She was built in 1972 as a bulk carrier and launched under the name Trentwood by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at their shipyard in Hiroshima, Japan,and later converted to a pipe-laying vessel between 1996 and 1998 at Swan Hunter Shipyard on Tyneside in England. The ship is owned by the Allseas Group, a Swiss pipelaying and marine construction firm.

The Prime Minister toured the vessel to see how the pipe-laying crew and operational personnel work and relax. He showed particular interest in the welding process. He asked how often defects are detected in welding seams and how high reject rates are. Crew members replied that the reject rate is less than 1%, or one seam per 12 work-hours, and that they always check the quality of a seam thoroughly before moving on to the next one.

The prime minister watched a pipe being placed in the water from a the crane-like extension called a "stinger". He remarked that the pipe seemed to be moving, not the ship. Crew members agreed that it can look that way, and explained that this is because the ship is so large that one can barely feel it moving.

Prime Minister Putin asked at what depth the pipe was being laid. Crew members replied that the piece of pipe in question was being laid at a depth of 60 metres, but depths can reach 200 metres.

The prime minister also toured the upper deck and the deckhouse, where the captain told him how the ship is operated. He noted that it is equipped with the navigation systems NMD CLASS3 and the Russian GLONASS.

The Prime Minister met with Nord Stream project executives onboard the ship.

Solitaire's displacement is 200,000 metric tons. Its crew has already laid over 300 kilometres of the first section of the gas pipeline and can lay up to 9 km a day, operating the in-house developed Phoenix  automatic welding system.

The giant Solitaire pipe-laying ship /Allseas