Soviet ships threatened by new ice

Press, 21 October 1983, Page 1

Soviet ships threatened by new ice

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Fresh ice was sealing channels carved by icebreakers yesterday in the eastern Arctic, where four convoys of Soviet ships have been stranded for nearly three weeks, Moscow newspapers reported.

As weather conditions worsened in the region, off the north-east coast of Siberia, the reports said that eight vessels were in particular danger as thick walls of pack ice built up round them to a thickness of 2m. One account said that the atomic-powered breaker Leonid Brezhnev and other breakers ‘following in its wake had been ordered to stop for 24 hours to give their exhausted crews a rest from the deafening noise and vibrations of icebreaking.

The Moscow daily newspaper, “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” said that the new

layers of ice were forming rapidly because of a plunge in temperatures over the last two days. Channels carved by the breakers trying to reach the marooned ships were being closed off again. Thirty-five ships from the Arctic freight line are caught in the frozen sea, but yesterday reports said only the eight ships stranded in the so-called long strait near Vrangel Island were considered in immediate danger.

One freighter has already sunk after its hull was crushed by the pressure of the pack ice and another was rescued just in time last week-end after huge gashes were ripped in its sides.

The eight ships — two tankers, four freighters, and two immobilised ice breakers — are in the middle of a huge field of pack ice.