Arne and the anchor

New suspicion of sabotage of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea:

It seems to be a recurring theme that merchant ships in the Baltic Sea suddenly complain about the loss of anchors and anchor chains. This is what supposedly happened on 20 February 2025, when the ship coming from St. Petersburg Freighter MV "Arne" passed the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland to the west.

The stern of the MV Arne with its home port of St John's
Photo: Michael Nitz

Close-up of the manipulation site
Photo: Michael Nitz

What is striking is the fact that the 27-year-old merchant ship, which flies the flag of Antigua Barbuda, left St. Petersburg on 19 February 2025 at its usual speed of around 12.5 knots and gradually slowed down as it approached the island of Gotland. From there, AIS tracking apps recorded hours of slow sailing, during which a speed of only 7.8 knots was documented between the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland. This suspicious voyage profile prompted Swedish, Danish and German security authorities to conduct an escort operation on the freighter. MV Arne is one of the merchant ships that were in the region of the cable damage discovered on Friday near the Swedish island of Gotland. The Federal Maritime Police deployed the FGS Bamberg, which escorted the 134.5 metre long ship from Sassnitz to Gedser. From there, the FGS Neustadt took over the escort to the inner fjord of Kiel. There the MV Arne stopped by the federal police. The Danish Armed Forces' home defence cutter HDMS Luna (MHV 810) was involved in the escort, accompanying the freighter until shortly before the Bay of Kiel. In the Kiel-Holtenau roadstead, the following were taken on board the MV Arne According to a spokesperson for the Federal Police See, border police measures (border police entry control) were carried out. For tactical reasons, the Federal Police are not providing any information on the procedures or the resulting measures. The Federal Police vessel was on the escort voyage of the MV Arne shortly after passing the Kiel lighthouse, he launched his NAVIS - RHIB on the port side, which then travelled at high speed to the Kiel-Wik naval base. It appears to have handed over collected evidence there.

In addition, the MV Arne The freighter spent almost three hours in the Holtenau roadstead before entering the Kiel Canal lock system in Kiel-Holtenau at 1330. On the way to the next harbour, which is indicated in the AIS as Seville (Spain), the MV Arne The ship proved tonight at around 02:00 that her propulsion system is quite powerful when she passed Cuxhaven at 15.1 knots with a decent stern wave.

The freighter MV Arne at sea
Photo: Michael Nitz

Text / Photos: Michael Nitz Naval Press Service