Shipping route frozen over

Icebreakers were called in

While some shipping routes have been opened up due to melting ice, others have been hampered by severe temperatures. In the Baltic Sea off Stockholm, over 40 ships have been trapped in ice for several days and have only just been freed thanks to icebreakers.

While vessels were freed from areas between the capital and the Aland Islands, it is believed several ships are still stranded in the Bay of Bothnia, further north.

Among the ships trapped were three ferries, including the ferry Amorella which had 943 passengers and crew on board. The Amorella had collide with another ferry, the Finnfellow, whilst trying to manoeuvre in the ice.  Whilst no damage or injuries were reported, it indicated how dangerous the situation had become for shipping.

Iced-up

It was estimated between 1841 up to 2630 were aboard the ferries. Other ships included the smaller Via Mare ferry carrying 66 people, the roll-on-roll-off ferry Sea Wind with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board.

Speaking to the AFP, Jonas Lindvall, the controller of the ice-breaking unit at the maritime administration, said sea ice in the area would not normally have been a problem for merchant ships.

However ice combined with winds of 45mph had pushed the ice towards the coast creating ridges that the ships were unable to handle. As such, both Finland and Sweden were forced to deploy ice breakers.

"They got caught outside the archipelago, where there is moving ice. It's hard to navigate," Mr Lindvall told the AFP news agency, adding he had not seen so many ships stuck at once since the mid 1980s.

Tommy Gardebring of the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre in Gothenburg concurred saying, "It has been a lot colder than normal in the southern parts of the Baltic sea, but in the north all is normal with normal levels of ice."

"However, in the worst-affected areas, the ice breakers that normally operate haven't been able to cope with the ice..."

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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