Built or assembled as a semisubmersible pipelay vessel under yard No 4334 by Italcantieri S.p.A., Trieste, Italy for Saipem S.p.A. Italy.
20 May 1975 first section placed.
Launched as the CASTORO SEI.
Tonnage 31,506 grt, 9,415 net, dim. 151.5 x 70.5 x 29.8m., draught 7.8 – 15.5m.
Four electrical engines of 2.060 kW each for positioning, driving four azimuthal pitch propellers at the ends of the two hulls.
Bunker capacity 2,929 cubic meter.
Two revolving cranes with a capacity of 190 and 152 ton.
Accommodation for 330 people
Fitted out with a helicopter platform.
Can carry 6,000 tons of pipes welded together before being laid down. Can lay pipes in depths up to 600 meter.
Projected to operate in weather with a wave height 5.5m. and winds as strong as 50km, and tides running up to 2 knots.
Can still float against 24m waves and 100km winds.
Fitted out with a helideck suitable for Sikorsky S 81 N helicopters.
01 October 1978 delivered.
She provides a safe reliable and stable operating platform capable of laying subsea pipes up to 60 inches in diameter.
At her working position she can be moored by 12 anchors each 25 ton, the anchor wire size is 76 mm and have each a length of 3000 meter.
1981 She was laying a gas pipeline in the Sicily Channel.
2002 Was she owned by European Marine Contractors, U.K.
2010 Under Bahamas flag and registry and owned or operated by Saipem Portugal Comercio Maritimo LDA, Funchal, Madeira. In service IMO No 8758603.
The Russian stamp depict the CASTORO SEI and some other ships used in the laying of the gas pipe line “Nord Stream” from Vryborg, Russia to Greifswald in Germany. (Wikipedia has much more on this pipeline)
The construction of this pipeline was completed in 2012.
The margin of the stamp has the route of the pipeline, and a painting of Empress Catherine I (1712) painted by Andreas Møller and this painting was bought by Gazprom Germania GmbH in 2009, and is now at loan in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
2013 CASTORO SEI in service, same owners.
September 2014 she passed the Istanbul Strait bound for Varna, Bulgaria.
Italy 1980 200li sg1694, scott?
Russia 2012 40p sgMs?, scott? (she is the large vessel on the right of the stamp, the other three vessels on the stamp are yet not identified.)
Source: ABS record. Watercraft Philately and various web-sites. Russian Post