MV Explorer (1969)
The Explorer in the Antarctic ice
- Society Explorer
- Lindblad Explorer
IMO number:. 6924959
The Explorer was a cruise ship, the Canadian tour operator GAP Adventures was used for expedition cruises. She sank on 23 November 2007 in Antarctic waters after it had rammed an iceberg.
History of the ship
The Explorer was built on the Nystads Varv As in Nystad (Finland ) in 1969. The ship, which came first as Lindblad Explorer, under the flag of Norway in motion, was one of the first cruise ships, which was built specially for travel to remote areas of the world, especially in the polar regions. It had pitch propellers and a bow thruster and was equipped with stabilizers. The range of the ship was good 5300 miles.
After the ship had been sold several times, it came in 1985 to the former Bremer tour operators Society Expeditions, who ran the World Discoverer, and was renamed the Society Explorer. Since 1992, the ship called Explorer, since the end of 2004, it went for GAP Adventures under the flag of Liberia.
In February 1972, the ship in Antarctica was near the La Plaza Point on reason, but could again be towed free from the tug Arctic. In 1989 it was involved in a rescue operation for a before the Anvers Island due to spilled Argentine supply ship.
The ship, which was also affectionately known as the "little red ship " because of its color, sailed as the first cruise ship in 1984 the Northwest Passage. Besides, it was among other things the first cruise ship to Antarctica started off (1970), the Antarctica from New Zealand to Argentina partially rounded (1973 ) that the Amazon from Brazil to Peru and sailed Provideniya started off in Siberia (1988). South Georgia dedicated to the ship a stamp motif.
Accident in Antarctica in November 2007
- 62.4 - 57.266666666667Koordinaten: 62 ° 24 '0 "S, 57 ° 16' 0 " W
On the morning of November 23 at 5:24 UTC clock collided the ship was on a cruise from Ushuaia in Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula, about 26 miles east of belonging to the South Shetland Islands King George Island probably hit an iceberg and this leak. About 15 hours after the collision (according to GAP Adventures already around 19 clock UTC) the Explorer dropped to about 1100 meters depth.
91 passengers, nine expedition leaders and lecturers, as well as 52 crew members went into the lifeboats and were picked up by the Nordnorge, which was located nearby. The captain and the first officer initially remained on board and tried to keep the ship afloat, but the ship gave up during the day.
The Nordnorge, a ship of the Norwegian Hurtigruten, which is used in the winter months for cruises to Antarctica, brought the rescued to the Chilean Antarctic station Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva on King George Island. From there they were flown in the following two days with a Lockheed C -130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Chilean Air Force for base Punta Arenas.
Due to the sinking of the ship flowed approximately 185,000 liters of fuel into the sea. Argentina announced that it would be used for a restriction of Antarctic tourism. Scientists also demanded that fewer tourists should undertake journeys in the sensitive Antarctic habitat, to reduce the risk of such accidents in the future.
In January 2008, the wreck of the Explorer was by the British research vessel HMS Endurance at the Northwest end of the Bransfield Strait in position 62 ° 24 ' 18 "S, 57 ° 11' 46" localized W 62.404881666667 - 57.196246666667 at a depth of 1,130 m. The site is located approximately four kilometers from the sinking site.