Russian Arctic Seas

Book excerpt: For safe operations in the Arctic, it is critical to understand the natural conditions and to learn from the experiences of ice pilots who have worked there. In the context of planning the PetroArctic project, accounts of seagoing activities in the Russian Arctic Seas that ersulted in accidents have been gathered and are now made available in this bilingual (Russian-English) volume. Here especially, the physical environment and navigation issues for the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi seas are described. Fully half of the book describes accidents induced by heavy ice conditions since 1900: 94 accidents are carefully reported and classified. Among these, the accidents involve shipwrecks, forced drift (ice jet as special case), overwintering, and various types of vessel damage. Most accounts include details such as distinguishing features, behavior of the crew, photos, and maps, which reveal ice conditions, date, location, and vessels involved (for each of four seas). The book will be useful to scientists, industrial planners and a wide audience interested in the Arctic Seas.