A cargo ship flying Hong Kong's Bauhinia flag and carrying 41,000 tonnes of iron ore will make maritime history this weekend when it sets sail from Norway on a voyage through Russia's Arctic wastes to China.
The bulk carrier Nordic Barents is the first foreign-registered ship Russia has allowed to make a voyage between two foreign ports via the country's northern sea route. The Scandinavian owner and charterer of the ship aim to prove that the route long called the Northeast Passage is a viable commercial alternative to southern routes from Europe to Asia.
The Nordic Barents is due to leave the small Norwegian port of Kirkenes tomorrow, less than a week after a Russian-owned tanker completed a 13,000-kilometre voyage from Murmansk to Ningbo. The SCF Baltica, owned by privately controlled company Sovcomflot, carried 70,000 tonnes of gas condensate, less than the 117,500 tonnes the ship was capable of carrying because of draft restrictions through Arctic waters.
If the Nordic Barents' voyage to Dalian , Qingdao and possibly southern China is successful it will effectively end a 500-year-old quest by explorers, shipowners and cargo owners to find a northern route between Europe and Asia.
Shipping and chartering companies, including firms in Hong Kong, are viewing the voyage with keen interest.
The Northeast Passage took on a legendary mystique, almost rivalling Canada's Northwest Passage, after British explorer Sir Hugh Willoughby first tried to find a route through the Arctic waters in 1553.
Climate change appears to have helped latter-day mariners achieve what Sir Hugh could not.