Icebird in Antarctica, taken from Wilkes Station looking toward Casey Station across Vincennes Bay in 1988 | |
History | |
---|---|
W-German | |
Name | Icebird |
Owner | Partenreederei MS "Icebird" |
Port of registry | Hamburg |
Builder | H Brand Schiffswerft 29 Oldenburg |
Yard number | 218 |
Renamed | Polar Bird |
Identification |
|
General characteristics | |
Class and type | GL + 100 a4 E4c 1 GMC E4 Aut forepart Arc2 |
Type | Cargo |
Tonnage | 4,378 gt (without module) |
Displacement | 6,436 tonnes (without module) |
Length | 109.60 m |
Beam | 19.09 m |
Draft | 5.50/7.65 m |
Depth | 9.80 m |
Decks | Poop,1,2,3,4,A,B,C |
Ice class | Arc 1 / E4 (forepart Arc 2) |
Installed power | MAK 5.400 hps 4.000 kw |
Speed | 14.7 kn |
Boats & landing craft carried | 6 |
Crew | 22 |
Aircraft carried | Helicopter |
Aviation facilities | Pad |
Notes | Weight of module 310 tonnes |
The Icebird is a cargo vessel which delivers supplies to the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) bases, principally Macquarie Island, Mawson, Casey and Davis Stations. The Icebird's maiden voyage to Antarctica began when she departed from Cape Town, South Africa in November 1984. In 1996, the vessel was renamed Polar Bird.
Billed by her builders as the world's first purpose-built polar resupply vessel, the Icebird was custom made for Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) by Antarktis und Spezialfahrt Schiffartsgesellschaft GmbH (GSS) in Germany.
Due to the large-scale rebuilding program underway at Australia's stations, the Australian Antarctic Division needed to increase the cargo space available to transport building materials. Icebird's ability to carry containers enabled the rebuilding program to switch over to the AANBUS modular construction that is so characteristic of ANARE's continental stations today.
Icebird's bow was constructed to the latest ice-breaking design, which its owners claimed would allow it to break one-year old ice with continuous speed, and so avoid the constant threat to Antarctic shipping: besetment (being surrounded by ice without helm control).
The vessel was also equipped with a temperature-controlled double skin for both the cargo holds and engine room, maintained by circulating heated fuel around the ship. It carried a helicopter and specially strengthened flight deck. The 'tween-deck hatch covers doubled as pontoons, accompanied by an ice-strengthened pusher barge, features which would permit offloading cargo in remote areas.
"It was a standard box construction, superstructure aft with side cranes. But it gave you tremendous capability - you just opened the top of the ship ... and dropped everything in and closed it up and off you went," said John Whitelaw, the Acting Assistant Director of Operations, describing the ship's unique cargo facilities.
"Icebird was fitted with a detachable accommodation module that could carry 100 passengers. It was clamped to the ship in front of the bridge and was secured with bolts," according to an interview with John Whitelaw and Annie Rushton, ANARE Jubilee Project, 21 August 1995.
Icebird fitments include: [1]
The master for many years in the 1980s was Captain Ewald Brune (1951-) from Germany. He achieved 88 voyages and 25 years of Polar Maritime activity in all regions of Antarctica. [2]
Icebreaking class: Germanischer Lloyd 2002 Pt. 1, Sec. 15-A,B [3]
The Icebird participated in the rescue of over 100 expeditioners and crew from the Nella Dan , which was wrecked on Macquarie Island on the evening of 3 December 1987, during resupply operations at Macquarie Island. At the time the Icebird was returning to Hobart from Davis Station in Antarctica. She arrived at Buckles Bay on 8 December 1987. [4]
The Icebird remained on charter to ANARE until 1994, when it was decided that Australia's Antarctic program should revert to a one ship option as a cost-cutting measure, one which aroused considerable concern within the ANARE community.
Only two years later, during the 1998-99 season, the Aurora Australis was temporarily out of service, and a replacement ship was hired - the Icebird. Reborn under the new name of Polar Bird, and now with Norwegian owners, the Polar Bird has been chartered several years since by ANARE.
In 2003, Polar Bird was replaced by Vasiliy Golovnin . [5] The vessel was sold to Dynamic Shipping Services, Israel, and was renamed Almog (Hebrew : אלמוג, "coral"). [5]
It was again renamed Silver Rose later on (in 2017 or 2018). [6] Ultimately, it was abandoned in the Port of Haifa, Israel, no later than 2019, [5] and remains there, as of 2023.
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is a division of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The Division undertakes science programs and research projects to contribute to an understanding of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It conducts and supports collaborative research programs with other Australian and international organisations, such as the Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia, as well as administering and maintaining a presence in Australian Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories.
Davis Station, commonly called Davis, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Davis is situated on the coast of Cooperation Sea in Princess Elizabeth Land, Ingrid Christensen Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory, a territory claimed by Australia. Davis lies in an Antarctic oasis, a mostly ice-free area known as the Vestfold Hills.
Mawson Station, commonly called Mawson, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Mawson lies in Holme Bay in Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica in the Australian Antarctic Territory, a territory claimed by Australia. Established in 1954, Mawson is Australia's oldest Antarctic station and the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station south of the Antarctic Circle. It houses approximately 20 personnel over winter and up to 53 in summer.
Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions is the historical name for the Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).
The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the South Pole.
The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the Antarctica continent. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.
Aurora Australis was an Australian icebreaker. Built by Carrington Slipways and launched in 1989, the vessel is owned by P&O Maritime Services. It was regularly chartered by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) for research cruises in Antarctic waters and to support Australian bases in Antarctica.
HMAS Labuan (L3501) was a Mark III Tank Landing Ship that served in the Royal Navy during World War II, and with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1946 until 1951.
The Australian Antarctic Territory, claimed by Australia on 1 December 1959, has used a postal system as its main point of contact since its establishment, due to its isolation. The territory covers over 5.8 million kilometres squared and currently has 5 stations, after Wilkes Station closed down in 1969. Each of the bases has their own post office that are run by Australia Post, who also controls stamp issues according to recent or important events within the territory. The history of the postage system dates back to the original post office within the territory, which first opened in 1955, which was in conjunction with a stamp release. The current system now combines new technologies with aged systems to create more efficiency, with recent stamp releases commending the history of the Australian Antarctic Territory and the Arts.
Maria Vasilyevna Klenova was a Russian and Soviet marine geologist and one of the founders of Russian marine science and contributor to the first Soviet Antarctic atlas.
MV Nella Dan was one of the famous 'Dan' ships of the Danish J. Lauritzen A/S Lines that were almost synonymous with ANARE shipping through the early years of Australia's official Antarctic program. Others in the fleet included Kista Dan, Magga Dan and Thala Dan.
Matusevich Glacier is a broad glacier about 50 nautical miles long, with a well developed glacier tongue, flowing to the coast of East Antarctica between the Lazarev Mountains and the northwestern extremity of the Wilson Hills.
MV Thala Dan, built in Aalborg in 1957, was an ice-strengthened refrigerated cargo-passenger ship. Operated by Danish J. Lauritzen A/S from 1957 to 1982, she was jointly chartered by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions and the French Polar Expeditions to re-supply their respective Antarctic stations. Afterwards acquired by the Brazilian Navy and renamed Barão de Teffé, she was engaged in the emergent Brazilian Antarctic Programme from 1982 to 1994.
Amanda Bay, also sometimes known as Hovde Cove, lies in southern Prydz Bay on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica. It is best known for its breeding colony of several thousand pairs of emperor penguins on sea ice at the south-west corner of the bay.
Zdeněk "Frank" Souček was an Australian physician, polar and tropics explorer and traveler.
Patricia Margaret Selkirk, is an Australian plant biologist and ecologist. Her career has focused on Antarctic and subantarctic terrestrial ecosystems and she is recognized as being a pioneering female Australian Antarctic scientist.
L'Astrolabe is a French icebreaker that is used to bring personnel and supplies to the Dumont d'Urville Station in Antarctica. The vessel, built by Chantiers Piriou and delivered in September 2017, replaced the 1986-built vessel of the same name.
Nelle "Nel" Isabel Law (1914–1990) was an Australian artist, poet and diarist. As the wife of the scientist and explorer Phillip Law, she was the first Australian woman to set foot in Antarctica on 8 February 1961 when she travelled with her husband to the Mawson Station.
International competition extended to the continent of Antarctica during the World War II era, though the region saw no combat. During the prelude to war, Nazi Germany organised the 1938 Third German Antarctic Expedition to preempt Norway's claim to Queen Maud Land. The expedition served as the basis for a new German claim, called New Swabia. A year later, the United States Antarctic Service Expedition established two bases, which operated for two years before being abandoned. Responding to these encroachments, and taking advantage of Europe's wartime turmoil, the nearby nations of Chile and Argentina made their own claims. In 1940 Chile proclaimed the Chilean Antarctic Territory in areas already claimed by Britain, while Argentina proclaimed Argentine Antarctica in 1943 in an overlapping area.