Page 4: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1994)

EUROPEAN UPDATE by Carol Fulford and Andy Smith, contributing editors

Building started on multi-role icebreaker

When Rieber Shipping A/S of

Bergen, Norway announces that it is having a new ship built, the ma- rine world tends to take notice. Its last newbuild, commissioned in 1990, was the M/V Polar Circle, an innovative combined Antarctic re- search and educational cruise ves- sel that generated great interest from the industry. Among many noteworthy features, it was fitted with reportedly the first commer- cial application of a full ECDIS sys- tem. Patently of immense versatil- ity, Polar Circle was soon chartered and then purchased by the British

Royal Navy and quickly renamed

HMS Endurance as the long over- due replacement to a famous prede- cessor. The company's latest project, an 262.5-ft. (80-m) icebreaker cur- rently under construction at

Kvaerner Eleven Leirvik, also in

Norway, is certain to be studied closely as the multi-role concept is advanced even further.

Rieber's existing fleet comprises a number of high ice class seismic exploration ships and four icebreaking research and expedi- tion vessels which have extended experience in both the Arctic and

Antarctic. Several of the company's vessels have been extensively in- volved in the Canadian High Arctic (Rieber has a branch office in New- foundland) and M/V Polar Duke has been trading continuously, summer and winter since 1984, from Punta

Arenas to the Antarctic Peninsula for the U.S. Scientific Mission. In order to utilize some of these vessels during the off-season they have also been equipped with maneuvering, navigation and handling equipment so that they are able to operate effec- tively as offshore survey and ROV support vessels. It is against this background that the Rieber in-house design team developed the new ves- sel.

Nevertheless, according to Man- aging Director Sven Rong, the de- cision to build a vessel capable of fulfilling a wide spectrum of roles was not just taken to attract a broader range of potential charter custom- ers. Many leading research institu- tions, with which the company is closely associated, face ever more restricted budgets and high vessel operating costs. This knowledge led to the conclusion that a significant under deck carrying capacity to- gether with deck container fittings on a vessel equipped with oceano- graphic, hydrographic and geophysi- cal research facilities would provide them with a cost effective solution — the same vessel could keep the

Multi-role icebreaking support vessel being built for Rieber Shipping A/S.

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