Louhi (pennant number 999) is a Finnish multipurpose oil and chemical spill response vessel owned by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), but crewed and operated by the Finnish Navy. The ship, ordered in 2007, was built by Uki Workboat in Uusikaupunki, Finland, and entered service in May 2011.
History
Development and construction
The development of the new multipurpose vessel began on 25 May 2003 when the Ministry of Transport and Communications appointed a work group to investigate the technical requirements and economic aspects of building a new multipurpose icebreaker capable of combating oil and chemical spills around the year. The amount of oil transported in the Gulf of Finland had increased from a mere 15 million tons per year in the early 1990s to 69 million tons in 2003 and was expected to reach 130 million tons by 2010 after the new Russian oil terminals became operational, increasing the risk of a large spill in the vulnerable sea area considerably. While Finland already had a fleet of vessels with oil recovery equipment, none of them were capable of collecting spilled oil efficiently in heavy seas or in ice. The new multipurpose icebreaker would be designed to be capable of recovering spilled oil and chemicals in both open water and ice conditions, extinguishing shipboard fires and emergency towing of the largest merchant ships operating in the Gulf of Finland. The new vessel would also have sufficient icebreaking capability to assist oil tankers to the Kilpilahti oil refinery in Porvoo during winter. However, in the interim report, published on 30 September 2003, the work group noted that unless other work outside the winter months could be arranged and the new multipurpose icebreaker would have to spend the rest of the year in pollution control readiness, the operating expenses would be very high.Monitoimimurtajan hankintaa valmistellut työryhmä antoi väliraportin . Finnish Environment Institute, 2 October 2003.
The work group published its final report on 31 December 2003 and came to a conclusion that while the proposed vessel would definitely be needed and it would be technically possible to construct one, fulfilling the requirements of the different operators with a single ship would be difficult and, as noted before, remaining on standby during the open water season would be very expensive. The work group estimated that the purchase price of the vessel would be 30–70 million euro. One of the proposed alternatives was the conversion of the Finnish multipurpose icebreaker Fennica, built in 1993, to a spill response vessel, but this was not pursued further.Monitoimimurtajan hankinnassa erilaisia mahdollisuuksia . Finnish Environmental Institute, 22 January 2004.
The decision of ordering the new multipurpose icebreaker was made in late 2004 and the Finnish Environment Institute and the Finnish Maritime Administration were authorized by the Government to make an agreement on the vessel and launch a request for tenders in early 2005. The new oil spill response vessel was expected to enter service in 2007.More efficient oil spill response with multi-function icebreakers . Finnish Environment Institute, 4 June 2005. However, only a few offers were received and the new vessel, for which 134 million euro was reserved in the budget, turned out to be more expensive than expected. After evaluating more economic alternatives in October 2005 the committee working on the project came to a conclusion that a new multipurpose oil recovery vessel would still be the best solution to improve spill response readiness.Talouspoliittinen ministerivaliokunta haluaa uudenlaisen monitoimialuksen torjumaan öljyvahinkoja . Ympäristöministeriö, 13 December 2005. 35 million euro were allocated for the purchasing of the new vessel.
The Finnish Environment Institute sent offers to several shipyards, both domestic and foreign, during the spring 2007. Construction of the new vessel was awarded to the Finnish shipyard UKI Workboat Ltd (Uudenkaupungin Työvene Oy) and the contract, worth 48 million euro, was signed on 26 October 2007. As the new vessel was more expensive than initially planned, an additional 13 million euro was allocated for the purchase in the supplementary budget. The vessel, expected to enter service in 2010–2011, would be operated by the Finnish Navy and based in Upinniemi, where it would replace the aging spill response vessel Hylje. The ship underwent sea trials in early 2011 and was commissioned in May.SYKE lähetti tarjouspyynnön monitoimialuksesta . Suomen Ympäristökeskus, 23 March 2007.
Naming
On 8 March 2011, the new multipurpose spill response vessel became the third ship of the Finnish Navy to be named after Louhi, the queen of Pohjola in the Finnish mythology. Its pennant number is 999.
The first Louhi was a minelayer, built in 1917 as Voin, that was left behind by withdrawing Russian Navy. The newly founded Finnish Navy acquired the ship and renamed it first M-1 (Miinalaiva 1, Finnish for Minelayer 1) in 1918 and finally Louhi in 1936. On 12 January 1945, when the ship was laying mines with minelayer Ruotsinsalmi at the Gulf of Finland, it was hit either by a mine or a torpedo from a German U-boat. The first Louhi sank in two minutes with a loss of 11 lives.Miinalaiva Louhi
The second Louhi was built in 1939 as icebreaker Sisu and handed over to the Navy in 1970, renamed and given pennant number 90. The ship served as a support ship for Tuima class missile boats and Turunmaa class gunboats, towing them during transit journeys. The second Louhi was decommissioned and scrapped in 1986 mainly because it had become nearly impossible to get spare parts for the old engines.Jäänmurtaja Sisu (1939)
Operational career
On 24 December 2011 Louhi and Linja, another Finnish spill response vessel, were dispatched to the Gulf of Bothnia as a precaution after a tall oil spill from Arizona Chemical plant near Söderhamn in Sweden. While Sweden had not send an official request for assistance yet, the Finnish recovery ships prepared to join the spill combating operation if the oil slick, at that time some northeast from Söderhamn, started drifting towards the Finnish coast.Suomi valmistautuu öljyntorjuntaan Pohjanlahdella . Suomen Ympäristökeskus, 24 December 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2011 Although Louhi can operate in relatively high seas, the recovery effort was hindered and subsequently the oil slick was broken up by the storm on 27 December 2011.Öljylautta lähestyy Suomen rannikkoa, myrsky pysäytti torjunta-alukse. Helsingin Sanomat, 25 December 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2011 When Louhi moved to the recovery area on 28 December, the slick could not be located and only of weathered oil was recovered.Öljylauttaa ei löytynyt - torjunta-alus keräsi kymmeniä litroja öljyä. YLE, 28 December 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2012
Mission
Due to the sensitive ecology of the Baltic Sea, it has been agreed in the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM) that instead of using dispersants to dissolve the oil slicks, combatting the spills is based on mechanical recovery using oil booms to limit the spill and skimmers to collect the oil from the surface as quickly and completely as possible. For this purpose every Finnish pollution control vessel is equipped with permanently installed built-in recovery equipment and such systems have also been installed on several patrol vessels of the Finnish Border Guard.Oil pollution response methods . Finnish Environment Institute, 21 July 2010. As the primary mission of the new vessel is pollution prevention, the ship has an extensive array of equipment capable of detecting and recovering spilled oil and chemicals in open water, high seas and ice conditions. Some of the equipment, such as an oil-detecting radar and a thermographic camera in the mast, are used for the first time in a Finnish oil recovery vessel. In addition the ship has a weather station and a wet laboratory capable of analyzing water samples automatically.
In addition to environmental duties, Louhi can also be used as a support ship for underwater operations by the Finnish Navy. The vessel has facilities for divers, a moon pool and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), and it can be used to lay and recover submarine communications cable which is stored in the ship's recovery tanks. During crisis time the ship, capable of carrying 1,000 tons of fuel and 100 tons of cargo, can be armed with one 40 mm main gun, two 12.7 mm machine guns and naval mines,Louhi . Merivoimat. Retrieved 4 June 2012 and used to supply island forts and other naval vessels.
Design
General characteristics
Louhi is long, wide and has a draught of . At 3,450 tons, it is the largest ship by displacement currently in service in the Finnish Navy and the third largest ever, second only to the coastal defence ships Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen.
The ship is built according to Germanischer Lloyd rules for classification with class notation of GL 100 A5, E4, NAV-OC, Tug, Supply Vessel, Marine Pollution Response Vessel, Oil Recovery Vessel, Chemical Recovery Vessel for the ship and GL MC, E4, AUT, FF1 for the machinery. The vessel is built to the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class, 1A Super, with special consideration for the dimensioning of the propulsion and hull to meet the requirements for icebreaking capability as the Finnish-Swedish ice class rules do not extend to icebreaking vessels.
Power and propulsion
Electricity is produced by four 9-cylinder Wärtsilä 9L20 4-stroke medium-speed diesel generating sets with a combined output of . The generators provide power for all shipboard consumers, including two 2,700 kW Z-drive thrusters with 3.1-metre () four-bladed propellers and a 500 kW bow thruster. The diesel-electric azimuth thrusters, manufactured by Rolls-Royce, give the vessel excellent maneuverability at low speeds, stationkeeping and dynamic positioning capability, and a towing capacity of .
Louhi has icebreaking capabilities second only to real icebreakers. The ship is designed to maintain a continuous speed of in ice and in ice, both with a snow cover. Additionally the vessel is designed to be capable of penetrating an ice ridge with a maximum thickness of with a single ram starting from , maintain a speed of in thick brash ice channel and be capable of operating in brash ice channels up to thick.Hänninen, S. & Sassi, J. Acute Oil Spills in Arctic Waters - Oil Combating in Ice. Research report VTT-R-03638-09. VTT, 2010. In open water the ship has a service speed of .
The operational range of the vessel is and the provisions give the ship an endurance of 20 days.
Recovery equipment
The mechanical oil recovery equipment on board Louhi is based on the same stiff brush technology that has been proved to be effective by the previous Finnish spill response vessels. The vessel is equipped with three different types of recovery systems developed and manufactured by Lamor, each suitable for specific weather conditions. The equipment is fully mechanized, remotely controlled and capable of deploying to operational mode in 10 minutes per side. The fourth system, designed for difficult ice conditions, is an innovation developed by the Finnish Environment Institute.