Itar-Tass reports that the Magadan icebreaker is struggling through 2-meter-thick ice to reach stuck ships in the Sea of Okhotsk and another ice-breaker is on its way. This reports talks of 3 ships being trapped but other reports speak of 10 ships with over 600 crew being trapped.
Line icebreaker ADMIRAL MAKAROV: image fesco.ru
VLADIVOSTOK, January 2 (Itar-Tass) — The Magadan icebreaker of the Far Eastern Shipping Company is struggling its way through the two-meter-thick ice to rescue three ships stuck in the ice in the Sakhalin Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, a spokesman for the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk sea rescue coordination center said on Sunday.
With a speed of 2.6 knots the icebreaker develops in conditions of the 10 point ice, she has to master five miles to reach the stuck ships, the spokesman said.
The Sodruzhestvo mother ship, the Professor Kizevetter research vessel and the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerated cargo ship are trapped in the ice eleven to twelve miles off the Khabarovsk coastline. Their attempts to break free have been vain ….. According to the Sakhalin regional emergencies administration, there is no threat to the lives and health of crew members of the three ships. Of the three stuck ships, the Sodruzhestvo has the largest crew of 340 people. The ship has food reserves for 75 days.
The Admiral Makarov, the biggest icebreaker in Russia’s Far East, is also heading to join the rescue operations. She is expected to reach the Sakhalin Bay on January 4.
The BBC also carries a report also quoting Itar-Tass but their facts seem to have morphed along the way. Two metres is converted to 12 inches by the BBC calculator!!!!
Sea of Okhotsk: image BBC
Rescue efforts are under way to evacuate more than 600 crew on 10 ships trapped in ice in the Sea of Okhotsk. The ice is up to 30cm (12 inches) thick in some places, according to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
The temperature in the area is -22C, according to Itar-Tass, and forecasts suggest it will fall even lower.
An Itar-Tass update is here:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15834220&PageNum=0
Tags: Admiral Makarov, Icebreaker, Magadan, Sea of Okhotsk, trapped ships in Sea of Okhotsk
The k2p blog 
January 5, 2011 at 9:49 am
[…] icebreaker Admiral Makarov has reached the Sea of Okhotsk and the rescue operation to free the ships trapped in the ice has begun. One trawler has been escorted to safety. But there are “hummocks” in the ice […]
November 10, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Hello!
Do you know of any information regarding the icebreaker Moskva that took part in the rescue of beluga whales in 1985? Thanks so much, Lynn Clarke
November 10, 2011 at 8:59 pm
The NY Times had an article in 1985 about the whale rescue.
For the history of icebreakers named Moskva see
Click to access bulletin02_02.pdf
November 10, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Yes, Thanks, I saw that. A friend of mine wrote a children’s book about the rescue A Symphony of Whales. We didn’t know if the icebreaker was still in commission. Thank you for your quick reply! Hope all is well!
November 10, 2011 at 9:36 pm
The 1985 Moskva involved in the rescue was probably the one built in Finland and commissioned in 1959. I am not sure when it went out of service (probably in the 90’s since it was built in 1959).
The current Moskva is a brand new icebreaker commissioned in December 2008.
There was a hospital ship (former cruiser) called Moskva at the time of the Crimean War.
(Just read a review of The Symphony of Whales by Steve Schuch – interesting)