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MT ''Indiga'' () was an ice-strengthened product tanker that sailed under the Finnish flag in 1976–2003 and under the
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n flag in 2003–2021. After her modernization in 1994 she became the second
merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...
, after her sister ship ''Varzuga'', to be equipped with an electric
azimuth thruster An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder redundant. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Type ...
called
Azipod Azipod is a trademarked azimuth thruster pod design, a marine propulsion unit consisting of a fixed pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola ("pod") containing the electric motor driving the propeller, allowing ships to be more maneuverab ...
.Juurmaa, K et al.: The development of the double acting tanker for ice operation, Aker Arctic Technology Inc.
2001
an
2002
.


History

''Lunni'', built in 1976 by Werft Nobiskrug GmbH in
Rendsburg Rendsburg (, also ''Rensborg'', , also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the Eider (river), River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Eckernfoerde, Rends ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, was the first ship of a series of four arctic product tankers ordered by a Finnish oil and petroleum products company Neste Oyj in the 1970s. The ships were given names after Finnish
seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...
s and the
silhouette A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouett ...
s of their namesake birds were painted on the side of the ships' superstructure. ''Lunni'' (
Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family (biology), family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin being found ...
) and ''Sotka'' (
Aythya ''Aythya'' is a genus of diving ducks, with twelve species currently accepted. The genus was described in 1822 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie, with the type species being greater scaup. The name ''Aythya'' comes from the Ancient Greek ...
) were delivered in 1976 and ''Tiira'' (
tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...
) and ''Uikku'' (
grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order (biology), order Podicipediformes (). Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in sea, marine habitats during Bird migration, migration and winter. Most grebes f ...
) in the following year. Until the 1990s the ships were used mainly to transport oil products in the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
. In 1993 ''Lunni'' made three consecutive voyages from
Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...
to the
Yana River The Yana ( rus, Я́на, p=ˈjanə; ) is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east. Course It is long, and its drainage basin covers . Including its longest source river, the Sartang, i ...
in
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
along the
Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...
. The tanker was assisted by nuclear-powered icebreakers in the Vilkitsky Strait, but was under constant escort by Russian icebreakers only from Dikson Island to the Khatanga River.Muhlerin, N et al.
Northern Sea Route and Icebreaking Technology
, pages 13-14. Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), 1994. Retrieved on 2010-02-05.
In 1994, a year after her sister ''Uikku'', ''Lunni'' was also chartered to Arctic Shipping Services to ship petroleum products in the
Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...
. After ''Uikku'' 's successful refit her propulsion machinery was also modernized for navigation in the harsh ice conditions of the Arctic Ocean in 1994. Her ice-strengthening was later increased as well. In the following years ''Lunni'' operated in the Baltic Sea in winter and in the Northern Sea Route during summer months.Juurmaa, K et al.
New ice breaking tanker concept for the arctic (DAT)
. Kvaerner Masa-Yards, 1995.
Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finland, Finnish Government of Finland, state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. It mainly focuses on the Nordic countries, Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generate ...
sold ''Lunni'', mainly due to her age exceeding 25 years, to Murmansk Shipping Company in 2003. She was renamed ''Indiga'' (''Индига'') after the Indiga River. As Fortum is a state-owned company, the selling of two oil tankers capable of navigating in severe ice conditions resulted in a written question to the
Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral and Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that ...
by Representative Pentti Tiusanen about whether the ships should be retained in Finnish control as they could be used to lighten a grounded oil tanker in harsh winter conditions.KK 137/2003 vp
Pentti Tiusanen /vas
The ship has since been used for oil transportation in the Arctic Ocean. Along with her sister ship ''Varzuga'' (ex-''Uikku''), sold to Russians at the same time, she has been involved in transporting oil from an oil terminal in the Ob Bay of the
Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...
through the Kara Gates, the strait between Vaygach and
Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...
, to FSO ''Belokamenka'' in the Kola Bay of the
Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...
.Bambulyak, A and Frantzen, B
Oil transport from the Russian part of the Barents Region, Status per January 2009
page 41. Retrieved on 2010-02-05.
''Indiga'' was sold for scrap in 2021.


Incidents

On March 16, 2009, ''Indiga'' collided with the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker ''Yamal'' in Yenisei Gulf in the
Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...
. The tanker, carrying only ballast at the time, sustained a 9.5-meter crack on the main deck. No damage was reported to the ''Yamal''.Ice-breaker collides with tanker in Arctic Ocean
PortWorld News, 2009-03-30.
Nuclear powered icebreaker collided with oil tanker
BarentsObserver, 2009-03-24.
On 19 July 2010 ''Indiga'' collided again, this time with her sister ship ''Varzuga'', while being assisted by two nuclear icebreakers in difficult ice conditions. The bow of ''Varzuga'' and the stern of ''Indiga'' were damaged, but neither vessel lost seaworthiness and there were no spills.
. BarentsObserver, 2010-07-19.


Design

''Lunni'' and her sister ships were designed to be able to navigate in the ice conditions of the Baltic Sea independently without icebreaker assistance and maintain a moderately high speed in ice. For this purpose they had more power than an average Baltic tanker and were normally required to use only 50-75% of the full engine power in iceHänninen, S
Ship based observations onboard MT Uikku during the winter 2003
, 11/2003.
— in normal operation only one of the two main engines was coupled to shaft, with the other remaining in reserve for difficult ice conditions.Gallin, I. et al. Ships and Their Propulsion Systems - Developmentsr in Power Transmission. Lohmann & Stolterfoht GmbH, Witten, West Germany. . The highly raked stem, similar to those in traditional icebreakers, was designed to break the ice by bending it downwards under the ship's weight. The ships were also equipped with an air bubbling system to reduce friction between the hull and ice.Mulherin, N et al.
Development and Results of a Northern Sea Route Transit Model
pp. 15-17. Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), 1996. Retrieved on 2010-02-05.
To prevent pollution in case of grounding the ships were also built with double hulls and conformed to the IMCO regulations in respect of segregated ballast tanks even though they were regarded only recommendations back then.


Modernization

A year after ''Uikku'' 's successful refit ''Lunni'' was also extensively modernized by Kværner Masa-Yards'
Helsinki New Shipyard Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, ) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, Helsinki, Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard (company), Helsinki Shipyard. H ...
in 1994 and became the second merchant ship to receive a newly developed electronic azimuth thruster, Azipod. Her original MaK 12M551AK main engines (2 × 5737 kW), reduction gearbox, shaft generators, controllable-pitch propeller and rudder were removed and replaced with
Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...
Vasa marine generating sets and an 11.4 MW electric propulsion unit. Being one of the early designs the Azipod unit in ''Lunni'' was of the so-called "pushing" type with an aft-facing propeller instead of the more efficient "pulling" set-up usually used in modern Azipod-equipped ships.Photograph of ''Lunni'' 's Azipod unit
, Aker Arctic Technology Inc.
As with ''Uikku'', upgrading the propulsion machinery dramatically improved ''Lunni'' 's manoeuvering and icebreaking capabilities, especially when running astern. Even though the ship's stern wasn't originally designed or shaped for icebreaking, ice resistance astern in level ice was only 40% of that of when running ahead despite the icebreaking bow. The modernization of ''Lunni'' and ''Uikku'' also further proved the feasibility of Azipod in icebreaking ships and the double acting tanker (DAT) concept as navigation in the severe ice conditions in the Northern Sea Route sometimes required the ship to be turned around and run astern to break through ice. The refit also increased her speed from 14.5 to 17 knots despite the propulsion power remaining roughly the same.


References


External links


Murmansk Shipping Company

Indiga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indiga 1976 ships Oil tankers Ships built in Rendsburg Murmansk Shipping Company