The container ship Venta Maersk, one of Maersk Line’s new Baltic feeder vessels, arrived in Saint Petersburg, Russia on Friday after completing its historic one-off passage of the Northern Sea Route from Asia to Europe.
Venta Maersk is the fourth of seven sister vessels and was delivered on July 11, 2018. The new Baltic feeders are among the world’s largest ice-class vessels designed specifically to operate in cold waters (down to -25 degrees C), where ice-class is required to offer year-round operations. They have a nominal capacity of 3,596 TEU and is equipped with 600 reefer plugs.
According to Maersk, the passage of Northern Sea Route “went according to plan and without specific incidents.”
“We are very happy to welcome back crew and vessel safe and sound after this unique voyage,” says Palle Laursen, Chief Technical Officer at Maersk. “The trial allowed us to gain exceptional operational experience, test vessel systems, crew capabilities and the functionality of the shore-based support setup.”
Although the passage is feasible around this time of the year due to lack of ice, ice conditions in the East Siberian Sea still required assistance by icebreakers.
Despite the trial’s success, Maersk underlined that the passage was a one-off trial designed to gain operational experience in a new area and to test vessel systems.
