Mercator (ship, 1990)
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The research ship Mercator is the smallest German research ship registered in a German shipping register and sails for the Mercator Research Group
ship
The Mercator motorboat was built from 1987 to 1990 as a cultural and historical work platform for maritime research assignments in inaccessible regions: compact, economical, agile, suitable for deep sea and shallow water, the boat brings scientists, technicians and equipment to the expedition areas.
The building was carried out by the ethnologist and cultural sociologist Wolfgang Knabe . It relied on construction plans and special building materials (RFK) that had been specially developed for these companies. On March 22, 1990, the Mercator was christened in Augsburg by the Mayor of Augsburg, Hans Breuer. The namesake is the important German cartographer Gerhard Mercator (Mercator principle). In the winter of 1994/1995 the Mercator was converted for use in the Labrador Sea. So far the Mercator has covered around 21,000 nautical miles. The home port of the research ship is Hamburg, the research base and shipyard is the Mercator Forum in Königsbrunn . The Mercator bears the city arms of Königsbrunn.
Technical specifications
The ship is powered by two Yanmar diesel engines each with 74 kW power driven. The engines, which each consume around 0.6 liters of diesel fuel per nautical mile , act on a six-bladed propeller. The maximum speed of the ship is 13.5 knots . The range of the ship is around 465 nautical miles at a speed of 9.2 knots. The fuel required is carried in tanks with a capacity of 780 liters. The water tanks hold 360 liters. The ship is equipped with a seawater desalination system that can desalinate 8 to 10 liters of seawater per hour.
The empty weight of the ship is 8.6 tons, the payload is specified as 3.2 tons. The maximum draft is 0.9 meters, that of the empty ship 0.75 meters.
Previous research assignments and research content
- 1991-1992
- 16th century German merchants - Indian west coast and Laccadives
- 1995
- German-speaking settlers of the 18th century, especially the Canadian east coast
- 1996
Atlantic Ocean / Labrador Sea
- German explorers and settlers of the 15th to 18th centuries - Labrador coast
- 2003-2005
- Spanish-German trade expedition of 1526 - Tuamotu Archipelago and Society Islands
See also
- Mercateum , a trade museum in Königsbrunn, which is located inside a walk-historical world and the beginnings of world trade reflects whose route boy already 1991-1992 with the Mercator has retraced
literature
- Boote magazine , issue 7/1999, pp. 22-29.
