MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
US icebreaker sent to Antarctica to rescue Chinese and Russian trapped vessels
A U.S. Coast Guard heavy icebreaker left Australia for Antarctica on Sunday to rescue more than 120 crew members aboard two icebreakers trapped in pack ice near the frozen continent’s eastern edge, officials said. The 122-meter cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the Russian and Chinese ships. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAssistance from Argentina is conspicuous by is absence!
Jan 05th, 2014 - 03:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0China and Russia? In Antarctica?
Jan 05th, 2014 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Both being rescued by the evil empire.........hahahahaha.
Jan 05th, 2014 - 03:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@2
Jan 05th, 2014 - 04:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I thought Antartica was South American, is it not on the same continental shelf? Or is it British being on the same continental shelf as the FALKLANDS.
Fortunately for the world Antarctica remains a DMZ devoted to science. Any countries that had a territorial claim went into limbo once they signed onto the treaty. Russia brassie was an original signatory and China came onboard in 85. No one needs an invitation nor a welcoming contrary to stevie's posts. Best thing there is that people there, hardly realize one nationality from another. They get along very well.......until they get back in the world.
Jan 05th, 2014 - 05:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Did we not have anything in the area...
Jan 05th, 2014 - 08:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You brits usually have the Endurance during the summer....but it's not a breake
Jan 05th, 2014 - 08:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@6.... wrong bit of the Antarctic.... your bit lies under the Falklands
Jan 05th, 2014 - 11:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@2 Brasil ? In Antarctica? ... do the RGs know about this? ( the Brasilian ships are based on Punta Arenas).
Where's the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar? Have they fixed it yet?
Jan 05th, 2014 - 11:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@9 No, Almirante Irízar is still being used to transfer public funds into private pockets... currently the most effective unit in the RGeee Naveee.
Jan 06th, 2014 - 12:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0@7
Jan 06th, 2014 - 12:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0HMS Protector is our breaker, she is leading the Multi-National Antarctic Inspection Team and ensuring that the Argentine Antarctic bases are adhering to environmental guidelines :-)
Yes it is. I meant to type heavy breaker. Was on my phone and the typing is tough. She's usually down there in the summer. Maybe she is not there yet. The Polar Star is our USCG heavy breaker and was down in Australia on some exercises. These monsters suck massive fuel and it's no wonder they are making them nuclear these days.
Jan 06th, 2014 - 02:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0“........ a scientific expedition to Antarctica was interrupted when the research ship investigating why the Antarctic ice is melting became stuck in the ice because of record amounts of ice. All this in the middle of the Antarctic summer when, according to the global warming religious, the ice should be almost non-existent. First the ship was stuck because of global warming and then it wasn’t, we need to make up our collective minds.......”
Jan 06th, 2014 - 11:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/antarctica-melting-or-not/
#13
Jan 06th, 2014 - 12:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Global warming does not mean an uniform rise in temperature world wide.
Temperature rises in one area can divert air and sea currents and cause colder weather in some areas.
Chunks of the Antarctic ice shelf have calved and are on the move, out to sea. This is not the sea freezing. If you move into one of these areas you risk getting trapped.
perhaps we need a bigger better ice breaker to be built,
Jan 06th, 2014 - 07:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Russians went nuclear because of the incredible amount of diesel they burn......some up to 100 tons a day.
Jan 06th, 2014 - 11:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ 16 According to my information on the Polar Star she has 6x3,000 diesel engines driving electric generators to power her 3 propeller shafts, at maximum diesel/electric power output she would develop 18,000 hp I would estimate that she would burn about 50 tonnes a day at that power.
Jan 07th, 2014 - 01:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0She also has 3x25,000 hp gas turbines, one for each shaft, at full power I would estimate a fuel consumption of somewhere between about 400-600 tonnes per day. Gas turbines are way less efficient than diesels and these were built in 1976
That sounds about correct. And?
Jan 07th, 2014 - 09:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0Big icebreakers are thin on the ground... The US seems to have 2, the Russians ( they have more icy bits) maybe 6.... but then why invest in such stuff when its all melting anyway....
Jan 07th, 2014 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0For the record:
Jan 07th, 2014 - 06:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0USCGC Mackinaw
USCGC Polar Sea
USCGC Polar Star
USCGC Healy
Off the top of my head as heavy breakers. There's some small ones as well. However this is only “government breakers”. There are private ice breakers under US flagged vessels.
Mackinaw is a Great Lakes boat and Polar Sea was down for scrapping having 5 of her 6 engines rooted ( technical engineering term) so 2 heavy polar region icebreakers....
Jan 07th, 2014 - 11:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have seen big US flag ice strengthened polar research ships in Punta Arenas ( Nathaniel B Palmer and Laurence M Gould )but they aren't ice breakers as such.
The bigger of the two ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_B._Palmer_(icebreaker)
As I said off the top of my head......I was not a coastie though my son inlaw is. I was in the military.
Jan 08th, 2014 - 12:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 18 Just that 100 tonnes a day seemed a little low for a 'heavy' icebreaker when working hard.
Jan 08th, 2014 - 01:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0The definitive list.. http://news.usni.org/2013/07/23/u-s-coast-guards-2013-reivew-of-major-ice-breakers-of-the-world
Jan 08th, 2014 - 05:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0Well thank you Frank........
Jan 08th, 2014 - 10:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0.#23......how many ships have you been on?
@ 25 Hundreds.
Jan 08th, 2014 - 03:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@21 Frank
Jan 08th, 2014 - 03:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”...rooted (technical engineering term)”
Now THAT'S an original description. Graham Kennedy would've loved it.
Merchant or military and I assume engineering...Are you rated or licensed?
Jan 08th, 2014 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ 28 I assume you are addressing me?
Jan 08th, 2014 - 08:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0'Licensed'? What nationality are you? I would expect the normal query of a British seafarer to be 'Do you have a “ticket?”. Or something very similar.
Yes I do, issued by the then Board of Trade for a First Class Engineer of Steamships and Motorships. Usually, although normally incorrectly, referred to as a 'Combined Ticket'. Mine is in fact a Motor 'Ticket' endorsed for Steamships. I only know of one person who obtained an actual 'Combined Ticket' and I have to confess I do not know the wording used.
I am also a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) and spent almost 30 years as a 'Ship and Engineer Surveyor' for a major Classification Society.
I therefore believe I do have a vague idea of what makes that fan thing on the blunt end turn, and how to keep the beer cool.
My estimate of the fuel consumption figures for the Polar Star were very rough estimates based on my experience with both Merchant and Military vessels.
American....I was just curious. I am not a mariner, my name is nothing to that, though my dad spent 50 years on the sea.
Jan 08th, 2014 - 11:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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