6.30am AEDT Sunday 05 January 2014
US Coast Guard ice breaker to assist ships beset in ice in Antarctica
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 Polar Star has been en route to Antarctica since 3 December, 2013 – weeks prior to the MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay. 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.
Media Enquiries: 1300 624 633
www.amsa.gov.au/media
Related:
The ‘Clitanic’ Hot Sheet – News from the #SpiritofMawson fiasco
buckeyebubba says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Let’s not forget that the original bunch who got stuck were “Global Warming” nut jobs. Why now just let then sit there until “global warming” melts their stupid asses out of there?
++++++++++
I agree to some extent with the sentiment. I think we should get the Russian crew saved, and let the passengers wait it out. Let them study the melt until “local warming” sets them free.
Sure, we’ll rescue your sad pathetic arses, but first you have to come clean on the entire “Money Laundering Fiasco” known as Global Warming or now as you leftist brainiacks are calling it “Climate Change” If you tell the truth about this contrived scheme to steal monies from the West to give to those less fortunate then we will consider it. Also, you must be willing to pay via your Scientific “Grants” for the entire cost of the rescue mission! Do we have a deal me bucko’s?
A large vessel went to Antarctica on an ill-starred mission and got caught in the ice indefinitely.
Was it:
1. A ship containing global-warming researchers?
2. A flying saucer containing “The Thing”?
It’s utterly disgusting that these tree-hugger leftist liberal whacko’s on the antartic cruise ship aren’t footing the ENTIRE bill for their rescue. I don’t mean like the teeny tiny little bit like the Obama’s pay for their lavish safaris, I do mean the WHOLE bill!!! Why do I think it’s working responsible people who will get stuck with the tab??? Liberal twerps!!!
Australia is building a bigger ice breaker for an ice-free world:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/new-antarctic-icebreaker-on-its-way/story-fn3dxiwe-1226693614224
Russia is building a bigger ice breaker for an ice-free world:
http://rt.com/news/world-biggest-icebreaker-russia-275/
As noted above, America is as well:
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/question-if-obama-top-science-advisor.html
The global warming madness continues-
Australian ‘green’ politicians call for a carbon(sic) tax to stop hottest year ever http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/hottest-year-shows-need-for-carbon-tax-labor-greens-20140103-3096c.html WHILST said carbon(sic) tax is FAILS to STOP hottest year ever even as tax is in operation http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/senate-passes-carbon-tax-20111108-1n4p1.html . When will the carbon(sic) tax stop climate change?
The United States Coast Guard …..”Rescuing Idiots Since 1790″
Re. “six (21ft) metres thick”): 6 meters is 19.685 feet. Oh, I see the reason for the error. The Wikipedia article states it as “21 feet (6 meters),” which makes more sense.
USA!! USA!! USA!!
The rest of the story is told by Andrew Bolt here — the diversion of ships to this rescue which were using the window of summer to exchange crews, resupply Antarctic bases and bring in scientific equipment for legitimate ongoing research was derailed by these idiots — who for all their posturing about how prepared they were made some really obvious crappy choices in their trip planning.
Bill Turney and the tourists he scammed into this.
Only the US Coast Guard can break up global warming!
Just saw a tweet that Polar Star has left Sydney headed for Antarctica.
Tim Clancy (Ex-Coastie) says:
January 4, 2014 at 2:12 pm
The United States Coast Guard …..”Rescuing Idiots Since 1790″
Perfect!
The Global Warming con artists have seriously suggested that anyone that dares suggest that there isn’t Global Warming be deemed insane and involuntarily institutionalized. These people have the stench of totalitarianism all over them. Echoes of the brutal 20th century.
Oh so they radio in that they’re stuck in ice eh ? Reply, “You can’t possibly be stuck ! In fact there should be no ice where you are at all due to Global Warming. Either this is a prank or you are INSANE ! Over and out.”
So what do they call this? Climate changeback?
Janice Moore-
In the Navy, we used to rag on the Coasties.
Q. Why does the Coast Guard require all it’s personnel to be at least 6 feet tall?
A. So if the ship sinks, they can walk to shore.
There’s an old saying about the “Coasties”, “Ya’ gotta go out, but you don’t gotta come back.”
God bless the United States Coast Guard!
Send the bill to the Global Warmers.
Aussies get the russians stuck. Chinese go to help, they get stuck. Now USCG gets called in …. they get stuck . Russian nuke icebreakers get called in ….
Janice Moore says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Thanks. Have commented some under my real name, but mostly have been off line working in South America, in fact close to Antarctica.
RobertM says:
January 4, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Agree the companies should pay, through insurance, as I suggested. Or do as I do & fly rather than cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula in good WX only. I´m OK with leaving the rest of the continent (actually two under the ice) to the penguins & seals.
Interesting how most of the govt.\media complex will not mention that this was a “Global warming tour”. More ice than in 1912 and at the beginning of summer no less down south. These so called science pimps should be left there until the ice thaws.
How is ice even possible with all those Hiroshimas exploding every second in our ecosystem? 😎
The Polar Star was retired in 2006. Just refitted to extend useful life about 10 more years. The Polar Sea WAGB-11 is stil retired/out of service.(wikipedia)
These researchers got stuck searching for more bad global warming data that is proved to be wrong. I learned about global cooling in the 70s’ in school, then in the 80s’ when that proved wrong. The same people started the global warming research that became climate change when it proved wrong again for them.
This is about research grants, grants mean you don’t have to get a real job and do real work.
We need to stop spending $$ on grants and that is all grants from tax $$.
Send ’em a bill for the costs. If you ski out-of-bounds and need rescue, you will be billed for all charges and people involved in the rescue.
let them wait for the thaw.
This is starting to get stupid. Ah what the hell, I’m go’in in.
Well, despite the leftist media’s best efforts to hush up the fact that this entire episode is due to a bunch of Global Warming nut cases setting out to prove themselves right, which is not the way a true scientist is supposed to operate, it seems that there is a number of silver linings. The obvious is the Global Warming scam is getting exposed for what we knew all along. The globalist socialists of the UN behind this are clambering for stealing more tax dollars with even more apocalyptic lies, and this couldn’t have happened to a more fitting bunch. A rather expensive laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.
Finally, the man made CO2 cause of this phony global warming garbage is just that, garbage. They were allegedly following a route set back in 1913 by Antarctic explorers, but someone forgot to mention that they didn’t get stuck in the ice back in 1913. Strange how back in 1913 we didn’t have the industrialized world we have today that is supposedly the end all of end all doomsday worshipers nightmares. Then again, they didn’t have such CO2 issues back in the days of the dinosaur nor in medieval times either where science has shown the world was much warmer than it is today. Just don’t try to tell this to the Al Gore bunch. They’ll never understand.
In the mean time, the U.S. Coast Guard to the rescue! GO U.S.A.! :oD