We expected that we at least would have encountered some finely-crushed ice in the Vilkitsky Strait and the Longa Strait,” said Mikhail Novikov, Captain-Supervisor of the Sedov. “We expected that at least.”

“But we have sailed across practically the whole Northern Sea in open waters, and we have not run into any crushed sea-ice, nor icebergs,” he added.

The Sedov is a four-masted, steel-hulled barque, almost 100 years old, that is one of the largest of its type in the world. She has visited Ireland several times for tall ship events. It is currently operated by Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishery. In addition to the ship’s usual crew, onboard were 136 cadets from the Baltic State Academy of the Fishing Fleet, the Kaliningrad Maritime Fisheries College, and the Murmansk State Technical University.

Good morning friends, one and all!

Northern lights filmed from board of 99 year old STS Sedov pic.twitter.com/ahUoKQWvsy

— blakandblack (@blakandblack) October 3, 2020