Laura Bassi (icebreaker)

Laura Bassi (formerly Polar Queen and RRS Ernest Shackleton) is an icebreaking research vessel operated by the Italian National Institute for Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS). Between 1999 and 2019, she was the British Antarctic Survey logistics ship, primarily used for the resupply of scientific stations in the Antarctic.

N/R Laura Bassi
History
Norway
Name: Polar Queen
Owner: GC Rieber Shipping
Port of registry: Bergen[1]
Builder: Kværner Kleven Leirvik A/S, Leirvik, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Cost: $27,352,000[1]
Yard number: 267
Laid down: 26 November 1994
Launched: July 1995
Completed: 27 September 1995
In service: 1995–1999
Fate: Transferred to British Antarctic Survey
United Kingdom
Name: Ernest Shackleton
Namesake: Sir Ernest Shackleton
Owner: GC Rieber Shipping
Operator: British Antarctic Survey
Port of registry: Stanley, Falkland Islands
In service: 1999–2019
Fate: Sold to Italy
Italy
Name: Laura Bassi
Namesake: Laura Bassi
Owner: Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS)
Acquired: 2019
Identification: IMO number: 9114256
Status: In service
General characteristics
Class and type:
Displacement: 5455 tonnes loaded
Length: 80 m (262 ft)
Beam: 17.0 m (56 ft)
Draught: 6.15 m (20 ft)
Ice class: DNV ICE-05 Icebreaker
Installed power: 2 x Bergen Diesel BRM 6 each 2550 kW
Propulsion: Thrusters : 816 Hp x 3 + 1088 Hp x 1 + 1 Azimuth 1088 Hp[2]
Speed:
  • 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
  • 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) (maximum)
Range: 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 km; 46,000 mi)
Endurance: 130 days
Complement: 72 (22 Officers/Crew, 50 expedition personnel)
Aviation facilities: Helicopter deck, max helicopter weight 10 tonnes

History

Launched in July 1995 as MV Polar Queen for GC Rieber Shipping, she was operated in the Antarctic by other national programmes. The British Antarctic Survey acquired her on a long-term bareboat charter in August 1999 to replace RRS Bransfield. She was renamed RRS Ernest Shackleton in 2000, after the Anglo-Irish polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton[3] but was known to users as The Shack. After 20 years of polar duties for BAS, Ernest Shackleton was returned to her owners on 30 April 2019.[3]

OGS (Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale) acquired the ship on 9 May 2019. They renamed her RV Laura Bassi in honour of the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university and the first woman in the world to be appointed a university chair in a scientific field of studies.[4]

Construction

N/R Laura Bassi is ice strengthened with a double hull construction, in november 2020 she has been certified Category A PC5 according to the Polar Code rules. She is capable of a wide range of logistic tasks as well as having a scientific capability.

Service

Between 1999 and 2019, RRS Ernest Shackleton was the main logistic ship for the British Antarctic Survey. She was used to resupply the survey's Antarctic research stations and also had a research capability. "Tula", a cargo tender stored on deck allowed transfer ashore of stores and equipment when the ship could not berth alongside.[3] During the northern summer, she was commercially chartered, often working in the North Sea.[3] On charter to Crystal Cruise Line she escorted its 68,000 ton liner Crystal Serenity through Canada's Northwest Passage in late August/September 2016 and 2017. In the austral summer 2019/2020 she carried out the first Antarctic mission under Italian flag completeing two rotations between New Zealand and Mario Zucchelli Station the Italian Antarctic base.

See also

References
  1. "Ernest Shackleton (9114256)". Sea-web. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  2. Mike Gloistein. "RRS Ernest Shackleton". Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
  3. "RRS Ernest Shackleton". British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  4. Findlen, Paula. "Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy : The Strategies of Laura Bassi." Isis, vol. 84, no. 3, 1993: 441–469.
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