Irbenskiy, Maritime museum vessel in Kaliningrad, Russia
The Irbenskiy is a lightship built in 1962 in Finland and now serves as a floating museum along Kaliningrad's embankment. The vessel displays exhibitions about maritime history and the techniques used for navigation in the Baltic Sea.
The ship was built in 1962 in Turku and served as a navigation aid in the Irbe Strait until the late 1980s. As radar technology advanced, the lightship was retired and later transformed into a museum.
The name refers to the Irbe Strait in the Baltic Sea, where this vessel once guided ships safely through dangerous waters. Visitors can see how sailors lived and worked aboard during their time at sea.
The vessel is located at Peter the Great Embankment in the city center and is easy to reach on foot. Wear sturdy shoes since climbing stairs and navigating narrow corridors inside the ship requires steady footing.
This was one of the last inhabited lightships ever constructed, weighing 672 tons. Its specialized equipment for marking dangerous waters can still be seen aboard and reflects the engineering challenges of that era.
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