KALININGRAD, April 29. /TASS/. The Russian barque Kruzenshtern performing a trans-Atlantic voyage as part of the round-the-world expedition of sail ships organized by Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishing has left Novorossiysk and set off for its home port of Kaliningrad, the expedition’s press center reported on Wednesday.

The barque Kruzenshtern is set to wrap up its trans-Atlantic voyage prematurely amid the coronavirus pandemic, the press center said.

"Considering that most of the festivities devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War [of 1941-1945 against Nazi Germany] have been cancelled, and also for the purposes of preserving the health of the crew and cadets, the expedition’s leadership has made a decision that the training barque Kruzenshtern should sail to its home port of Kaliningrad," the statement reads.

The barque is expected to arrive in its home port in early June.

It was reported earlier that the barque was taking part in the round-the-world expedition "Sails of the World 2020" devoted to the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the Antarctica by Russian explorers and the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

As the expedition’s media center reported earlier, the barque Kruzenshtern with cadets of educational institutions of Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishing on its board arrived at the port of Novorossiysk on April 22. During the anchorage, the barque replenished fuel, fresh water and food supplies required for continuing the voyage, with the strictest observance of safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection on its board.

Under the schedule of its voyage, the barque was expected to complete its expedition in Kaliningrad in early September.

Since the start of the expedition, which kicked off for the Kruzenshtern from the port of Kaliningrad on December 8, 2019, the barque has covered over 19,000 nautical miles and visited the ports of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Ushuaia and Buenos Aires, receiving about 10,000 foreign guests on its board. The calls at the ports of Casablanca (Morocco) and Haifa (Israel) have been cancelled over the coronavirus. For the same reason, the barque’s crew and cadets have not disembarked in the Spanish Las Palmas and in Novorossiysk in Russia.

Round-the-world expedition and the barque Kruzenshtern

Three Russian training sail ships: the Pallada, the Kruzenshtern and the Sedov are taking part in the round-the-world voyage organized by Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishing.

The Pallada embarked on its voyage on November 1 from the port of Vladivostok while the Sedov and the Kruzenshtern set their sail from Kaliningrad on December 8.

The barque Sedov and the frigate Pallada are making their round-the-world voyages while the windjammer Kruzenshtern is performing a trans-Atlantic expedition. As a major event of the expedition’s first stage, the windjammers held a 200-mile memorial sailing race on February 20-21 to honor the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the sixth continent by the first Russian Antarctic expedition led by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.

According to the data posted on the website of the Baltic Fishing Fleet State Academy, which is the operator of the sail ships Sedov and Kruzenshtern, the barque Sedov and the frigate Pallada met at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca in the Pacific last Sunday. Both sail ships are continuing their round-the-world expedition together, sailing along the same route through Singapore to Vladivostok.

The four-mast barque Kruzenshtern was built at a German shipyard near Bremerhaven in 1926 and was given the Italian name of the Padua (after the Italian city). The windjammer was listed among the world’s ten largest sail ships. She was surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1946 in WWII reparations and renamed after the 19th-century Russian admiral and explorer Ivan Kruzenshtern. The barque was re-equipped as a training vessel with a modern engine.

Over its 94-year history, the barque has made two round-the-globe voyages, as well as a trans-Atlantic expedition, and won many international sailing races. This is the world’s last classical barque initially built for voyages solely under sail without any additional engines and power generators. Over the years of its operation, more than 17,000 cadets have undergone maritime training on its board and acquired their first maritime professional skills.