Newnew Polar Bear

Newnew Polar Bear is a Hong Kong-registered feeder container ship.

The vessel is the prime suspect for damaging the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland in October 2023 by dragging its anchor.

Description
Newnew Polar Bear is a fully-cellular feeder container ship with a container capacity of 1,620 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) and a deadweight tonnage of 15,952 tons. The ship is 169 m long, 27.2 m wide, and has a displacement of 23847 t when loaded to the maximum draught of 9 m. The ship has a crew of 17 and berthing for up to 12 passengers in six cabins.

Newnew Polar Bear is powered by a single low-speed two-stroke crosshead diesel engine driving a controllable pitch propeller. The ship's eight-cylinder MAN B&W 8S50MC-C is rated at 12640 kW and is capable of propelling it at a speed of 20 kn. In addition, the ship has three 880 kW 12-cylinder Cummins KTA-38-M auxiliary generators to produce electrical power. For maneuvering at ports, Newnew Polar Bear has a 950 kW bow thruster and a 650 kW stern thruster.

When the ship was built, it was noteworthy for having the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class of 1A Super.

Construction
The ship was the second of four Eilbek-Klasse feeder container ships commissioned by the German shipowner Hansa Hamburg Shipping International in the early 2000s. The ship was laid down at Jos.L. Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, on 24 June 2004, launched on 29 December 2004, and delivered on 11 March 2005.

Career


While originally named Reinbek, the ship was renamed Cast Prestige shortly after delivery and chartered by the Canadian operator CP Ships for service between Canada and northwestern Europe under the German flag until April 2006.

After reverting to its original name, Reinbek, the ship was chartered by Hapag-Lloyd for the company's EEX Service between Mediterranean and Continental European ports. This was followed by charters to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Team Lines, Delphis, and Unifeeder. During this time, the ship was reflagged first to United Kingdom in 2006, Liberia in 2010, Malta in 2014, and then back to Liberia in 2016.

In mid-April 2017, Reinbek's ownership was transferred to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement and the ship was reflagged to Cyprus. Shortly thereafter, Reinbek was renamed Baltic Fulmar. The charter with Unifeeder continued and was later followed by CMA CGM.

In June 2023, Baltic Fulmar was sold to the Chinese shipowner Hainan Xin Xin Yang Shipping, reflagged to Hong Kong, and renamed Newnew Polar Bear.

As of 9 October 2023 Newnew Polar Bear sails under NewNew Shipping Line.

In October 2023, the ship completed a round trip through the Northeast Passage from Russia to China and back. A regular service is planned.

Damage to undersea infrastructure
In October 2023, Newnew Polar Bear became one of the ships suspected by Finnish police of possible involvement in damage to the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline and telecommunication cables that occurred in the Gulf of Finland on 7 October. Another ship was the Russian nuclear-powered cargo ship Sevmorput. Both ships are also suspected of possible involvement in damage to EE-S1, a submarine communications cable between Sweden and Estonia.

After sailing out of the Baltic Sea, Newnew Polar Bear was photographed arriving in the port of Arkhangelsk with the port side anchor seemingly missing on 22 October. On 24 October, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation announced that they had retrieved an anchor embedded in the seabed next to the damaged pipeline in co-operation with the Finnish Navy and Finnish Border Guard, and that Newnew Polar Bear was the prime suspect for the incident.