The Kruzenshtern has arrived in Agadir from Kaliningrad with 130 trainees on board
The Kruzenshtern, a training ship operated by the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo), arrived at the Moroccan port of Agadir on Monday as part of the Great African Expedition.
According to the agency’s statement, the ship, which set sail from Kaliningrad, is carrying 192 people, including 130 trainees from various educational institutions affiliated with Rosrybolovstvo.
“The final voyage of this year’s navigation season is part of the Great African Expedition 2024-2026, conducted in conjunction with two research vessels,” the statement said.
Representatives from the port administration and Rosrybolovstvo welcomed the crew upon their arrival, and a delegation boarded the ship to meet with Captain Mikhail Yeremchenko. Plans for the port visit include an open ship event, as well as organized excursions for the crew and cadets.
“During the nearly two-week voyage so far, the Kruzenshtern has covered approximately 2,000 nautical miles, with about 1,500 of those under sail and engine,” the press service reported.
On August 21, Rosrybolovstvo launched the Great African Expedition, aimed at studying marine biology along the coast of 18 African countries in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Two Russian research vessels have been deployed to study the coastal waters. In addition to Russian scientists, researchers from various African coastal nations will also be joining the expedition, according to the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO).
The Atlantniro research vessel will study the coastal zones of Mauritania, Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Angola. Meanwhile, the other ship, the Atlantida, will focus on the waters of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Eritrea.
The Kruzenshtern, originally built in 1926 in Germany under the name Padua, is one of the world’s ten largest sailing ships. In 1946, the vessel was transferred to the Soviet Union as part of war reparations. Under the Soviet Navy’s flag, the barque was renamed in honor of Admiral Ivan Kruzenshtern, who led the first Russian circumnavigation expedition from 1803 to 1806. Today, it serves as a Russian sail training ship.
