Daphne Bramham: Canadian cruise company’s claim has sparked international dispute

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In the quiet fishing port of Skagen, in the far north of Denmark, a Canadian cruise company is at the center of an international incident that is being interpreted as one of Russia’s top stories.

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On Monday, a Danish judge and police boarded the Russian-flagged Akademik Ioffe, demanded the ship’s documents, took stock of the 61 people on board and “arrested” the ship at the request of Squamish-based One Ocean Expeditions.

The judge of the Danish Execution Court issued the arrest warrant under the 1952 International Convention on the arrest of seagoing vessels. The convention allows anyone who has a claim against a ship’s owner to have the ship and even its sister ships detained as collateral pending resolution of legal disputes.

In a Facebook post, the Russian Embassy in Denmark said that while the ship is used by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, it is owned by the Russian Federation.

If that is shown to be true, that could mean the ship is exempt from arrest.

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Regardless, it has increased tensions between Russia and Denmark.

Canadian Global Affairs spokesman Jason Kung said he is aware of the arrest of the ship. But he said: “We understand that this involves private or commercial matters and will be considered by the Danish courts.”

Danish television Nord reported late Thursday that a Russian warship had quietly sailed around the Akademik Ioffe with its lights off. The Danish authorities denied it. But a Danish foreign affairs spokesman could not explain to Oslo Aftenposten why tracking data from the automatic identification system showed that the 104-meter Stoiky corvette armed with anti-ship missiles was only a few kilometers from Skagen.

Aftenposten and other Danish media also pointed to Norwegian media reports last month on concerns from that country’s Business and Industrial Safety Council about another Russian research ship, the Akademik Lazarev, which it believes has been mapping critical infrastructure, including cables and pipes.

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In Russia, the arrest of Akademik Ioffe has also been top news on major media websites, including Izvestia and the Moscow Times, as well as on dozens of blog sites.

Meanwhile, a story on the Russian website NewsWep.com gloomily warned that a third-party claim that led to the ship’s arrest is part of an orchestrated response by Western countries to “strengthening Russia’s presence in the world’s oceans. “.

He went on to say that “foreign advertisers” are behind this, calling for a ban on the ship in Arctic waters.

“It is possible that all this plus the arrest of Akademik Ioffe in another Arctic country, Denmark, are links in a chain to expel Russian ships from the high latitudes of the world.”

Despite the international intrigue, the reality is more mundane.

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The arrest stems from a dispute over money, $ 19 million, which One Ocean claims is owed by the Shirshov Institute. You have filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada. So far, the Shirshov Institute has not responded.

Starting in 2008, One Ocean chartered the ships Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Vavilov and their crew through the Cyprus-based institute management company for their polar expeditions during summers in the Arctic and Antarctic.

In its court file, One Ocean names the institute as the owner of those two ships, as well as seven others.

The genesis of the claim is Ioffe’s August 2018 grounding in an unexplored bay in the Canadian Arctic with 102 passengers on board along with One Ocean staff and Russian crew.

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In its complaint to the Federal Court, the Squamish-based company names the Shirshov Institute, “the owners and other stakeholders” of the Ioffe, Vavilov and six other ships. None of the plaintiffs have responded.

One Ocean claims that Ioffe ran aground due to the negligence of the captain and crew who “veered off a known route” and proceeded at an excessive speed of at least seven knots despite the fact that the charts and navigation aids were not reliable and only gave the depth immediately below. the recipient.

Due to the ground connection and the time required for repairs, OOE had to cancel nine tours at an estimated cost of US $ 6.5 million.

The Shirshov Institute disputed responsibility and negotiations to resolve the claims that took place from September 2018 to April 2019 were unsuccessful, according to OOE’s claim statement.

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Then, without warning in May 2019, One Ocean claims that the Shirshov Institute recovered both the Ioffe and the Akademik Vavilov and sent them back to Russia.

That forced cancellation of One Ocean’s remaining scheduled trips resulted in costs and liabilities that it claims amount to approximately $ 12.5 million for canceled trips, as well as handling stranded passengers as a result.

With rising costs and responsibilities, One Ocean was unable to pay the charter costs of its only other ship, the Resolute, and halted operations at the end of 2019.In October 2020, a BC Supreme Court judge sanctioned its $ 4.1 million restructuring plan that had been approved by creditors.

On Friday, the owner of One Ocean said in a prepared statement that because of what happened, many people have been negatively affected. “We have long been working tirelessly on his behalf to have our day in court,” said Andrew Prossin. “We intend to carry it out.”

As mundane and prosaic as the reasons for Ioffe’s arrest may be, there is a strange synchronicity in One Ocean being involved in an international incident.

In March 2020, after One Ocean returned its third ship, the Portuguese-flagged Resolute, to its owners, it was also involved in an international incident that resulted in the sinking of a Venezuelan navy ship amid rumors of that the Resolute was clandestinely transporting armed mercenaries who settled down to depose Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro.

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Twitter: @bramham_daphne