Beluga (ship)

Beluga

The Beluga in Dresden in spring 1990

Ship data flag Germany other ship names Fire boat 3 Ship type Fire ship Shipyard Burmeister, Bremen Commissioning 1960 Decommissioning 2004 Whereabouts Memorial in Gorleben

Ship dimensions and crew length 23.65 m ( Lüa ) width 5.15 m Draft Max. 1.70 m

Machine system Service speed 8 kn (15 km / h) Top speed 10 kn (19 km / h) propeller 2

Transport capacities Load capacity 58 dw

The Beluga is a former harbor fire boat that was used for actions by the Greenpeace organization from 1985 to 2004 and was named after the Beluga , a white gudgeon whale that sporadically immigrates into rivers.

History and technology

The "Beluga" served from 1960 to 1984 under the name Feuer-Löschboot 3 as a fire boat for the city ​​of Bremen . After the takeover by Greenpeace, employees and around forty volunteers converted the boat into a modern laboratory ship in more than ten thousand hours to carry out pollutant measurements in waters. They removed supply lines and extinguishing equipment and overhauled the communication and control systems. The aft deck was reinforced to accommodate a rigid inflatable boat. A hydraulic crane made it possible to put the dinghy into the water and to lift it out again. The fair was significantly enlarged so that the press and the public on board could be informed about protests and investigations. Double propellers made the boat more maneuverable in order to be able to be used for actions in rivers, estuaries, coastal waters and ports. After completing her active sailing time, the ship went to the port of Sea Life Oberhausen in 2004 as a museum ship .

The ship was decommissioned in 2004 with the commissioning of the Beluga II .

Last port

The Beluga as a memorial at the access area to the planned nuclear waste repository in Gorleben

In May 2013, the Beluga was dismantled into six parts and brought overland to Gorleben and erected there as a memorial in the access area of ​​the planned Gorleben nuclear waste storage facility . As a memorial, it is intended to remind people that the salt dome is not a safe repository for radioactive waste.

Operations at Greenpeace

In July 1985 the Beluga finally started its first special offer on the Rhine. Later, the Beluga was involved in the campaigns against the sinking of the Brent Spar oil platform , in 1996 the ship took part in the German youth campaign BISS on an ozone smog tour with the demand for an improved ozone law and called at a total of ten cities. In September 1997 she set course for the reprocessing plant in La Hague . In 1998 she called at the ports of Kiel , Warnemünde , Greifswald and Lübeck to draw attention to the clear cutting of the rainforests in Canada . In 1999 the Beluga toured the ports of the North Sea and Baltic Sea to measure the maximum levels of tributyltin in the silt around shipyards. The campaign continued the following year. In March 2001, Greenpeace monitored an area in the Baltic Sea for four weeks after a tanker accident with a freighter leaked 2,600 tons of oil in the Kadetrinne . Then the Beluga started on an information tour along the East Frisian Islands and Sylt , during which the use of wind energy on the high seas was discussed. Until the end of its use, the Beluga was used in the following areas: the rivers Rhine , Elbe , Scheldt , Weser , Thames , Humber , Tyne , Tees , Mersey , Maas and Seine , the Westerschelde and the Wadden Sea , the coasts of England , Sweden and Denmark , as well as the Great Lakes and Mississippi of North America .

See also

• Rainbow Warrior (ship, 2011)
• Arctic Sunrise
• Esperanza (ship)

Web links

Commons : Beluga (ship, 1960)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Technical Specification - mv Beluga. (No longer available online.) In: www.greenpeace.org. Archived from the original on December 22, 2009 ; accessed on June 30, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Protest culture on a new level. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 16, 2010 ; Retrieved September 6, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Gregor Kessler: Beluga is a memorial. May 13, 2013, accessed November 30, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Beluga I. (No longer available online.) In: www.greenpeace.ch. Archived from the original on December 1, 2009 ; Retrieved June 30, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Greenpeace Ships: Beluga. (No longer available online.) In: www.greenpeace.org. Archived from the original on January 9, 2008 ; accessed on June 30, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.