On 18 August, the Admiral Vladimirsky oceanographic research ship of the Baltic Fleet will leave St. Petersburg and then set sail on an unprecedented round-the-world voyage.

"The Russian Navy, after more than 30 years, is returning to round-the-world voyages," said the head of navigation and oceanography of the Russian Ministry of Defence, captain of 1st rank, Sergey Travin. According to him, preparation of the training vessel is fully complete.

The route of the ship will include the Baltic, North and Barents Seas, the waters of the Northern Sea Route, the Bering Sea, and northern part of the Pacific Ocean. The ship will pass through the Panama Canal into the Atlantic Ocean, cross it, pass through the English Channel, the North Sea, and the southern part of the Danish straits, and will complete the route on the Baltic Sea.

"The most important stage of the round-the-world voyage will be the study of the Northern Sea Route," Travin said.

"Admiral Vladimirsky will visit five Russian ports: Murmansk, Dixon, Tiksi, Pevek, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, as well as four foreign ports: Vancouver (Canada), Corinto (Nicaragua), Havana (Cuba), and Brest (France).

The purpose of the round-the-world voyage is hydrographic, hydrological and mapping research, monitoring of currents, biological monitoring, and meteorological studies. Also, the ship has the objective of demonstrating the naval flag, surveying forms of relief of the bed topography, testing new radio navigation indicators in high latitudes, study of ice conditions and possibilities of sailing a single ship in the northern latitudes, clarification of navigation equipment and the location of the coastline of islands and seas of the Arctic Ocean."

The last round-the-world sail by Navy vessels was the world Antarctic expedition in 1983.

Arctic-Info