Xue Long
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Xue Long in Fremantle, Australia
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The Xue Long ( 雪龍 / 雪龙 , Xuě Lóng , translated: "Snow Dragon", sometimes also referred to as the Snow Dragon ) is a Chinese research icebreaker . Home port is Shanghai .
The Xue Long is China's only ice-breaking ship and, according to newzeal.com, the largest utility currently operating regularly in Antarctica. The polar research stations it manages are supplied on behalf of the Chinese Polar Research Institute (PRIC).
The successor ship Xue Long 2 is also intended for the same tasks .
history
Construction, purchase and renovation
The ship, an Arctic supply ship with ice class 1A Super, was built in 1993 by the Kherson Shipyard in Ukraine as the third ship of its class. The ship was bought by the People's Republic of China in 1994 and converted into a polar research ship in China for 31 million yuan (then ten million DM). Since 1994, the ship has been the fifth polar research ship and China's first icebreaker to replace the Jidi . After modernizing the ship in 2007, it was overhauled again in 2013. From 2014 the Xue Long will be supported by a second research icebreaker.
Operations until 2013
In 1999, China started the CHINARE-XVI Expedition (Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition). At the beginning of November 1999 the Xue Long began its Antarctic voyage from Shanghai via Fremantle (Australia) to the Chinese station Zhongshan in East Antarctica . From there, the ship sailed via Punta Arenas to the Great Wall Station in West Antarctica in December 1999 . The trip then went back to East Antarctica to pick up Chinese scientists from the summer expedition.
The ship unexpectedly appeared in a Canadian port for the US and Canada in 1999.
In November 2011, the ship set off from the port city of Tianjin on a five-month expedition to Antarctica.
Rescue attempt by the Akademik Shokalskiy
In December 2013, the Xue Long tried to free the Akademik Shokalskiy , a Russian cruise ship with 74 people on board, trapped in the ice of the Commonwealth Bay , from the ice, but had to be only six and a half nautical miles away from the Akademik Shokalskiy on December 28 for safety reasons cancel their rescue attempt because the ice cover was too thick. After the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis also tried unsuccessfully to penetrate the Akademik Shokalskiy , a Xue Long helicopter began to fly the people on board the trapped ship in groups to the Chinese icebreaker on January 2, 2014. The people on the Akademik Shokalskiy were finally flown out by the Xue Long's helicopter to the Aurora Australis in order to return to Australia. After the rescue operation, however, the Xue Long itself got stuck in the ice, but was able to break free on January 7th. The Russian ship was released because the wind had turned and a crack had formed in the ice. Two days earlier, the United States Coast Guard's icebreaker Polar Star had left Sydney harbor to free the trapped ships.
Search for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
After objects were identified on satellite images from March 16, 2014 from an area in the Indian Ocean 2500 kilometers southwest of the Australian city of Perth , which could possibly be wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which had been missing for several days , the Xue Long received the Order to help find the aircraft.
Equipment and performance
The ship displaces 21,025 tons and can break 1.1 meter thick ice at a speed of 1.5 knots , with a run-in it is said to have made 4 m. A Kamow Ka-32A11BC on-board helicopter , three boats and 128 berths are available. Up to 200 scientists can work on board the ship. The ship has a range of 20,000 nautical miles .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Arctic Supply Ships - Project 10621 ( Memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Kherson Shipyard.
- ↑ a b c d A Brief Introduction of R / V Xuelong ( Memento of April 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.
- ↑ Jane George: Arctic borders need tighter control, former commander says ( Memento of January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Nunatsiaq News.
- ↑ Aldo Chircop: The Emergence of China as a Polar-Capable State , Canadian Naval Review, Vol. 7, No. 1/2011 (PDF; 316 kB).
- ↑ Eisbrecher cannot penetrate , on spiegel.de, 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.
- ↑ tagesschau.de : Rescue mission for "Akademik Shokalskiy": "The helicopter is here". January 2, 2014, archived from the original on January 2, 2014 ; accessed on January 2, 2014 .
- ↑ Eisbrecher stuck after being rescued , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, January 2, 2014.
- ↑ a b Happy End in Eternal Ice , orf.at, January 7, 2014.
- ↑ US icebreaker to rescue 2 ships in Antarctica , The Washington Post , January 5, 2014 ( Memento from January 5, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
- ↑ Flight MH370: "Snow Dragon" helps with the search for rubble . Spiegel Online, March 21, 2014, accessed on the same day.
- ↑ The 52 passengers of the Akademik are saved , 20 minutes , January 2, 2013.
- ↑ German Chinese General, No. 5/2011 October 26, 2011.