Aurora Australis (ship)
.jpg) The Aurora Australis in Hobart's home port
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Aurora Australis (Latin and English: " Northern Lights of the Southern Hemisphere") is an icebreaker that is used as a scientific research base for the Australian Antarctic Division . It was classified by Lloyd's Register of Shipping according to ice class 1A Super and is able to drive through ice up to a thickness of 1.23 meters. The Aurora Australis also serves as a supply ship for the territory in Antarctica claimed by Australia . It has been painted light orange for good visibility. The ship can accommodate three helicopters and carry out biological, oceanographic and meteorological observations and experiments. There is space on board for 140 people, including 24 crew members.
history
The ship was commissioned on December 23, 1987 and designed by Wärtsilä Marine Industries in Finland . The keel was laid as hull number 207 on October 28, 1988 at the Carrington Slipways shipyard in Newcastle (New South Wales) . The Aurora Australis entered service in March 1990 and initially belonged to P&O Polar Australia . In 2003 it was transferred to P&O Maritime Services . The ship is chartered to the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).
Incidents
On a trip to Macquarie Island in the early morning of July 22, 1998, a fire broke out in the engine room about 1,300 nautical miles south of Tasmania , which could be extinguished. The ship was able to continue its return journey to Hobart on July 24th with an engine and reached the port of destination on the 31st of the month.
In December 1998, the Aurora Australis got stuck in the ice due to a propeller damage and was towed free by the Japanese icebreaker Shirase .
In February 2016, the icebreaker ran aground on the way to an Australian research station in Antarctica; a crack was found in the hull.
Rescue attempt by the Akademik Shokalskiy
The Akademik Shokalskiy , a Russian expedition cruise ship with 74 people on board, was trapped in the ice in the Commonwealth Bay during Christmas 2013 . The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long tried to free the Akademik Shokalskiy from the ice, but had to abandon the rescue attempt on December 28, only six and a half nautical miles away from the Akademik Shokalskiy for safety reasons, because the ice cover was too thick. After the failed rescue attempt by the Xue Long , the Aurora Australis , who had meanwhile also arrived on site, tried to free the Akademik Shokalskiy from the ice. When she got within 18 kilometers of the Akademik Shokalskiy , however, she too had to abort her rescue attempt, as a snow storm would have made it too dangerous to continue. But she took over the 52 passengers of the Akademik Shokalskiy . An on-board helicopter (type Kamow Ka-32 ) of the Xue Long transferred the passengers to the Aurora Australis .
Machine system and drive
The Aurora Australis is equipped with a 12-cylinder and a 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 diesel engine with a total of 13,400 hp, which drive a variable pitch propeller via a reduction gear and hydraulic clutches . A bow thruster and two retractable propeller pods in the stern serve as maneuvering aids.
In addition to the two main engines, two six-cylinder and one four-cylinder Wärtsilä 22 diesel engines are installed. The ship has a range of about 25,000 nautical miles or 90 days; the fuel consumption in the most economical driving mode is 18 tons per day.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j P&O Maritime: Aurora Australis. Retrieved February 25, 2016 .
- ↑ Engine room fire on board the Aurora Australis , Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Investigation number: 135, June 28, 1999 (English)
- ↑ Anthony Peter Worby: Sea Ice Observations from the Aurora Australis V4 1998/99 , Australian Antarctic Data Center, CAASM Metadata, 2001, revised 2008 (English)
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: 68 people are stuck on icebreakers , accessed on February 25, 2016.
- ↑ Der Standard: Icebreaker with 68 people stuck in Antarctica , accessed on February 25, 2016.
- ↑ Operation in the Antarctic: Icebreaker "Snow Dragon" fails with rescue attempt , Der Spiegel, December 28, 2013, accessed on December 28, 2013.
- ↑ Desperate rescue attempt in the Antarctic - passengers must continue to worry , Focus Online, December 28, 2013, accessed on December 28, 2013.
- ↑ Helicopter instead of icebreaker ( memento from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, December 30, 2013, accessed on December 31, 2013.