.Built as research vessel under yard No 406 by Wärtsila Marine Ind. Inc, Turko/Abo for the Finnish National Board of Navigation, Helsinki.
She was completed under yard 481 by the Wärtsila yard in Helsinki.
Launched under the name ARANDA.
Tonnage 1.734 grt, 521 net, dim. 59.20 x 13.80 x 4.60m.
Powered by two types engines: 1) Wärtsila 2 oil driving gen. connected to electric motor of 1.360 shp. Electric drive in research mode only (only used when undertaking research work.)
For normal use, one 12-cyl. Wärtsila Oil 4SA diesel engine, 1.576 bhp., one shaft, speed 14 knots.
Range 15.000 miles. Endurance 60 days.
Accommodation for 6 officers, 7crew and 24 scientists.
Ice strengthened.
June 1989 delivered to owners.
She was the third Finish research vessel carrying the name ARUNDA. The intention was to use her only in the Baltic waters but in principle she is able to operate world wide.
The latest in Finish marine research is represented by the ARANDA, which began serving as the research vessel of the Finish Marine Research Institute in 1989. Its significance with regard to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic has been enormous, but it’s most distant and demanding voyages have been to the Antarctic.
The stamp depicts the ARNADA in two aspects, as a ship specializing purely in marine research and as a vessel adapted for polar conditions. It shows the ARANDA at the edge of the Antarctic ice, lowering from its deck a buoy for measuring waves and a probe for monitoring salinity and temperature and for collecting samples.
2007 http://www.equasis.org gives: Owned by Merentutkimuslaitos, Helsinki, managed by Finstaship Shipping Enterprise, Helsinki. IMO No 8802076.
Finland 1998 2m80 sg1518, scott?
Source: mostly copied from Watercraft Philately Vol. 45 page 14. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz