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German Police Board Freighter on Suspicions of Subsea Cable Damage

Gotland
Arne transiting at reduced speed past Gotland (Courtesy Pole Star)

Published Feb 24, 2025 4:18 PM by The Maritime Executive

An aging freighter was stopped and boarded in Kiel after a suspected cable damage incident off Gotland last weekend, according to German authorities - and in a familiar pattern, it was missing its port-side anchor. 

The Antigua-flagged freighter Arne got under way from St. Petersburg on February 19, bound for Seville. She passed Gotland on the evening of February 20-21, and reduced speed by about three knots as she transited past the southeastern side of the island.

On the same day, Swedish authorities announced a new suspected "disturbance" to the CLion1 subsea cable, which links Germany and Finland under the Baltic. The damage did not appear to be severe, as "the disturbance does not affect the functionality of telecommunications connections running in the cable," operator Cinnia said in a statement. 

Arne's speed fluctuations and course attracted the attention of the NATO monitoring mission in the Baltic. The German Federal Marine Police dispatched the patrol vessels Bamberg and Neustadt to monitor and escort Arne to Kiel Bay. Denmark's cutter HDMS Luna joined in the convoy as well. 

Arne was boarded near the Kiel Canal entrance on Saturday afternoon. Local media noted that the ship was missing her port-side anchor, just like several other vessels accused of damaging subsea cables in the Baltic over the past year, including the NewNew Polar Bear and Eagle S.  

However, Arne was allowed to go after a three-hour inspection, and made an uneventful transit of the Kiel Canal. She is now underway southbound in the English Channel. Finnish authorities say that it is possible that the CLion cable was damaged earlier, in the Christmas Day anchor-drag incident involving the tanker Eagle S. 

Arne is a 27-year-old freighter flagged in Antigua and owned in Latvia. As is common for a vessel of her age, she has a history of port state inspection deficiencies, including violations related to firefighting equipment and pumps, ISM code compliance, alarms, GMDSS systems and her VDR.