le
The report in question included a sketch showing the route of the
convoy and its position on the 7th of June 1978 (see Fig. 12).
Nd rre ee
His.
Fig 12. Sketch showing the route of the nuclear-powered ice-
breaker SIBIR', assisting the ice-strengthened ship KAPITAN
MYSJEVSKIY, north of the Arctic islands, and their position
on June 7, 1978.
(Reproduced from Izvestiya, June 8, 1978, p. 3).
By the aid of these exceptionally strong ice-breakers, trade and
shipping on the harbours at the Northern Sea Route will continue
all the year round.
There will further be new routes north of the Arctic islands with
greater depths than in "The Northern Sea Route", suitable also
for deep-drawing ships.
The pioneering voyage of the Soviet ice-breaker ARKTIKA to the
North Pole and the present "Ice Experiment" performed by SIBIR'
are triumphs for Soviet technology and science in terms of marine
contruction, and remote sensing as an aid for navigation in ice-
covered sea areas.
June 12, 1978
P.S. According to Izvestiya of June 13, 1978, p. 2, the SIBIR'
and KAPITAN MYSJEVSKIY had passed the 180° -meridian on the morning
of June 12. Thus, the convoy then had Wrangel Island athwartships.
The report mentions that, by the aid of air reconnaissance and
hydrologists, they had chosen a/route across the Chukchi Sea,
where the ice was thinner than in the earlier planned route. There-
fore the convoy could force the ice-covered sea with higher speed
than estimated. and .t was not impossible that they would be in
che Bering Strait alreadv 3: night on the l4th of June, a fantastic
record, indeed.