Polarlys (ship, 1952)
_in_Trondheim_ca._1990_02.jpg) The Polarlys (front) in Trondheim around 1990
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The Polarlys was a Norwegian ferry that sailed on the Hurtigruten from 1952 to 1994 . From 1994 the ship was named Caribbean Mercy as a hospital, aid and mission ship , after being resold in 2006 first Home II and then Hope II .
history
Polarlys
The Polarlys was built in 1952 by Aalborg Værft A / S in Aalborg , Denmark . She was one of the ships of the "Etterkrigsflåten", which were built between 1949 and 1964 for the Hurtigruten. The other ships are or were: Nordstjernen , Finnmarken , Lofoten , Ragnvald Jarl , Erling Jarl (†), Midnatsol (†), Nordlys (†), Nordnorge (†), Sanct Svithun (†), Vesterålen (†), Harald Jarl , Håkon Jarl (†) and Kong Olav . After the Nordlys and Håkon Jarl , the Polarlys was the third and last ship that Aalborg Værft built for Hurtigruten. The Hurtigruten had the same number of ships as before the war, but now all powered by diesel engines. With the three ships from Denmark, the time of the standard ships began on the Hurtigruten.
In 1982 the original main engine, a B&W -850-VF-90 eight-cylinder two-stroke engine with 2,170 kW (2,950 hp), was replaced by a MaK four-stroke diesel with 2,699 kW (3,670 hp). The speed of the Polarlys increased from 15.5 to 17.5 kn . The ship had a range of 3600 nautical miles and could stay at sea for up to 12 days. It had a cargo space of 688 m³ .
In 42 years of service, the Polarlys was used exclusively on the Hurtigruten. At the beginning of the 1990s, the old ships of the "Etterkrigsflåten" began to be replaced by larger and more comfortable newbuildings. In this context, the Polarlys was sold to Mercy Ships in 1994, and the new ship put into service in 1996 was named Polarlys .
Caribbean Mercy
The Christian aid and missionary organization Mercy Ships bought the ship in 1994 and converted it from a passenger ferry to a hospital ship . As the Caribbean Mercy , the ship was used in parallel to the Anastasis and the Island Mercy for humanitarian missions mainly in Central and South America and the Caribbean . The Caribbean Mercy was deployed until 2006 , its last deployment was as a base for hurricane relief on the US Gulf Coast in winter 2005/2006. After that, it and the Anastasis were replaced by the new and much larger Africa Mercy .
In the twelve years with Mercy Ships, the Caribbean Mercy visited a total of 137 ports in 13 different developing countries, mainly in Central America, on 56 missions. The ship performed over 7,000 surgeries, performed 18,200 dental and 54,300 general medical treatments, delivered 1,500 medical training sessions, completed 140 different construction and agricultural projects, and delivered $ 2.4 million in medical equipment to local healthcare providers on board the ship handed over to the operational areas. In total, the approximately 289,000 individual missions had a total value of approximately 120 million US dollars, which were raised through donations and voluntary aid. In addition, the Caribbean Mercy carried out fundraising missions in the First World between the individual aid missions .
The end
The Caribbean Mercy was sold to Sherman Family Charitable FDN, Panama in 2006. The new owner wanted to renovate the ship, now renamed Home II , which the poor condition of the ship probably prevented. It was finally scrapped in the port of Cristóbal in the province of Colón , Panama, in 2010/2011 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Polarlys at Captainsvoyage.com
- ↑ History of the Hurtigruten 1945 - 1953
- ↑ Caribbean Mercy in OpenPR.de
- ↑ Mercyships.ch ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ↑ Tonetti.us
- ↑ Duluthport.com ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ↑ picture scrapping (September 2010) , picture scrapping (December 2010) , picture scrapping (February 2011)
