Estonian Maritime Museum orders roughly €1 million research vessel from Latvia

The Estonian Maritime Museum in Tallinn signed a contract on Tuesday with Latvian shipbuilder Invessel for the construction of a new research vessel. The catamaran will cost around €1 million and is scheduled for completion in 2028. It will be the first research vessel the museum has had built specifically to its own requirements.

The catamaran is to have a spacious aft deck for diving operations, as well as a crane. Construction is expected to start in February with a keel-laying ceremony.

Funding

According to museum board member Urmas Dresen, the project will be paid for entirely from the museum's own budget. "We do not have any support funds," he said. Dresen noted that, unlike the Navy and the State Fleet, which often wait years for new ships and have struggled to secure funding for an icebreaker, the museum benefits from buying smaller vessels.

The previous vessel

The museum's earlier research vessel, Mare, served it from 1982 and has been an exhibit at Seaplane Harbour since 2018. Mare was used for more than marine archaeology. In August 2005, under the command of Vello Mäss, it carried Estonian divers to the wreck of the Copterline Sikorsky helicopter that had crashed into the sea near Aegna island.

Dresen pointed out that 2028 will mark 50 years of the museum's underwater archaeology work. Once the new vessel is completed, a naming competition will be held.