A ceremonial event, related to the start of operating new modern highly-efficient non-propelled cutter dredger Petr Sablin which had arrived in the seaport of Astrakhan on June 25, 2016, was held in the Astrakhan Branch.

Besides branch employees, veterans of dredging fleet were also invited to the ceremonial event, they remembered past labor achievements and invaluable contribution of dredge masters and specialists of dredging fleet to maintenance of the VCMSC navigation depths, and thanked the Astrakhan Branch management for the observance of the traditions of continuity of generations.

Welcoming speeches to participants of the meeting were made by Acting Director of the Astrakhan Branch Vladimir Gudkov, veteran of the dredging fleet Valentina Torbina - “godmother” of the vessel, dredge master of the vessel Sergey Apukhtin, as well as specially invited Denis Sablin, a grandson of Petr Sablin, after whom the vessel was named.

Petr Sablin dredger was built on production capacities of “Onezhsky Ship Building and Ship Repairing Plant” under the order of FSUE “Rosmorport"” and became the fourth vessel included in the dredging fleet of the Astrakhan Branch, in addition to the existing three dredgers Ivan Cheremesinov, Urengoy and Artemy Volynsky, which are actively used by the branch to carry out dredging works in the water area the Volga-Caspian Marine Shipping Canal.

Distinctive feature of this vessel is the position of the motor and pump equipment inside the dredger hull, which can significantly increase the level of safety and sanitary conditions of the vessel's crew.

The vessel is an improved analog of Artemy Volynsky self-propelled dredger operated by the Astrakhan Branch since 2013, which presented itself well during maintenance dredging works at the VCMSC.

Video from Rossiya 1 Astrakhan TV chanel

For reference:
Petr Sablin is a non-propelled cutter dredger which was constructed in 2016 by OOO “Onezhsky Ship Building and Ship Repairing Plant”. The vessel was named after the Head of former Directorate “Kaspreidmorput”, which carried out all dredging works in the water areas of the Volga and the Ural rivers deltas in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. From 1949 Petr Sablin rose from third assistant to the dredgers captain to the head of the Caspian Roads Management of Sea Routes of the Minmorflot of the USSR.
In August 1960, he awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor with Order of Lenin and “Hammer and Sickle” gold medal.