Nordic Yards names Arctic rescue and salvage vessels

FEBRUARY 20, 2015 — Two identical Arctic icebreaking rescue and salvage vessels were named yesterday in a ceremony at Nordic Yards’ Wismar, Germany, shipyard.

Nordic Yards — which is owned by the Russian investor Vitaly Yusufov, the son of a former Energy Minister — received the order for the multipurpose rescue and salvage vessels (MPRSV) in December 2012 from Russia’s Ministry of Transport and parallel production of the pair began in September 2013.

Now named the Beringov Proliv and the Murman, each vessel is 88 m in length, nearly 19 m wide and can accommodate a crew of up to

From springtime onwards they will be used by Russia’s maritime rescue services for patrols and rescue operations in the Arctic.

The Beringov Proliv will mainly operate in the Sakhalin region while the Murman will cover the Northeast Passage around Murmansk. Thanks to their high-tech equipment they can carry out search and rescue operations as well as emergency towing even in extreme weather conditions, with on-board hospital facilities enabling the medical treatment of people who have been rescued.

The ships are also equipped to extinguish fires and combat oil spills, and can break through ice with a thickness of one meter in harbors or open water they.

The vessels are equipped with instrumentation for searching the seafloor to depths down to 1.000 m. Each has a helipad on the bow.

In addition to representatives of the customer Rosmorrechflot, other participants in yesterday’s ceremony included Russia’s Deputy Transport Minister Viktor Olerskiy.

“Today we are naming two of the world’s most modern and specialized rescue vessels. With their high-tech equipment and performance capacities these ships are capable of fulfilling the highest requirements,” said Dr Vitaly Yusufov, chairman of the shipbuilder’s management board. “It was a demanding challenge to build these technologically complex ships, and today we are really proud to be able to present the results of our work.”