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.