Soviet Icebreaker Sent to South Pole to Free Trapped Ship

MOSCOW — Soviet maritime officials ordered the icebreaker Vladivostok to the South Pole to rescue a research ship trapped in an ice mass since mid-March with 53 people board, the Tass press agency said today.

The Mikhail Somov became trapped in ice after a heavy storm on March 15. It was able to break free after two weeks of maneuvering through gaps in the ice cover “but found itself in the center of a vast Pacific Ocean ice mass” 13 feet thick, Tass said.

Pressure from the mass prevented the ship from generating enough power to move. As a precaution, 77 people were airlifted from the ship by helicopter, leaving 53 crew members and researchers aboard.

Tass said scientists reported “little probability of the ship independently getting out of the mass and the ship is apparently in for a long drift” near Russkaya Station in the Pacific Antarctic.