Posted on 01/04/2014 2:33:13 PM PST by Third Person
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.
The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist.
The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved.
RCC Australia identified the Polar Star as a vessel capable of assisting the beset vessels following MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice overnight on 24 December, 2013. RCC Australia has been in discussion with the US Coast Guard this week to ascertain if the Polar Star was able to assist once it reaches Antarctica.
The request for the Polar Star to assist the beset vessels was made by RCC Australia to the US Coast Guard on 3 January, 2014. The US Coast Guard officially accepted this request and released the Polar Star to RCC Australia for search and rescue tasking at 8.30am on 4 January, 2014.
The Polar Star will leave Sydney today after taking on supplies prior to its voyage to Antarctica.
It is anticipated it will take approximately seven (7) days for the Polar Star to reach Commonwealth Bay, dependent on weather and ice conditions.
At 122 metres, the Polar Star is one of the largest ships in the US Coast Guard fleet. It has a range of 16,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The Polar Star has a crew of 140 people.
The Polar Star is able to continuously break ice up to 1.8 metres (6ft) while travelling at three (3) knots and can break ice over six (21ft) metres thick.
RCC Australia will be in regular contact with the relevant US Coast Guard RCC at Alameda, California, and the Captain of the Polar Star during its journey to Antarctica.
I know an old lady who swallowed a fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she’ll die.
I know an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she’ll die.
I know an old lady who swallowed a bird,
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she’ll die.
Isn't that a little outside their jurisdiction? Didn't we have any US Navy in the area?
Wiki says it’s fresh from a refit....
Why do I have a bad feeling?
What do you mean?
I think most folks figured that one way or another American taxpayers would end up paying for this nonsense.
Tell’em to chill.
Global warming will remediate the situation.
US Coast Guard to save the Global Cooling deniers.
It’s not a joke to the crews of any of those ships
and that includes the American one.
“Isn’t that a little outside their jurisdiction? Didn’t we have any US Navy in the area? “
Maybe the USN doesn’t have any icebreakers or at least one the size of the Polar Star. Just wondering what it’s doing in Sydney , unless the USCG works Antartica because we have research people there.
Keystone cops
The navy doesn't have any icebreakers. The Coast Guard does. So does Canada, though I think all of them are in home waters.
The USCG icebreaker was already on route to Antarctica. It started that way Dec 3.
The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station.
It’s gonna look like a parking lot down there before that ice melts!!
This story is far from over because the Polar Star is rated at breaking ice less than 1 meter thicker than the stuck Chinese icebreaker.
Donner !!! Party of 20, you’re table is ready...
Are you sure about that? The Polar Star can break ice 21 feet thick.
American taxpayers to the rescue... see post #6.
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