Sea-Eye 4

Last updated

Sea Eye 4 is an offshore supply ship that is used as a sea rescue ship. The Sea-Eye organisation moved the ship to the Mediterranean Sea in 2021 to rescue refugees.

History

ESL Express, 2011 Esl Express - IMO 7214753 - Callsign A8AE3.JPG
ESL Express, 2011

The ship was built under, construction number 296, at Scheepswerf Pattje in Waterhuizen, Netherlands, for the Norwegian shipping company Norway Supply Ships in Stavanger as an offshore supplier. It was launched as the West Eagle. In 1981 the ship was sold to Arvid Bergvall Jr. & Co., registered in Panama and renamed Springfield. In 1982 the ship went to the Dutch shipping company Vroon, which renamed it Oil Express. In 2011, Eagle Shipping bought the ship and renamed it ESL Express. The following year the ship went to Wind Express Shipping. The new name was Wind Express. [1] [2]

In October 2020, the ship was sold again and converted by the Sea-Eye organisation into a sea rescue ship to accommodate boat refugees. Among other things, an infirmary and two rescue boats that can be launched using cranes were retrofitted. [3] United4Rescue  [ de ] had started a donation campaign on wirschickennocheinschiff.de for the purchase of the ship. More than 660 large and small organisations, initiatives, companies, associations and foundations from different areas of society came together in the alliance. Among other things, the alliance is supported by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), World Vision Germany, the Coordinating Council of Muslims and the Evangelical Church in Germany. [4] The cost of buying and converting the ship and transferring it to the Mediterranean amounted to around one million euros. [5]

With the ship renamed Sea-Eye 4, the organisation replaced the much smaller rescue ship Alan Kurdi , which it passed on to the Spanish organisation Proem-Aid. [6] On 8 May 2021, Sea-Eye 4 began its operation from the Spanish port in Burriana to rescue migrants in need in the Mediterranean. The mission is supported by United4Rescue (alliance for civil sea rescue) and the aid organisation German Doctors for Developing Countries. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration to Italy</span>

In 2021, Istat estimated that 5,171,894 foreign citizens lived in Italy, representing about 8.7% of the total population. These figures do not include naturalized foreign-born residents as well as illegal immigrants, the so-called clandestini, whose numbers, difficult to determine, are thought to be at least 670,000.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) is an international humanitarian non-governmental organization based in Malta that provides aid and emergency medical relief to refugees and migrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Sophia</span> European Union Military Operation in the Mediterranean Sea

Operation Sophia, formally European Union Naval Force Mediterranean, was a military operation of the European Union that was established as a consequence of the April 2015 Libya migrant shipwrecks with the aim of neutralising established refugee smuggling routes in the Mediterranean. The operational headquarters was located in Rome. The EU mandate for the operation ended on March 31, 2020. Operation Irini is the successor operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proactiva Open Arms</span>

Proactiva Open Arms (POA) is a Spanish NGO devoted to search and rescue (SAR) at sea. Set up in October 2015, it carried out its first rescue action that same month from its base on the Greek island of Lesbos.

MV <i>VOS Grace</i> Supply vessel

The MV VOS Grace is a platform supply vessel registered in the United Kingdom and operated by Vroon Offshore. Built in Fujian province, China the VOS Grace was chartered by the UK government to assist the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Border Force in 2016 with operations rescuing migrants crossing the Aegean Sea during the European migrant crisis. The ship operated alongside RFA Mounts Bay of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the two Border Force cutters.

<i>Aquarius Dignitus</i>

The MV Aquarius, formerly Aquarius Dignitus and Aquarius 2, is a 1977-built dual-flagged search and rescue vessel, which has been used to rescue refugees and migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea since 2016. It has been chartered and operated since February 2016 by the NGOs SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières as a rescue vessel for migrants and refugees making the Mediterranean crossing in makeshift craft from Libya to Italy as part of the European migrant crisis.

Jugend Rettet is a non-governmental organization (NGO) from Berlin. Its goal is to save drowning persons at the Mediterranean Sea. Operations are conducted with the Iuventa, a ship that sails under Dutch flag. This ship was seized in August 2017 after suspicion of cooperation with migrant smugglers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea-Watch</span> German non-governmental organisation

Sea-Watch is a German non-governmental organisation that operates in the Mediterranean Sea, notably by commissioning ships to rescue migrants.

<i>Sea-Watch 3</i>

Sea-Watch 3 is a ship of the Sea-Watch organization based in Berlin. The ship is around 50 m long, and is registered as a Cargo Ship in Germany. Sea-Watch 3 is used for sea rescue in the Mediterranean.

Mediterranea Saving Humans APS is a "civil society platform" making connections between existing networks and individuals and a "non governmental project". Though it is similar to the many NGOs operating in the Mediterranean it is not actually an NGO, it brings together heterogeneous organizations and individuals, secular and religious, social and cultural, unions and political, who have decided to take a stand against the deaths and the human rights violations committed daily in the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded in 2018 to keep watch of the situation in the Mediterranean sea and to save lives in difficulty after the majority of other NGOs were not able to act due the legal obstacles created by the Italian authorities. The group coordinates the search and rescue operations of the ships Mare Jonio and Alex which sail under the Italian flag. The project also has the support of the German association Sea-Watch and the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms. It has carried out several search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea with the ship Mare Jonio. Recognition of the work of Mediterranea has come from Pope Francis.

Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH) is a Non-governmental organization (NGO) that is governed by the principles of "volunteering, solidarity, humanity, universality, equality, impartiality and dignity" founded in Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) in 2015.

VOS Prudence was built as an offshore supply vessel for the shipping company Vroon Offshore Services.

Alan Kurdi, named after the drowned Syrian child of Kurdish origin, Alan Kurdi, is a ship which has been used since 2018 by the humanitarian organization Sea-Eye - under the German flag - and latterly the Italian humanitarian NGO, 'ResQ - People Saving People' for the rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Before this, she was an oceanographic vessel operated by the Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, named Professor Albrecht Penck.

The Bourbon Argos is an anchor handling tug supply vessel from the oil & gas offshore marine servicing company Bourbon Offshore Greenmar, and sails under the Luxembourg flag.

<i>Life</i> (ship)

The ship Life is a former fishing cutter, which was used in the Mediterranean from 2017 to 2018 under the name Seefuchs for the Sea-Eye association from Regensburg as a rescue ship between Malta and Libya. In 2019 the ship was given away to the Spanish organisation Proem-Aid. In 2021, the ship was intercepted in international waters with a large drug load after being bought by drug dealers, in a joint investigation by the Guardia Civil and the Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera.

The VOS Hestia is a deep-sea tug which operates under the Italian flag. The ship was used as a rescue ship for the Berlin organisation Save the Children in the Mediterranean from 2016 to 2018 and rescued refugees fleeing by boat from distress at sea.

Proem-Aid is a Spanish NGO which operates in the Mediterranean Sea with the aims of aiding and rescuing those in distress on the water. It was formed by a group of emergency service workers who volunteered their time and expertise, and initially operated off Lesbos beginning in December 2015 before also starting an operation in the central Mediterranean in September 2017.

SAROBMED, the Search and Rescue Observatory for the Mediterranean, was a consortium of researchers, civil society groups, and other organisations with interests in the field of cross-border maritime migration. The focus was in particular on providing a monitoring system for refugee travel in the Mediterranean Sea.

References

  1. ↑ "West Eagle (7214753)". Binnenvaart.eu (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  2. ↑ "M/S West Eagle". Sjøhistorie. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  3. ↑ "Sea-Eye 4". Sea-Eye. 11 December 2020. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  4. ↑ "United4Rescue und Sea-Eye präsentieren neues Bündnisschiff" [United4Rescue and Sea-Eye present new alliance ship]. PRO | Das christliche Medienmagazin. 2020-11-15. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  5. ↑ "Rostock: Neues Rettungsschiff "Sea-Eye 4" getauft" [Rostock: New rescue ship "Sea-Eye 4" christened]. NDR. 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  6. ↑ "ProemAID MEDITERRÁNEO". www.proemaid.org. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  7. ↑ "Seenotrettungsschiff "Sea-Eye 4" rettet mehr als 300 Bootsmigranten" [Sea rescue ship "Sea-Eye 4" rescues more than 300 boat migrants]. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.