Sampo (1960 icebreaker)
The Sampo in the port of Kemi in June 2010
IMO 5308938
The Sampo is a Finnish icebreaker. It was built by the Wärtsilä shipyard in Hietalahti 1960 and knew until the early 1990s in a governmental order their service in the northern Baltic Sea.
After she was decommissioned and passed into private hands, she was awarded an expansion with various facilities for passengers and since then has room for up to 150 people. Furthermore, under the Finnish flag it is taking, starting from the port of Kemi mostly short ice driving before the Lapland coast. The Sampo is one of the few ice-breaker, take the passengers worldwide.
Ship
The Sampo is one of four icebreakers the Karhu - class, her sister ships were the Karhu, Murtaja and Hanseatic.
Sampo is powered by four Wärtsilä - Sulzer two-stroke diesel engines. Another five much smaller auxiliary diesel float to different units. Together these nine engines provide a maximum power of 8800 hp. Although equipped with suitable for slow-speed direct-drive, the drive of the propeller is carried out electrically. This has the advantage that when Rammeisbrechen much shorter switching periods can be realized from forward to reverse travel the direct drive. The refractive power is maximum Festeisstärken between 70 and 120 cm, with 50 cm thick fast ice at a speed of around 8 knots can be broken. The plate thickness of the shell is in the ice cream business 5 cm.
Inserts
The Sampo was stationed to their active since 1961 as an icebreaker in the port Ajo, 11 kilometers south of Kemi. She was from November to May in use. Their field of application ranged from the northern Gulf of Bothnia and the port of Kemi to the south to Bornholm. During a rescue mission in 1963 she went into the Kattegat up. In the late 1970s it became apparent that a new generation of cargo ships needed more fairways than the ships of the Karhu - class could produce them. Nevertheless, the Sampo was still ten years in active use. In 1987, she was decommissioned, as the driving at that time cargo ships needed ice-free areas wider than the Sampo could create them.
From mid-December to end of April two -to six- hour trips on the icy northern Gulf of Bothnia are available for lunch. The Sampo can transport up to 150 passengers. The ice is thick up to one meter, with the thickest ice usually occurs in February and March.
Besides the obligatory lunch ( reindeer meat with mashed potatoes ) and the ship's officers Sampo also offers an unusual stopover: In the course of this journey, there is the opportunity to swim in a specially inserted stop in a free broken area in neoprene suits in the Arctic Ocean, which describes the Lonely Planet as a surreal experience. These trips are often combined with skiing and snowmobiling or dog and reindeer safaris.
This ride is often touted as the world's only way to be touristy move on an icebreaker. There are also other icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov as the Russian, which offer similar. The icebreaker ride is an important factor for tourism in Kemi, but he brings tourists from all over the world in this city. Overall, come in season about 10,000 to 12,000 tourists, of which the majority arriving from abroad.
Although officially no longer belonging to the Finnish icebreaker fleet, there are moments every winter that the Sampo is used to ancillary services and a fairway for cargo ships in the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia must break free. Likewise, the ship is always polar explorers and oceanographers who collect on the Sampo data and test models
In summer you can visit the ship and dine in the on-board restaurant. In addition, the Sampo can be chartered for special events throughout the year.
Namesakes
Even before today, there was a Finnish icebreaker Sampo same name. A 1896 built German pilot cutter also bears the name Sampo and serves as a museum ship. A 1925 built in Enso -Gutzeit Oy bundles of wood steamer was baptized as Sampo.