Classification:	USSR Register of Shipping
Main engines:	2 × Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Wärtsilä is a Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include large combustion engines... -Sulzer Sulzer (manufacturer) Sulzer Ltd. is a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm, founded by Salomon Sulzer-Bernet in 1775 and established as Sulzer Brothers Ltd. in 1834 in Winterthur, Switzerland. Today it is a publicly owned company with international subsidiaries...  14ZV40/48 (2 × 7,700 kW)
Auxiliary engines:	5 × Wärtsilä-Vasa 624 TS (5 × 810 kW)
Design speed:	17 knots (9.3 m/s)
Accommodation:	42 crew 10 passengers

SA-15 is the project name for a series

Ship class

A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....

 of icebreaking

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...

 multipurpose cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

s built in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 for the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in the 1980s. The ships, capable of independent operation in all prevailing arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 ice conditions, were the first merchant vessels designed for year-round operations in the Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic...

. For this purpose they have hulls that resemble those of polar icebreakers and robust propulsion systems capable of withstanding the excessive ice loads.

While the ships are also known as the Norilsk-class after the first ship, Norilsk, they are usually referred to by their project name which denotes a subarctic

Subarctic

The Subarctic is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic and covering much of Alaska, Canada, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and northern Mongolia...

 15,000 DWT cargo ship. Nineteen SA-15 class ships were delivered by Finnish shipbuilders Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä is a Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include large combustion engines...

 and Valmet

Valmet

' was a Finnish state-owned conglomerate. Valmet was formed in 1951, when the state of Finland decided to group their various factories working on war reparations to the Soviet Union under one company...

 in 1982–1987 and seven remain in service.

History

Maintaining year-round traffic in the Northern Sea Route, especially between Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

 and Dudinka

Dudinka

Dudinka is a town and the administrative center of Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It was the administrative center of Taymyr Autonomous Okrug, which was merged into Krasnoyarsk Krai on January 1, 2007. It is a port in the lower reaches of the Yenisei River,...

, the most important ports in the Soviet arctic region, had always been a high priority to the Soviet Union due to the economic exploitation of the vast natural resources of the northern regions. Northern Sea Route is also an important link between Europe and Asia as it significantly reduces the transit time in comparison to the route through the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

. However, while the Soviet Union had a large fleet of ice-strengthened cargo ships, the year-round operation along the Northern Sea Route had primarily relied on the large nuclear-powered icebreakers. In the late 1970s Sudoimport, the Soviet foreign trade organization with a monopoly for the foreign trade of ships, requested for tenders

Request for tender

A request for tender, commonly abbreviated to RFT, is a formal, structured invitation to suppliers for the supply of products or services. In the public sector, such a process may be required and determined in detail by law to ensure that such competition for the use of public money is open, fair...

 for the design and construction of 20,000 DWT arctic cargo ships according to the specifications laid out by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine of the Soviet Union (MORFLOT).

Development and construction

Leading Finnish shipbuilders Wärtsilä and Valmet both developed designs that met the requirements for the new class of arctic cargo ships capable of year-round operation in the Northern Sea Route, Wärtsilä using knowledge and experience gained from building more than half of the world's icebreaker fleet in service at that time and Valmet from several types of ice strengthened cargo ships the company had built in the 1960s and 1970s, and an initial order for nine ships, six for Wärtsilä for FIM 1.2 billion and three for Valmet for FIM 600 million, was placed in July 1980. Wärtsilä's order was the largest single contract made by a Finnish industrial company. In the following year three more ships were ordered from Wärtsilä and two from Valmet, resulting in a total order of 14 ships worth of FIM 3.5 billion.

While initially the idea of ordering two similar but technically different series of ships for the same purpose was to gain operational experience for the future arctic freighters, shortly after the deal was made public the shipyards approached Sudoimport to agree on a uniform design. Not only was running two parallel development projects wasting effort and resources for the shipyards, but constructing a single type of ships instead of two would bring savings to the customer in form of reduced maintenance and spare part costs. Wärtsilä's design was chosen as the standard for further development since it was ahead in the production schedule. However, despite the co-operative measures some dissimilarities between the ships built by Wärtsilä and Valmet remained, resulting in the crews considering of them as separate types of ships as the differences were most obvious from the operator's point of view.

The first ship of the class, Norilsk from Wärtsilä, was delivered in 13 November 1982 from the Perno Shipyard in Turku

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

, half a year behind schedule due to the prototype nature in many of its systems. The first ship from Valmet, Nizhneyansk, was delivered from the Vuosaari shipyard

Vuosaari shipyard

Vuosaari shipyard was a shipyard located in the district of Vuosaari in Helsinki, Finland. Built by the Finnish state-owned company Valmet Oy in the 1970s, the shipyard delivered 33 newbuildings and participated in building around 100 other vessels before it was closed in 1987...

 in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 on 21 January 1983, about three months ahead of the contracted delivery time. The remaining twelve ships were delivered in 1983–1984.
Shortly after the last SA-15 class ships of the initial order, Anadyry from Valmet and Nikel from Wärtsilä, were delivered on 23 and 30 March 1984, respectively, Valmet received a follow-up order from Sudoimport for five more ships of the same type. The contract, finalized on 13 July 1984, was worth of FIM 1.5 billion (US$263M) and was the biggest single order ever received by Valmet. Minor modifications were made to the design based on the operator's experiences during the exceptionally hard arctic winter, resulting in a subclass sometimes referred to as SA-15 Super. The ships were built in 1985–1987 and the final ship, Kaptain Danilkin, was delivered on 17 June.

Operational history

While the first ships suffered from prototype problems and returned to the shipyard for repairs under warranty, the feedback from the operators was generally positive from the beginning especially regarding the performance of the ships in difficult ice conditions which was deemed superior to earlier ULA class freighters. The vessels were capable of breaking level ice up to 1.1 metres (3.6 ft) in thickness while maintaining a speed of 1–2 knots and proceed in even thicker ice by ramming.

Later reports state that the ships could maintain an average speed of 6 knots in winter and 12 knots in summer while operating in the Northern Sea Route and were capable of continuously breaking 80 cm (31 in) ice at five knots. With assistance from Arktika class nuclear icebreakers

Arktika class icebreaker

The Arktika class is a Russian class of nuclear powered icebreakers. They are owned by the federal government, but were operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company until 2008, when they were transferred to the fully government-owned operator Atomflot. Of the ten civilian nuclear powered vessels...

 the ships could operate in level ice with thickness of 2 metres (6.6 ft) at two knots under their own power without towing, but if the freighter is attached to the icebreaker's stern notch for close towing, the combination could maintain a speed of four knots in similar ice conditions, the same as the speed of the icebreaker when operating alone.

The strength of the SA-15 class ships was further proven when icebreaker Admiral Makarov

Icebreaker Admiral Makarov

The Icebreaker Admiral Makarov is a large Russian icebreaker operated by the Far East Shipping Company . Completed in 1975, she is FESCO's oldest icebreaker. Admiral Makarov and her sister ship Krasin , are the largest of the four icebreakers in FESCO's fleet...

, after having been immobilized for five days, pushed the freshly delivered Nizhneyansk at full power through the ice separating the vessels from Pevek

Pevek

Pevek is a town and Arctic port in Chaunsky District, part of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. After Anadyr and Bilibino it is the third largest town in Chukotka. Population: Municipally, the town is subordinated to Chaunsky Municipal district and together with Apapelgino and Yanranay, is...

, arriving at the city as the first ships of the year 1983. During the particularly difficult season, during which around fifty cargo ships were trapped in ice in the East Siberian Sea

East Siberian Sea

The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka, and Wrangel Island to the east...

, the SA-15 class freighters were sent to the Northern Sea Route as soon as they were delivered from the Finnish shipyards to unload cargo from icebound ships and deliver the much-needed supplies to isolated communities along the coast. The ships also acted as escort icebreakers, using their stern notches to tow smaller ships through the ice fields even though it was not their original purpose.

Initial Soviet and Russian owners

The largest initial operator was Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) which owned and operated a fleet of ten SA-15 class cargo ships in the western part of the Soviet arctic. It was followed by two companies operating in the eastern regions, Far East Shipping Company

Far East Shipping Company

The Far East Shipping Company is a Russian ship-owning company and the base company of FESCO Group. Founded in the 19th century in Vladivostok, the company now owns a fleet of 50 vessels, totaling 880 thsd DWT.- Share capital and management :...

 (FESCO) with seven and Sakhalin Shipping Company

Sakhalin Shipping Company

Sakhalin Shipping Company is a Russian shipping company. Headquartered in Kholmsk, on Sakhalin Island's west coast, the company was created in 1945, and privatized in 1992....

 with two vessels. Later MSCO transferred three ships to its affiliate, NB Shipping, and the ships were transferred from Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n to Cypriot

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

 register.

During the summer sailing season the ships carried cargo along the Northern Sea Route, supplying the settlements and mining colonies on the East Siberian coast, and made several transit voyages from Europe to the Far East and Canada, each 25-day voyage taking around ten days less than a similar voyage through the Suez Canal. In winter the SA-15 class freighters mainly supported the Norilsk-Dudinka operation, providing a continuous flow of non-ferrous metal concentrates to the smelters of the Kola Peninsula

Kola Peninsula

The Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast...

 and other industries within the Soviet Union, but also carried other cargo especially when the ice conditions became too difficult for other vessels. To promote the utilization of the Northern Sea Route cargo space onboard the SA-15 class ships was also leased to Western shipping companies and several experimental voyages for scientific purposes were made in the 1990s. For years the SA-15 class ships formed the core of the Soviet and later Russian fleet of icebreaking cargo ships.

Bank Line

In 1995 Bank Line, a subsidiary of Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd, purchased four SA-15 class ships, Okha, Bratsk, Tiksi and Nikel, for their westbound round-the-world liner

Cargo liner

A Cargo liner is a type of merchant ship which carried general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the nineteenth century, and eventually gave way to container ships and other more specialized carriers in the latter half of the twentieth...

 service linking Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 to the South Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

 and Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 via the Panama

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 and Suez Canals. The ships, no longer required to sail in the arctic conditions, were renamed Speybank, Arunbank, Foylebank and Teignbank and converted in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 for the South Pacific service. In 2006 China Navigation Co Ltd, the deep-sea shipping arm of John Swire & Sons Ltd

Swire Group

The Swire Group is a transnational corporation headquartered in the Swire House in the City of Westminster, London, England. It controls a range of wholly owned businesses, including deep-sea shipping, cold storage, road transport, and agricultural activities. The current chairman is James...

, bought the business from Andrew Weir Shipping. The ships, while still managed by Bank Line, were time chartered, renamed to Mahinabank, Tikeibank, Gazellebank and Boularibank, and sent to Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 for drydocking and extensive refits. Later the company also chartered a fifth SA-15 class ship, but unlike the others it was not rebuilt and retained its Russian identity. However, due to the economic downturn of 2009 the round-the-world cargo liner service was discontinued and the four SA-15 class ships were returned to their original owner and sold for scrap in late 2009.

The end of Bank Line's SA-15 class ships was not without incident. On 28 April 2009, on her last complete voyage in round-the-world service, the Boularibank was attacked by Somalian pirates

Piracy in Somalia

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century...

 120 miles northeast of Socotra Island at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden

Gulf of Aden

The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....

. Unable to outrun the attackers, Captain Peter Stapleton carried out evasive manoeuvres while under fire from the assailants' AK-47

AK-47

The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...

s and RPGs and had his crew ward off the invaders using water cannons, twistlock

Twistlock

A twistlock and corner casting together form a standardised rotating connector for securing shipping containers. The primary uses are for locking a container into place on container ship, semi-trailer truck or railway container train; and for lifting of the containers by container cranes and...

s and heavy balks of timber lashed to the guard rails. By the time a destroyer of the Russian Navy arrived at the scene the pirates had given up, leaving the Boularibanks crew of 31, eleven passengers and the captain's wife unharmed. Stapleton was later awarded the Merchant Navy Medal for exceptional bravery during the attack.

Another converted SA-15 class ship, the Foylebank, was briefly featured in the 2000 drama film Cast Away

Cast Away

Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...

 as the ship that rescues the character portrayed by Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

.

Other operators

While the majority of the SA-15 class ships remain under Russian ownership, in addition to the four ships operated by Bank Line several SA-15 class freighters have found their way to the second-hand market since the 1990s and several were sold to non-Russian owners.

In 1996 the Nizhneyansk was sold to a Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

n company Bandwidth Shipping Corporation and renamed Magdalena Oldendorff. Operated by a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 shipping company Oldendorff Carriers, a subsidiary of Egon Olderdorff, the ship was chartered in 2000 as a support ship for the 20th Indian Antarctic Expedition

Indian Antarctic Program

The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica...

. On 11 June 2002 the Magdalena Oldendorff, while on her second voyage to the Maitri Base, was immobilized by pack ice. 79 Russian scientists and 11 crew members were airlifted by helicopters to the South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n research ship S.A. Agulhas

SA Agulhas

The SA Agulhas is an ice-strengthened research vessel. She was built in 1977, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Shimonoseki, Japan. The SA Agulhas is South Africa's polar research vessel...

 and returned to Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

. After an unsuccessful rescue attempt by the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 icebreaker Almirante Irízar in late August a decision was made for the ship to winter in the Bay of Muskegbukta and attempt to free itself when the ice started to melt with the beginning of the Antarctic summer. In late November the Magdalena Oldendorff freed itself and returned to Cape Town for the Christmas. The ship was resold in 2003 and 2010, and is currently sailing again under Russian ownership as Captain Kurbatskiy. The ship was in news again in June 2011 when four crew members died after consuming alcohol that turned out to be methanol. The ship was sold for scrap in late 2011.

In early 2009 another SA-15 class ship, the Monchegorsk, became the centre of an international incident involving Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Russia, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, the Palestinian territories

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

 and Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

. American naval ships of the Combined Task Force 151

Combined Task Force 151

Combined Task Force 151 or CTF-151 or Combined Task Force One Five One is an international naval task force, set up in response to piracy attacks in shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia...

 alerted the Egyptian officials after the ship left an Iranian port and headed for the Suez Canal. The ship was forced into an Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian port and munitions, believed to be headed to the Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip

thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

, were found hidden in the cargo. However, the officials had no evidence that this was in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747 was a United Nations Security Council resolution that tightened the sanctions imposed on Iran in connection with the Iranian nuclear program...

, which prohibits Iran from exporting weapons, and the ship was released. After leaving the Canal the Monchegorsk, flying a Cypriot flag, was boarded and escorted to the Port of Limassol. This resulted in a diplomatic struggle in which Israel and the US maintained that the shipment was in violation of the UN resolution, Israel claimed that the weapons were heading for the Palestinian organizations in the Gaza strip and Iran denied everything. The Cypriot officials made a decision to unload the suspicious cargo of 98 containers from the ship and keep it in Cyprus. The ship was sold for scrap shortly after the incident. On 11 July 2011, more than two years later, the confiscated containers, stored in the open under allegedly inappropriate conditions at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base

Evangelos Florakis Naval Base

The Evangelos Florakis Naval Base is a Cyprus Navy base, situated on the island's southern coast adjacent to the Vasilikos industrial area and power plant, near Zygi, between Limassol and Larnaca. Prior to 11 July 2011, it was the main location of the Command of the Navy Base, one of the five...

 near Mari

Mari, Cyprus

Mari is a village in the Larnaca District of Cyprus, located 5 km west of Zygi. The village was largely populated by Turkish Cypriots before 1974. It was also known as "Tatlısu" before 1974-References:...

, exploded

Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion

The Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion was the worst peacetime military accident ever recorded in Cyprus. The incident occurred on 11 July 2011, when 98 containers of explosives that were being stored for 2½ years in the sun on the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base near Zygi self-detonated.The...

, leaving 12 people dead and 62 injured. The explosion created a 600 metres (1,969 ft) crater and caused widespread damage to the naval base and the nearby power station of Vasilikos.

Future

Despite decades of service in some of the harshest operating conditions on the planet no SA-15 class freighters have been lost. However, even the newest ships are almost 25 years old and approaching the end of their economic life. The increasing operating costs of the old vessels with relatively large crews will eventually force the shipping companies currently operating old SA-15 class ships in their fleet to retire them and look for replacements especially for the more demanding arctic routes. Most of the remaining SA-15 class freighters have been transferred to southern routes for their final years and have become a common sight especially in Chinese ports.

In 2006–2011 MMC Norilsk Nickel

MMC Norilsk Nickel

MMC Norilsk Nickel is a nickel and palladium mining and smelting company. Its largest operations are located in the Norilsk–Talnakh area, in northern Russia. MMC stands for "Mining and Metallurgical Company"....

 built a series of five 14,500 DWT double acting

Double acting ship

Double acting ship is a type of icebreaking merchant ship designed to run ahead in open water and astern in ice...

 container ship

Container ship

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...

s to replace the ageing fleet of MSCO-owned SA-15 class ships used to support the Norilsk-Dudinka operation. In November 2010 one of these new vessels capable of breaking ice up to 1.7 metres (5.6 ft) thick when operating astern, Monchegorsk, became the first ship to traverse the eastern part of Northern Sea Route without icebreaker assistance while sailing from Murmansk via Dudinka to Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

.

The first SA-15 class ship to be scrapped was Kandalaksha which was sold for demolition to China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in the spring of 2009. It was followed by the four ships operated by Bank Line — Boularibank was sold to be broken up in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Gazellebank, Tikeibank and Mahinabank in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 during the second half of 2009 — and Monchegorsk, which arrived at the breakers in China in late 2009. In 2010 they were joined by Kola and Norilsk, which were recycled in India and Huangpu

Huangpu District, Guangzhou

Huangpu District is one of the ten districts in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China.-History:...

, China, respectively. The first vessels of this type to be scrapped in 2011 were the Arkhangelsk, withdrawn from the register on 17 May, and the Emerald Sea, reported to be bound for breakers in Alang in late May. They were followed by Captain Kurbatskiy and Amderma, both of which were sold to Indian breakers in late 2011. It is likely that the remaining SA-15 class ships will be sold for scrap in the coming years as they reach the end of their economical life.

General characteristics

The SA-15 class multipurpose cargo ships have a maximum overall length of 177.2 metres (581.36 ft) or 173.55 metres (569.39 ft) with the stern notch excluded. Their hulls are 164.1 metres (538.39 ft) long at the waterline

Waterline length

The Waterline length is a measurement of ships and boats. The term denotes the length of the vessel at the point where it sits in the water. It excludes the total length of the boat, such as features that are out of the water...

 and their length between perpendiculars is 159.6 metres (523.62 ft). The breadth of the ships, like all other cargo ships operating in the Northern Sea Route, is limited to 24.5 metres (80.38 ft) by the size of the escorting icebreakers. The shallow waters of the Northern Sea Route limit the draught to 9 metres (29.53 ft), but outside the arctic their cargo capacity can be increased by allowing the ice-strengthened parts of the hull to become submerged. Increasing the draught to 11.35 metres (37.24 ft) increases their displacement to from 27,660 tons to 31,000 tons and deadweight tonnage from 16,600 to around 23,000 tons. While there are minor differences in tonnage and displacement between ships and the actual figures differ slightly from the design values which were measured in register tons, the gross tonnage (GT) of the SA-15 class cargo ships is generally around 18,600 and net tonnage (NT) at summer load waterline ranges from around 8,700 to roughly 9,000, being smaller for the newer SA-15 Super class ships. At the arctic subdivision line the net tonnage is reduced to 6,300.

The SA-15 class freighters have a design speed of 17 knots at the design draught of 8.5 metres (27.89 ft) and 90% MCR

Maximum Continuous Rating

Maximum continuous rating is defined as the maximum output that a generating station is capable of producing continuously under normal conditions over a year. Under ideal conditions, the actual output could be higher than the MCR....

 (13,860 kW), but are capable of reaching speeds up to 18.1 knots. However, the actual service speed of the ships when fully laden is slightly lower, 12 knots with one or 15 knots with both main engines. The fuel capacity, 3,740 m³ of heavy fuel oil and 783 m³ of diesel oil, gives them an operational range of 16,000 nautical miles in open water. The ships can carry enough provisions

Provisioning (disambiguation)

The term provisioning can refer to:* in telecommunications:**Provisioning, equipping a telecommunications network* in shipping:**Provisioning, stocking materials or supplies; especially food...

 for 60 days of operation.

The ships provide accommodation for 52 people, including five double cabins for passengers, and extensive facilities such as library, photographic laboratory, film projector room, swimming pool, sports room, two combined messes and dayrooms, hospital and separate saloons for passengers and the captain. The accommodation spaces have an effective thermal insulation, heating and air conditioning to maintain comfortable inside temperature while the outside temperature varies from -50 C to 35 °C (95 °F). The SA-15 class ships also have several special features not commonly found in cargo ships, such as a lookout post

Crow's nest

A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the mainmast of a ship or structure, that is used as a lookout point.This position ensured the best view of the approaching hazards, other ships or land. It was the best device for this purpose until the invention of radar.In early ships it was...

 in the bow for surveying the ice conditions in front of the ship.

In addition to the official names, the SA-15 class ships are sometimes called "carrot

Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...

s" because of the shape and orange colour of their hulls.

Special features

The harsh operating conditions of the arctic seas place high requirements on the strength, reliability and redundancy of the hull and propulsion machinery, especially for single-screw ships operating independently without icebreaker escort. For this reason the hull form of the SA-15 class freighters resembles that of icebreakers and their robust propulsion system has several innovative features and prototype arrangements to improve the ships' operational capability. Special attention has also been paid on the ships' general purpose characteristics by designing the cargo storage and handling facilities to allow various different types of cargo.

Hull

The hull form of the SA-15 class ships, a result of intensive model tests in both open water and model ice, is very different from that of conventional merchant vessels, being more akin to polar icebreakers than traditional cargo ships. The bow design puts equal emphasis on both icebreaking and seakeeping

Seakeeping

Seakeeping ability is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea states....

 characteristics, meaning that in addition to good icebreaking and manoeuvring capabilities in various ice conditions the vessel must be able to operate in open water without bottom slamming

Slamming

Slamming is the impact of the bottom structure of a ship onto the sea surface. It is mainly observed while sailing in waves, when the bow raises from the water and subsequently impacts on it. Slamming induces extremely high loads to ship structures and is taken under consideration when designing...

 or shipping of green water occurring in rough seas. The sides are flared to prevent the ship from stopping or being damaged when operating in compressive ice fields. The aft part of the hull, while a compromise between good reversing qualities in the ice and low level of propeller-induced vibrations in the stern, is also designed to prevent pieces of ice from coming in contact with the propeller. The ships are also equipped with stern notches similar to those found in icebreakers, but instead of towing other ships they are meant to be used to allow safe assistance from icebreakers in particularly difficult ice conditions.

The material used in the hull is largely grade E shipbuilding steel which is suitable for cold temperatures down to -50 C. A special high-strength steel, Rautaruukki

Rautaruukki

Rautaruukki Corporation is a Finnish company, headquartered in Helsinki, which manufactures and supplies metal-based components and systems to the construction and engineering industries....

 Raex E32 Polar, is used in the main components of the ice zone where it was protected by abrasion-resistant low-friction paint, Inerta 160. The thickness of the plating in the ice belt is 36 millimetres (1.4 in). Longitudinal framing is used except in the side area between double bottom and tweendeck, which has transverse framing to improve the distribution of ice loads on the side shell.

Propulsion and power

Propulsion power is provided by two 14-cylinder

V14 engine

A V14 engine is a V engine with 14 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of seven cylinders. A relatively uncommon cylinder configuration, the V14 layout has been used on large medium-speed diesel engines used for power generation and marine propulsion.- Marine use :MAN B&W offers V14...

 Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä is a Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include large combustion engines...

-Sulzer

Sulzer (manufacturer)

Sulzer Ltd. is a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm, founded by Salomon Sulzer-Bernet in 1775 and established as Sulzer Brothers Ltd. in 1834 in Winterthur, Switzerland. Today it is a publicly owned company with international subsidiaries...

 14ZV40/48 4-stroke medium-speed diesel engines running on heavy fuel oil, each with a maximum continuous output of 7700 kW at 560 rpm. As a precaution against failure of the propeller pitch control mechanism the main engines are directly reversible. The fuel consumption while underway is 76 tons per day, but to save fuel costs only one main engine is used when operating in open water.

The main engines are connected to a single propeller shaft through a double input/single output single-stage reduction gear manufactured in Finland by Valmet Rautpohja Works in co-operation with Renk AG

Renk

RENK AG is a German company, part of the MAN Group. It has its headquarters in Augsburg, and is producer of gears, other components of propulsion technology and test systems. It is currently the leading manufacturer of transmissions for tracked vehicles, worldwide and a major supplier for marine...

. The gearbox is equipped with separate Renk multi disc clutch

Clutch

A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...

es and Voith

Voith

The Voith GmbH, which is headquartered in Germany, is a family-run corporation in the mechanical engineering sector with worldwide operations....

 fluid coupling

Fluid coupling

A fluid coupling is a hydrodynamic device used to transmit rotating mechanical power. It has been used in automobile transmissions as an alternative to a mechanical clutch...

s for the main engines. The hydrodynamic couplings that allow over 100% slipping between input and output shafts are used in difficult ice conditions to increase propeller torque and protect the main engines from large torque variations resulting from propeller blades hitting the ice. The gearbox itself is also designed to withstand the high thrust and torque loads caused by an open propeller operating in ice — the gear teeth are dimensioned to withstand loads up to five times the nominal value. The fully locking mechanical clutches are used to improve fuel efficiency when the ship is operating in open water or light ice conditions.

The 13-metre (13 metres (42.7 ft)) propeller shaft weighs 66 tons and has a large external diameter, 1055 mm (41.54 in) in the stern part. The shaft line is designed according to a certain hierarchy of strength, meaning that if the maximum load is exceeded, yielding

Yield (engineering)

The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials science as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed...

 occurs in predefined points before components that are more expensive or difficult to repair are damaged. Because the propeller pitch control unit is located at the end of the propeller shaft on the other side of the gearbox, no cutouts that would reduce the strength of the shaft are needed.

Because the power output per shaft of the SA-15 class freighters was at that time one of the highest among icebreaking ships, second only to the Arktika class nuclear icebreakers, their propellers are of extremely robust design. The 5.6-metre (5.6 metres (18.4 ft)), 68-ton, four-bladed stainless steel

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 controllable pitch propeller

Controllable pitch propeller

A controllable pitch propeller or variable pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change their pitch...

s were developed and manufactured by KaMeWa specially for the SA-15 project. The propeller hubs, which house the pitch adjusting mechanism dimensioned for arctic ice conditions, have a diameter of 2.35 metres (7.7 ft) and were, at the time of the building, the largest ever constructed.

Instead of bow thruster

Bow thruster

A bow thruster is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, the bow of a ship or boat to make it more maneuverable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow the captain to turn the vessel to port or starboard without using the main propulsion mechanism which requires...

s the ships are equipped with Wärtsilä Air Bubbling System (WABS). Pressurized air released from nozzles located below the waterline lubricates the hull and, by reducing friction between steel and ice, improves the ship's ability to operate in difficult ice conditions such as pressure ridges and reduces the risk of becoming stuck in ice. The system can also be used to steer the ship at low speeds.

For electricity production the ships have four auxiliary generating sets, Wärtsilä-Vasa 624TS 4-stroke medium-speed diesel engines driving 1000 kVa Strömberg

Stromberg

-People:*Lyndon Stromberg, American sculptor and designer*Karl Stromberg, the villain in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me*Joseph R. Stromberg, historian with the Ludwig von Mises Institute*Glenn Strömberg, Swedish soccer player...

 alternators. One of the four engines, each with a power output of 810 kW at 750 rpm, can also be coupled to a radial compressor to serve the air bubbling system. A fifth engine of the same type is dedicated to drive a second compressor. Instead of heavy fuel oil the auxiliary generating sets run on marine diesel oil. There's also an emergency diesel generator of Soviet origin that has a power output of 100 kW at 1500 rpm.

Icebreaking capability

The SA-15 class freighters are designed to break level ice up to one metre (1 metres (3.3 ft)) in thickness with a snow layer of 0.2 metre (0.656167979002625 ft) in continuous motion without icebreaker assistance and operate in all prevailing ice conditions encountered in the arctic regions such as ridges and compressive ice. Designed for year round operation in the North Sea Route, the freighters were intended to operate unescorted during the summer navigation period and, if necessary, with assistance from the Arktika class icebreakers in the more severe ice conditions during winter. The ships are equipped with a stern notch, similar to the towing notches found in icebreakers, to allow safe pushing assistance from an icebreaker.

The ships were the first freighters in ten years to be built to the highest Soviet ice class notation available for merchant ships, ULA. Their hulls, rudders and propulsion systems were dimensioned according to the then-latest ice class rules of the USSR Register of Shipping. When the ships are loaded to a deeper draught, their ice class is reduced to UL which, despite being slightly lower, is still equivalent to the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class

Finnish-Swedish ice class

The Finnish-Swedish ice class is an ice class assigned to a vessel operating in first-year ice in the Baltic Sea and calling Finnish or Swedish ports...

, 1A Super.

Cargo handling

The SA-15 class freighters are capable of carrying a wide variety of cargo ranging from general and dry bulk cargoes to containers and trailers. Heavy cargo up to 80 tonnes and long goods up to 25 metres (82 ft) can also be carried. The ships, designed to serve the remote arctic regions, are also equipped with flexible cargo handling equipment for loading and unloading in undeveloped ports. The cargo gear is designed to operate normally at an ambient temperature of -40 C and maintain operational condition at temperatures as low as -50 C. It is also extensively winterized

Winterization

Winterization refers to the process of preparing something for an upcoming winter.The term is most commonly used in respect to aquatic play features, fountains, and the like, which must be drained and sealed up so that water inside does not freeze, causing breakage of the pipes in the fountain, or...

 by arranging most of the operating equipment inside the cargo access units.

The ships have five holds fitted with tweendecks

Tweendecker

Tweendeckers are general cargo ships with two or sometimes three decks. The upper deck is called the main deck or weather deck, and the lower deck is the tweendeck. Cargo such as bales, bags, or drums can stacked in the tweendeck space, atop the tweendeck...

, four forwards and one abaft of the superstructure, with a total grain capacity of 31,181 cubic metres. The foremost hold, No. 1, is specially designed for the carriage of explosives for the mining industry, inflammable liquids and chemicals in packages, and for this reason has a separate seawater fire extinguishing system that can also be used to cool the bulkhead between the foremost holds. Lower holds No. 2, 3 and 4 are designed for bulk cargoes such as coal, ore and grain. Containers can be carried in all holds and on the hatch covers, and the total container capacity of the SA-15 class ships is 576 twenty-foot equivalent unit

Twenty-foot equivalent unit

The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...

s, forty of which can be refrigerated, or 236 forty-foot equivalent units. In addition the ships can carry special ten-foot ore concentrate containers in holds No. 2, 3 and 4, with two layers on tank top and one on tweendeck.

For loading and unloading of general cargo, containers and bulk cargo the ships are geared with four deck cranes located on the centerline, one on the aft deck and three forwards of the superstructure. The No. 2 crane on the foredeck is a twin type crane with a lifting capacity of 2 × 40 tonnes at 20 metres (65.6 ft) while the others are single hydraulic cranes, capable of lifting 20 tonnes, with a maximum outreach of 22 metres (72.2 ft).

The ships can carry roll-on/roll-off cargo on the continuous tweendeck between holds No. 2 and No. 5. The cargo space, which has a capacity of 570 lane metres with a width of 3.0 metres and free height of 4.3 metres, is divided into five watertight compartments with sliding bulkhead doors located between the holds to meet the subdivision requirements. Wheeled cargo can be loaded and unloaded via a 41-tonne stern quarter ramp angled at 65 degrees to the centerline. The 18-metre (18 metres (59.1 ft)) ramp has a free driving width of 5 metres (16.4 ft) and can handle cargo weighing up to 56 tonnes. It can also be lowered directly on ice if the thickness exceeds one metre although the resulting slope angle of 17 degrees would be too much for normal vehicles.

While not designed to carry liquid cargo, the ships have a provision to transfer fuel from either side of the ship to another vessel moored alongside.

A novel cargo handling feature of the SA-15 class freighters was an air cushion platform which could be carried on the weather deck and used to transport cargo ashore or directly to a warehouse in locations having little or no cargo handling facilities. These hovercraft

Hovercraft

A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...

s, manufactured by Wärtsilä, were powered by a 625 kW stern-mounted diesel engine driving two fans giving the platform a hovering height of 0.6–0.7 m (2–2.3 ft). They were capable of carrying a payload of 38 tonnes over ice, water, land and marshy terrain when towed by a tractor or a tug or, if necessary, by using an auxiliary propulsion unit that gave the platform a speed of at least two knots. However, the air cushion platforms were rarely used and have not been seen onboard the SA-15 class freighters since the 1980s.

SA-15 Super

When Valmet Oy received a follow-up order for five SA-15 class cargo ships in 1984, some modifications to the ship were made based on the owner's experiences during the past winter that had been exceptionally hard. While the basic design followed that of the other vessels and the general characteristics remained largely the same, due to the changes the last five ships are sometimes referred to as a separate subclass, SA-15 Super.

The majority of the changes were internal. While the module-based design of the engine room, pioneered by the SA-15 class ships, reduced the amount of working hours while building the ship, the piping was completely redesigned to reduce its overall length and make basic maintenance easier. The fifth auxiliary engine was also left out as it was rarely used in actual operation. Winterization was improved by installing heating elements in the double bottom tanks, improving the heating in other ballast water tanks and increasing ice strengthening in some parts of the hull.

Some modifications were made to cargo spaces and cargo handling equipment. The aftmost lower hold was turned into a refrigerated cargo space and a dividing bulkhead was removed from the foremost hold. The tweendeck hatch covers were changed from wire-operated to hydraulic and, due to the rearranging of the aft deck winches and to ease the handling of mooring lines, the aft hatch was made slightly smaller than in the original ships. The capacity of the deck crane in front of the superstructure was increased to 40 tons to allow better handling of ore containers. The stern quarter ramp was also changed to a folding type that would maintain constant pressure on the quay. There were also some changes to the general arrangements of the lowest accommodation deck.

Externally one of the most noticeable changes in addition to the stern ramp was lowering the lookout post in the bow to improve visibility from the bridge.

Bank Line conversion

The SA-15 class ships purchased by Andrew Weir Shipping were converted at Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

 and Tyne Tees Dockyard for South Pacific service in 1995 by increasing their cargo-carrying capacity and removing specialized icebreaking features in favor of reduced operating costs.

The conversion consisted of retrofitting a bulbous bow

Bulbous bow

A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability...

, faired to the existing icebreaker bow, to reduce the wave resistance and replacing the ice-strengthened propeller blades with more efficient highly skewed blades, designed by KaMeWa, to improve speed and fuel consumption. Six double-bottom tanks were converted from bunker to ballast water tanks while nine wing tanks were converted from ballast to heavy fuel oil and two to dedicated heeling tanks. The cargo-carrying capacity of the ships was increased by converting deep tanks between the cargo holds and below the lower deck in the bow for the carriage of vegetable oils. Their maximum allowable draught was increased to 11.3 metres (37.07 ft), which substantially increased the ships' deadweight tonnage. Other changes included upgrading the cargo handling and lifesaving equipment, converting ten cabins for passengers and installing a new incinerator to deal with the shipboard waste. The stern notch was also no longer needed and thus removed, but the Wärtsilä Air Bubbling system was retained for maneuvering.

When China Navigation Co Ltd bought the South Pacific service from Andrew Weir Shipping in 2006, the four SA-15 class freighters were time chartered by the new owner and further modified during drydocking in Singapore. During the refit an additional Wärtsilä Auxpac 6L20 generating set, capable of operating on the same grade of heavy fuel oil as the main engines, was installed alongside the existing smaller 624TS diesel generators and some ballast tanks were converted to heavy fuel oil to increase the bunker capacity. Fuel efficiency was further improved by grit blasting the underwater parts to minimize hull roughness and installing wake-equalising ducts and a rudder bulb. The ships' container capacity was also increased to 702 TEU.

List of SA-15 class ships

Ship name	Owner/Operator	Flag	Shipyard	Year	IMO number	Status	Notes
SA-15
Norilsk (Норильск)	NB Shipping Ltd (MSCO)		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku Wärtsilä Wärtsilä is a Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include large combustion engines...  (1256)	1982	8013003	Scrapped in 2010
Nizhneyansk (Нижнеянск) (1983–1996) Magdalena Oldendorff (1996–2003) Ocean Luck (2003–2010) Captain Kurbatskiy (Капитан Курбацкий) (2010–2011)	Fern Shipping Inc		Valmet Oy, Helsinki Valmet ' was a Finnish state-owned conglomerate. Valmet was formed in 1951, when the state of Finland decided to group their various factories working on war reparations to the Soviet Union under one company...  (310)	1983	8013065	Scrapped in 2011
Tiksi (Тикси) (1983–1995) Foylebank (1995–2006) Gazellebank (2006–2009)	Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1257)	1983	8013015	Scrapped in 2009
Igarka (Игарка)	Far East Shipping Company Far East Shipping Company The Far East Shipping Company is a Russian ship-owning company and the base company of FESCO Group. Founded in the 19th century in Vladivostok, the company now owns a fleet of 50 vessels, totaling 880 thsd DWT.- Share capital and management :...		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1258)	1983	8013027	In service
Kola (Кола)	Murmansk Shipping Company		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1259)	1983	8013053	Scrapped in 2010
Arkhangelsk (Архангельск)	NB Shipping Ltd (MSCO)		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1260)	1983	8013041	Scrapped in 2011
Monchegorsk Monchegorsk (ship) MV Monchegorsk was an SA-15 class cargo ship built by Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland, in 1983. Named after a town of the same name, the freighter was the tenth ship of a series of 19 icebreaking multipurpose arctic freighters built by Wärtsilä and Valmet for the Soviet Union for year-round service in...  (Мончегорск)	NB Shipping Ltd (MSCO)		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1261)	1983	8013039	Scrapped in 2009
Amderma (Амдерма)	Far East Shipping Company		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1265)	1983	8119144	Scrapped in 2011
Okha (Оха) (1983–1995) Speybank (1995–2006) Mahinabank (2006–2009)	Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (311)	1983	8013077	Scrapped in 2009
Bratsk (Братск) (1983–1995) Arunbank (1995–2006) Tikeibank (2006–2009)	Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (312)	1983	8013089	Scrapped in 2009
Kemerovo (Кемерово) (1983–2000) Marathon II (2000–2005) Professor Barabanov (Профессор Барабанов) (2005–)	Morley Marine Ltd		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (316)	1983	8120662	In service
Kandalaksha (Кандалакша)	Murmansk Shipping Company		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1266)	1984	8119156	Scrapped in 2009
Anadyry (Анадырь) (1984–2000) Emerald Sea (2000–2011)	Eastland Finance Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (317)	1984	8120674	Scrapped in 2011
Nikel (Никель) (1984–1995) Teignbank (1995–2006) Boularibank (2006–2009)	Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd		Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku (1267)	1984	8119168	Scrapped in 2009
SA-15 Super
Anatoliy Kolesnichenko (Анатолий Колесниченко)	Far East Shipping Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (318)	1985	8406688	In service
Kapitan Man (Капитан Ман)	Far East Shipping Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (319)	1985	8406690	In service
Yuriy Arshenevskiy (Юрий Аршеневский)	Murmansk Shipping Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (320)	1986	8406705	In service
Vasiliy Burkhanov (Василий Бурханов)	Far East Shipping Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (322)	1986	8406717	In service
Kapitan Danilkin (Капитан Данилкин)	Murmansk Shipping Company		Valmet Oy, Helsinki (323)	1987	8406729	In service