KALININGRAD, September 12. /TASS/. The Russian barque Kruzenshtern will dock at Germany’s port of Warnemunde instead of Finland’s Mariehamn, since Finnish authorities previously banned the ship from entering this port, the press service of the Baltic Fishing Fleet State Academy (BFFSA) that operates this tall ship told TASS on Tuesday.
"Instead of Finland’s Mariehamn, where the Kruzenshtern was set to dock on September 18, during her final 2017 voyage, the barque will visit the German sea port and resort city of Warnemunde," BFFSA press service official Alexey Aleyev said, adding that the Kruzenshtern visits Warnemunde every year.
According to earlier reports, after the academy removed the Kruzenshtern’s visit of Mariehamn due to the notice on the docking ban there issued by the Finnish side, the academy’s management worked on the possibility of entering a German port with the Federal Fishery Agency. Warnemunde was finally chosen, and there the barque will spend three days, from September 18 to September 20.
On September 12, the Kruzenshtern will leave Poland’s port city of Gdynia, carrying 120 students (including 10 girls) from seven Russian naval educational institutions. During the docking, the vessel’s food and water supplies were replenished, and the students were able to leave the ship and visit the city and the port, the source said. After departing from Gdynia, the barque will go to Warnemunde which will become the last foreign port for the training voyage that will end the 2017 navigation. On September 24, the Kruzenshtern will return to its home port in Kaliningrad, Aleyev specified.
The Hufvudstadsbladet daily reported on the ban of the Russian ship’s visit to Mariehamn on the Aland Islands on August 28. According to the daily, Finland’s defense general staff banned the Russian tall ship from visiting this territory, not commenting on the decision. The vessel’s captain received a notice on the ban from the Russian consulate in Finland.
The Kruzenshtern, a four-masted barque, was built in Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1926 as the Padua. In 1946, she was surrendered to the Soviet Union as a war reparation and renamed after the 19th-century Russian admiral and explorer of the Baltic, Ivan Kruzenshtern. Over its 90-year history, the barque has made two round-the-globe voyages, as well as a trans-Atlantic expedition, and won many international sailing races, covering an overall distance of 1.3 million nautical miles.