Newnew Polar Bear

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 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 and is capable of propelling it at a speed of . In addition, the ship has three 12-cylinder Cummins KTA-38-M auxiliary generators to produce electrical power. For maneuvering at ports, Newnew Polar Bear has a bow thruster and a stern thruster. The ship was built to the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class of 1A Super. == History ==

Construction The ship was the second of four feeder container ships commissioned by the German shipowner Hansa Hamburg Shipping International in the early 2000s. the ship was renamed Cast Prestige shortly after delivery This was followed by charters to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Team Lines, Delphis, and Unifeeder. In October 2023, the ship completed a round trip through the Northern Sea Route 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 damaging the Balticconnector natural gas pipeline and telecommunication cables that occurred in the Gulf of Finland, between Finland and Estonia, 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. In August 2024, an internal Chinese investigation indicated that the ship was indeed responsible for the damage, claiming it was an accident due to heavy weather rather than intentional sabotage. In May 2025, the ship's captain was remanded for the incident. == References ==