History | |
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Name: | Monchegorsk (Мончегорск) |
Owner: |
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Port of registry: |
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Ordered: | July 1980 |
Builder: | Oy Wärtsilä Ab, Turku, Finland |
Cost: | FIM 200 million |
Yard number: | 1261 |
Launched: | 1 June 1983 |
In service: | 1983–2009 |
Identification: | |
Fate: | Sold for scrapping in 2009 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | SA-15 class ro-ro/general cargo ship |
Classification: | Russian Maritime Register of Shipping |
Tonnage: | |
Length: | |
Beam: | 24.55 m (80.54 ft) |
Height: | 51.50 m (168.96 ft) from keel |
Draught: |
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Depth: | 15.2 m (49.87 ft) |
Ice class: | ULA |
Main engines: | 2 × Wärtsilä-Sulzer 14ZV40/48 (2 × 7,700 kW) |
Auxiliary engines: | 5 × Wärtsilä-Vasa 624 TS (5 × 810 kW) |
Propulsion: | KaMeWa CPP, ⌀ 5.6 m (18.37 ft) |
Accommodation: | 42 crew 10 passengers |
MV Monchegorsk (Мончегорск) was an SA-15 class cargo ship built by Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland, in 1983. Named after a town of the same name, the freighter was the tenth ship of a series of 19 icebreaking multipurpose arctic freighters built by Wärtsilä and Valmet for the Soviet Union for year-round service in the Northern Sea Route. These ships, designed to be capable of independent operation in arctic ice conditions, were of extremely robust design and had strengthened hulls resembling those of polar icebreakers.
Initially delivered to the (then) state-owned Murmansk Shipping Company and later handed over to its subsidiary, NB Shipping, Monchegorsk sailed under the Soviet and later Russian flag until 1993, after which she was registered to Cyprus. She was sold for recycling in China in late 2009 after 26 years of service.
The history of the SA-15 class cargo ships dates back to the late 1970s when the leading Finnish shipbuilders Wärtsilä and Valmet both developed designs that met the requirements set by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine of the Soviet Union (MORFLOT) for the new class of arctic cargo ships capable of year-round operation in the Northern Sea Route. An initial order for nine ships, six for Wärtsilä for FIM 1.2 billion and three for Valmet for FIM 600 million, was placed in July 1980. In the following year three more ships were ordered from Wärtsilä and two from Valmet, resulting in a total order of 14 ships worth of FIM 3.5 billion. While initially the idea of ordering two similar but technically different series of ships for the same purpose was to gain operational experience for the future arctic freighters, shortly after the deal was made public the shipyards approached Sudoimport to agree on a uniform design, resulting in a class of sub-arctic 15,000 DWT cargo ships, the SA-15 class. After the initial series Valmet received another follow-up order for five ships of slightly different design, sometimes referred to as the SA-15 Super class due to the minor improvements based on the operators' experiences in the arctic.