Strelasund's keel was laid in July last year and it should, in fact, have been delivered early in 2002, but Ministry spokesman Peter Schlichting told Maritime Journal that 'unforeseeable difficulties, including the bankruptcy of one of the equipment supply companies' had delayed delivery.

MV contributed 17% of the cost of Strelasund and also paid the extra ?380,000 cost of equipping the ship for additional monitoring jobs, but the German government and three other German coastal states - Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig Holstein - also helped in the financing.

It's all part of an ongoing campaign against marine pollution by the environmentally-aware Germans. With disasters like Erika fresh in their minds and in the wake of German unification in 1990, they now have much busier Baltic sea traffic to worry about as east-west trade increases.

Schlichting explained that the four state authorities had agreed to spend between ?3-4m a year on coastal marine protection.

That covered equipment ranging from beach cleaning devices to oil combat ships. Schlichting said: 'To minimise costs, it was decided to give coastal ships as big a multi-purpose role as possible. That's why Strelasund has been equipped to monitor waterways and lakes, as well as scoop up oil spills'.

Two similar vessels, Kiel and Vilm, are already in Baltic coastal service while the German government, which is responsible for high-seas oil pollution protection, operates Scharhorn and Bottsand and plans to introduce a third ship over the next few years.

The Stralsund-based Strelasund will operate on estuaries, rivers and lakes along the coast between the Bay of Lubeck in the west and the Oder Estuary in the east.

As well as oil recovery, it will tackle on-site water and sediment sampling, meteorological and hydrographic measurement and assist in ship salvage.

Its oil recovery process is a new one, developed in Finland and consists of a floating plastic brush connected to vents in the hull of the ship. MV Environment Ministry State Secretary Dietmar Glitz said it was 'a considerable improvement over the pumping systems previously used on ships in service in Germany'.

Strelasund is 32.5m long overall and has a maximum beam of 8.7m and a side height of 3.8m. Maximum draught during operation as an oil recovery vessel is 2.6m while draught during waterway monitoring is 1.67m.

The ship is propelled by two MAN Type D2842LE main engines, each of 441kW and 1800rev/min, reduced to 375kW, and operating two Schottel rudder propellers Type HRP 411-51 of 1200mm diameter and 440kW at 1800rev/min. Speed is 10-12 knots during waterway monitoring duties and 8-10 knots during oil recovery.

A Schottel Pump Jet Type SPJ 57 RD of 150kW and 1340rev/min has been installed as a bow thruster and two MAN generators Type D 2866E of 126kw/180kVa are also installed.

A central hydraulic plant operates all windlass, mast, crane and oil recovery equipment.

Ten people can be accommodated on Strelasund, which has been classed GL +100 A5K (50)E + MC aut oil recovery vessel.