| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | MV American Tern |
| Builder: |
VEB Schiffswerft Neptun, Rostock, Germany [1] |
| Launched: | 1990[1] |
| Identification: | IMO number: 8908088 |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics [2] | |
| Type: | Container ship |
| Displacement: | 8,650 long tons (8,789 t) |
| Length: | 521 ft (159 m) |
| Beam: | 76 ft (23 m) |
| Draft: | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 21 contract mariners |
M/V American Tern (T-AK-4729) is a container ship managed by APL Maritime, Ltd. Formerly the Liberian-flagged M/V Kariba, the vessel was renamed American Tern under the United States flag in 2002. Since then, the American Tern has been chartered by the United States Navy Military Sealift Command. She is contracted through 2010 to make resupply voyages to McMurdo Station in Antarctica (Operation Deep Freeze) and Thule Air Base in Greenland (Operation Pacer Goose)[1]. The vessel is named after the Tern, a species of bird that makes annual migrations from the Arctic to the Antarctic.