Maritime State University does not dramatize detention of Nadezhda in South Korea

The detention for a few hours of the Russian sailing vessel Nadezhda in the South Korean port of Pusan was a misunderstanding, Vyacheslav Sedykh, rector of Maritime State University in Vladivostok (a Russian port city on the Pacific), told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

According to him, the university had fully settled up with the Club of Mutual Insurers (Bahamas), with which it worked until 1998.

"This insurance company has not presented any documents or advance debt notices to the university. The club's claims are without grounds, which was confirmed by a district court in Pusan," said Sedykh.

The Russian sailing frigate Nadezhda, which is making a round-the-world voyage, left Pusan by court decision on Wednesday evening and is currently bound for its port of registry: Vladivostok.

According to the university, Pusan, where the sailer called after Japan, was the last foreign port on her route to Russia.

On February 18, the frigate, passing Vladivostok's longitude in the Pacific, had made a complete revolution round the planet. In the meantime the sailer had thrice crossed the equator.

The frigate Nadezhda of Admiral Nevelskoi Maritime State University left on her round-the-world trip on January 25, 2003. The voyage round the globe is dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the first round-the-world journey undertaken by Russian seamen under the command of Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yury Lisyansky on the sloops Nadezhda and Neva.

On board the vessel, together with the crew and naval cadets, is a Russian scientific expedition to study the ecology of the world oceans.

As the first stage of her round-the-world voyage the boat covered the distance from Vladivostok to St Petersburg, sailing through the Pacific and Indian oceans, the Suez canal, and the Atlantic.

The Nadezhda called at Britain, the Canaries, Brazil, the Falklands, Chile, Tahiti, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki and Pusan.