Russian icebreaker struggles to reach icebound ships

THE Magadan icebreaker of Russia`s Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) was struggling through the two-metre ice floes to rescue three icebound ships in the Sakhalin Bay, according to a spokesman for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk sea rescue coordination centre.

With a speed of 2.6 knots the icebreaker develops in conditions of the 10 point ice, the ship had to travel five miles to reach the stranded vessels, the centre`s spokesman said.


The Sodruzhestvo mother ship, the Professor Kizevetter research vessel and the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerated cargo ship were trapped in ice 11 to 12 miles off the Khabarovsk coastline. Their attempts to break free had been vain.


The Admiral Makarov, the biggest icebreaker in Russia`s Far East, was also heading to join the rescue operation.


Authorities said there was no threat to the lives and health of crew members of the three ships. The Sodruzhestvo has the largest crew complement of 340 people and food for 75 days.