ARA Almirante Irízar (Q5) antarctic icebreaker |
|
| Career (Argentina) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | ARA Almirante Irízar (Q5) |
| Owner: | Argentine Navy |
| Ordered: | 1975 |
| Builder: | Wärtsilä, Helsinki, Finland |
| Launched: | 1978 |
| Acquired: | 1975 |
| Identification: | IMO number: 7533628 |
| Fate: | On fire April 11, 2007, off the coast of Puerto Madryn, Chubut in Argentina. |
| Status: | Undergoing repairs at Tandanor shipyard, Buenos Aires |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 14.899 metric tonnes |
| Length: | 121.3 m |
| Beam: | 25.2 m |
| Draft: | 9.5m |
| Propulsion: | 2× propeller motors |
| Complement: | 45 passengers, 135 crew |
The ARA Almirante Irízar is a large icebreaker of the Argentine Navy. The ship is currently out of service since 2007, when a fire broke out in the auxiliary generator compartment.[1][2][3] The vessel is due to enter service in late 2012, once its reparation and refurbishment is fully completed.[4]
The ship was named after Vice Admiral Julián Irízar; in 1903, when he held the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, he commanded the Argentine corvette ARA Uruguay during a successful mission to rescue the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of Professor Otto Nordenskjöld, after the expedition had been trapped by the Antarctic winter.
The vessel was built at the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, under a contract signed in 1975 between the Argentine Navy and the shipyard. Irízar was launched in February 1978 and was formally commissioned on December that year, arriving in Argentina on 23 March 1979. She replaced the elderly icebreaker ARA General San Martín, which was then retired from active service.
Almirante Irízar's peacetime missions include annual campaigns to resupply and rotate the personnel assigned to the Argentine Antarctic outposts, as well as conducting and supporting scientific endeavors in Antarctica. She has also conducted several passenger tours to Patagonia and the Antarctic.
The ship's homeport is at the Argentine Navy's Buenos Aires Naval Anchorage (Spanish: Apostadero Naval Buenos Aires) in the capital city of Buenos Aires.
During the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de Malvinas) the vessel served as a troop transport and then as a hospital ship, a role for which her crew included medical personnel from the Argentine Army in addition to the naval medical staff. After the end of the war, she was used to return Argentine POWs and injured personnel back to the continent.
The ship gained attention in 2002, when she attempted to rescue the trapped supply vessel Magdalena Oldendorff.[5][6][7][8] Even though Irízar failed to break the Magdalena Oldendorff free, she managed to move it to a safety position and resupply the ship with food, medicine and medical personnel until the ice melted and Magdalena Oldendorff could return to open sea.[9][10]
On March 15/16 2004, the ship entered sea designated as conservation zones under the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands and issued demands for other ships to identify themselves. This prompted a protest from the British government to the Argentinian government over its policing of seas under Falkland jurisdiction. The diplomatic note also re-asserted British sovereignty over the islands.[11]
On 10 April 2007 at 22:00 UTC−03:00, a fire broke out in the auxiliary generators compartment. By 23:30 UTC-03:00 the captain had ordered the evacuation. Argentine Navy and Argentine Coast Guard aircraft operated to keep track of the 24 lifeboats. The 296 persons inside the icebreaker —including civilians of the Antarctic bases— were helped by the nearest ships, the Panamanian tanker Scarlet Ibis and a Uruguayan fishing vessel. The icebreaker was returning from its annual Antarctic summer campaign, and the incident took place some 140 miles (230 km) east of Puerto Madryn.[12]
The crew arrived safely to Puerto Madryn on April 12. There were no casualties.[13]
The vessel's captain, Guillermo Tarapow, had stood alone for almost 24 hours after seeing his crew safely abandoned the ship. Starting April 11, destroyer ARA Almirante Brown,[14][15] corvettes ARA Granville,[15] and ARA Robinson,[14][15] avisos ARA Gurruchaga, ARA Suboficial Castillo,[14][15] and ARA Teniente Oliveri,[14][15] and Coast Guard PNA Thompson, surrounded the Icebreaker and began rescue operations. Buzos Tacticos and members of the Rescue Team (Spanish: Servicio de Salvamento) of the Argentine Navy boarded the ship and extinguished the fire. On April 18, the ship started being towed to the Puerto Belgrano naval base.[16] Irizar finally arrived to Puerto Belgrano on April 20.[17]
The fire caused the loss of the two Sea King helicopters stored in their hangar, worth U$S 18 million each.[18]
Subsequent to this incident, the British government have offered to supply Argentine bases in Antarctica, in support of scientific missions, using HMS Endurance. This offer was turned down by the government of Cristina Kirchner [19][20] which choose to lease the icebreaker Vasily Golovnin from Russia for the followings summer campaigns [21][22]
After a long period in Puerto Belgrano due to legal issues surrounding the incident, the Irizar finally arrived in Buenos Aires on 3 September 2008 to be taken to Tandanor's shipyard for repairs.[23][24] Repairs were expected to be completed in 2010 but they have continued into 2011, and are supervised by Norwegian shipyward Aker Yards.[23][24]
On March 2010 it was announced that the Irizar would not be ready for the 2011/2012 Antarctic campaign, meaning the Vasily Golovnin would be used for the 2010/2011 campaign too.[25]
As of May 2010, the vessel is undergoing the fire repairs plus a reconfiguration at Tandanor shipyard. Although maintening her basic role of resupplying the southernmost Antarctic base Belgrano II, the ship will be primarily used as a research vessel with the addition of more laboratories onboard, from a current spanned area of 74 m2 (800 sq ft), up to 415 m2 (4,470 sq ft).[26] The diesel engines will be replaced by two new ones purchased from MAN, in October 2011.[4][26][27] The main radar of the Irizar is also being repaired in Argentina by CITEDEF [28] Works are estimated to be finished by November 2011.[29]
The Navy will acquire a second polar ship (similar to the currently used Vasily Golovnin) for the basic cargo role.
| Displacement | 14,899 tons |
| Length | 390 feet (120 m)[12] |
| Beam: | 25.2 m |
| Draft | 9.5 m |
| Propulsion | Original: 2 × 5 950 kW propeller motors |
| Upgrade: 2 Diesel MTU | |
| Endurance | 60 days |
| Hangars | 2 Argentine Navy H-3 Sea Kings |
| or 2 Argentine Army Super Pumas | |
| or 2 Mi-17 [30] | |
| Crew | Original: 245[26] |
| Upgrade: 313[26] | |
| Ice breaking capability | Continuous: ice 1 meter thick |
| Ramming: ice 6 meters thick |
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