History | |
---|---|
Name: | Mermaid Sapphire |
Owner: | Mermaid Offshore Services Ltd. [1] |
Port of registry: | Panama City, Panama [1] |
Builder: | PT Jaya Asiatic Shipyard, Batam, Indonesia [1] |
Launched: | 2009 [1] |
Identification: |
|
Status: | In service |
General characteristics | |
Type: | ROV & air diving support vessel [1] |
Tonnage: | |
Length: | 63 m (206 ft 8 in) o/a [1] |
Beam: | 15 m (49 ft 3 in) [1] |
Draught: | 5 m (16 ft 5 in) [1] |
Depth: | 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in) [1] |
Installed power: | 2 × 470 kW (630 hp) Volvo + 1 × 99 kW (133 hp) Volvo emergency generator [1] |
Propulsion: |
|
Boats & landing craft carried: | SMD Quasar Compact ROV [1] |
Crew: | 60 [1] |
Mermaid Sapphire is an offshore multipurpose vessel. [2] Built in 2009, the ship is used for mostly research and undersea work.
She is a purpose-built ABS Classed DP2 ROV and air diving support vessel, designed for operation of dual deepwater work-class ROV's (Quasar Compact or Triton XLX) plus optional inspection-class ROV. The ROV's are installed on a dedicated raised deck level, leaving all back deck space for project equipment. Mermaid Sapphire is also equipped with state-of-the-art subsea inspection data acquisition and data management systems. A 23-tonne knuckleboom crane, and auxiliary 5-tonne crane are also installed. [1]
A remotely operated underwater vehicle is a tethered underwater mobile device. This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air. ROVs are unoccupied, usually highly maneuverable, and operated by a crew either aboard a vessel/floating platform or on proximate land. They are common in deep water industries such as offshore hydrocarbon extraction. They are linked to a host ship by a neutrally buoyant tether or, often when working in rough conditions or in deeper water, a load-carrying umbilical cable is used along with a tether management system (TMS). The TMS is either a garage-like device which contains the ROV during lowering through the splash zone or, on larger work-class ROVs, a separate assembly which sits on top of the ROV. The purpose of the TMS is to lengthen and shorten the tether so the effect of cable drag where there are underwater currents is minimized. The umbilical cable is an armored cable that contains a group of electrical conductors and fiber optics that carry electric power, video, and data signals between the operator and the TMS. Where used, the TMS then relays the signals and power for the ROV down the tether cable. Once at the ROV, the electric power is distributed between the components of the ROV. However, in high-power applications, most of the electric power drives a high-power electric motor which drives a hydraulic pump. The pump is then used for propulsion and to power equipment such as torque tools and manipulator arms where electric motors would be too difficult to implement subsea. Most ROVs are equipped with at least a video camera and lights. Additional equipment is commonly added to expand the vehicle's capabilities. These may include sonars, magnetometers, a still camera, a manipulator or cutting arm, water samplers, and instruments that measure water clarity, water temperature, water density, sound velocity, light penetration, and temperature. Also optical-stereo cameras have been mounted on ROVs in order to improve the pilots' perception of the underwater scenario.
A data hub is a collection of data from multiple sources organized for distribution, sharing, and often subsetting and sharing. Generally this data distribution is in the form of a hub and spoke architecture.
A knuckleboom crane appears similar to a standard crane, except that the boom articulates at the 'knuckle' near the middle, letting it fold back like a finger. This provides a compact size for storage and manoeuvring.
On March 26, 2012, she carried Deepsea Challenger to the Challenger Deep where the first solo dive to the bottom of the trench was made. [3]
Deepsea Challenger is a 7.3-metre (24 ft) deep-diving submersible designed to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest-known point on Earth. On 26 March 2012, Canadian film director James Cameron piloted the craft to accomplish this goal in the second manned dive reaching the Challenger Deep. Built in Sydney, Australia by the research and design company Acheron Project Pty Ltd, Deepsea Challenger includes scientific sampling equipment and high-definition 3-D cameras; it reached the ocean's deepest point after two hours and 36 minutes of descent from the surface.
The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Earth's seabed hydrosphere, with a depth of 10,898 to 10,916 m by direct measurement from submersibles and slightly more by sonar bathymetry. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench near the Mariana Islands group. The Challenger Deep is a relatively small slot-shaped depression in the bottom of a considerably larger crescent-shaped oceanic trench, which itself is an unusually deep feature in the ocean floor. The Challenger Deep's bottom is about 11 km (7 mi) long and 1.6 km (1 mi) wide, with gently sloping sides. The closest land to the Challenger Deep is Fais Island, 287 km (178 mi) southwest, and Guam, 304 km (189 mi) to the northeast. It is located in the ocean territory of the Federated States of Micronesia, 1.6 km (1 mi) from its border with ocean territory associated with Guam.
The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean approximately 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Mariana Islands, and has the deepest natural trench in the world. It is a crescent-shaped trough in the Earth's crust averaging about 2,550 km (1,580 mi) long and 69 km (43 mi) wide. The maximum known depth is 10,994 metres (36,070 ft) at the southern end of a small slot-shaped valley in its floor known as the Challenger Deep. However, some unrepeated measurements place the deepest portion at 11,034 metres (36,201 ft). For comparison: if Mount Everest were dropped into the trench at this point, its peak would still be over two kilometres (1.2 mi) under water.
Alvin (DSV-2) is a manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Named to honor the prime mover and creative inspiration for the vehicle, Allyn Vine, Alvin was commissioned on 5 June 1964. The submersible is launched from the deep submergence support vessel RV Atlantis (AGOR-25), which is also owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by WHOI. The submersible has made more than 4,400 dives, carrying two scientists and a pilot, to observe the lifeforms that must cope with super-pressures and move about in total darkness, as well as exploring the wreck of Titanic. Research conducted by Alvin has been featured in nearly 2,000 scientific papers.
A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is usually supported by a surface vessel, platform, shore team or sometimes a larger submarine. In common usage by the general public, however, the word submarine may be used to describe a craft that is by the technical definition actually a submersible. There are many types of submersibles, including both crewed and uncrewed craft, otherwise known as remotely operated vehicles or ROVs. Submersibles have many uses worldwide, such as oceanography, underwater archaeology, ocean exploration, adventure, equipment maintenance and recovery, and underwater videography.
A diving support vessel is a ship that is used as a floating base for professional diving projects.
A deep-submergence vehicle (DSV) is a deep-diving manned submarine that is self-propelled. Several navies operate vehicles that can be accurately described as DSVs. DSVs are commonly divided into two types: research DSVs, which are used for exploration and surveying, and DSRVs, which can be used for rescuing the crew of a sunken navy submarine, clandestine (espionage) missions, or both. DSRVs are equipped with docking chambers to allow personnel ingress and egress via a manhole.
Kaikō was a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) built by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) for exploration of the deep sea. Kaikō was the second of only four vessels ever to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, as of 2010. Between 1995 and 2003, this 10.6 ton unmanned submersible conducted more than 250 dives, collecting 350 biological species, some of which could prove to be useful in medical and industrial applications. On 29 May 2003, Kaikō was lost at sea off the coast of Shikoku Island during Typhoon Chan-Hom, when a secondary cable connecting it to its launcher at the ocean surface broke.
Saipem 7000 is the world's second largest crane vessel, after the Thialf. The crane radius of the Saipem 7000 grants a lifting capability of 14,000 tonnes at 42 meters while the Thialf can lift 14,200 tonnes at 31.2 meters. It is owned by the oil and gas industry contractor Saipem S.p.A.
A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction. Conventional monohulls are used, but the largest crane vessels are often catamaran or semi-submersible types as they have increased stability. On a sheerleg crane, the crane is fixed and cannot rotate, and the vessel therefore is manoeuvered to place loads. As of 2019, the largest crane vessel in the world is the CNOOC Limited owned Lanjing, having 3 cranes of capacities 7500 tonnes, 4000 tonnes and 1600 tonnes.
The NOAA Ship Nancy Foster is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.
HMNZS Manawanui (A09) was commissioned in 1988 as a diving support vessel for the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally she was built as a diving support vessel, the Star Perseus, for North Sea oil rig operations.
Oceaneering International, Inc. is a subsea engineering and applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments.
Q4000 is a multi-purpose oil field construction and intervention vessel ordered in 1999 by Cal Dive International, and was built at the Keppel AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas for $180 million. She was delivered in 2002 and operates under the flag of the United States. She is operated by Helix Energy Solutions Group. The original Q4000 concept was conceived and is owned by SPD/McClure. The design was later modified by Bennett Offshore, which was selected to develop both the basic and detailed design.
Helix Energy Solutions Inc., known as Cal Dive International prior to 2006, is an American oil and gas services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is a global provider of offshore services in well intervention and ROV operations of new and existing oil and gas fields.
Skandi Neptune is an Offshore Construction Vessel that was operated by Subsea 7 from 2005 until the charter was ended in 2015.
ABISMO is a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) built by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) for exploration of the deep sea. It is the only remaining ROV rated to 11,000-meters, ABISMO is intended to be the permanent replacement for Kaikō, a ROV that was lost at sea in 2003.
HMS Protector is a Royal Navy ice patrol ship built in Norway in 2001. As MV Polarbjørn she operated under charter as a polar research icebreaker and a subsea support vessel. In 2011, she was chartered as a temporary replacement for the ice patrol ship HMS Endurance and was purchased outright by the British Ministry of Defence in September 2013.
An Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) vessel is a highly technical vessel, deployed in the offshore industry. Their primary task comprises the inspection and repair of subsea facilities and installations. These vessels are often equipped for other tasks including diving support, scale treatment and light construction work.
This article about a specific civilian ship or boat is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |