The liner Akademik Shokalsky, cruise company QUARK EXPEDITIONS, is an ice-class vessel. The ship "Akademik Shokalsky" makes money on cruises Akademik Shokalsky
This report is available in high definition
On December 24, 2013, the scientific vessel Akademik Shokalsky was blocked in Antarctica by iceberg fragments. Several powerful ships came to his aid at once. At first, the Chinese and French icebreakers could not overcome the 3-meter ice, and then the Aurora Australis, with which the main hopes for rescue from ice captivity were pinned, could not break through.
Report on the international rescue operation in Antarctica.
There were 74 people on board the scientific vessel Akademik Shokalsky, including the crew, scientists and tourists. It set out on a cruise from New Zealand to visit several sites off the Antarctic coast.
Expedition leader Greg Montimer. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
The Akademik Shokalsky was blocked by ice a day after the start of the journey. The distress signal came from him on December 25 in the morning. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
Ice-bound "Akademik Shokalsky". (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
An international rescue operation has begun in Antarctica. Chinese and French icebreakers set out to meet the Akademik Shokalsky, but they were unable to break through the 3-meter ice.
The Chinese icebreaker "Snow Dragon" is going to rescue the "Akademik Shokalsky". (Photo by Zhang Jiansong | Xinhua | Zuma Press):
View from the Chinese icebreaker "Snow Dragon" rushing to the rescue. On the left on the ice floe silhouettes of penguins are visible. (Photo by Zhang Jiansong | Xinhua | Zuma Press):
And the scientists, waiting for salvation, were engaged in scientific affairs. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
The passengers did not lose heart either. When will you meet again New Year in Antarctica? (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
Passenger of the ship "Akademik Shokalsky" and local. (Reuters Photo | Andrew Peacock):
Then the main hopes were placed on the more powerful Australian ship Aurora Australis, but it also failed. After this, it was decided to evacuate the passengers by helicopter.
Curious penguins are watching what is happening. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
The passengers and crew of the Akademik Shokalsky worked together to prepare a landing site for the Chinese helicopter, compacting the snow. The rescue operation was planned just for the New Year, but due to heavy snowfall it had to be postponed for 2 days. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
On Thursday, January 2, 2014, the long-awaited rescue operation in Antarctica was successfully completed. From the ice-locked Russian ship Akademik Shokalsky, a Chinese helicopter evacuated all researchers and tourists in small groups - 52 people in total. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
By the way, the Chinese helicopter is our Ka-32A11BC. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
Passengers wait their turn on the Akademik Shokalsky while the first groups are evacuated by helicopter, December 2, 2014. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
There were 22 crew members left on the Akademik Shokalsky who did not abandon the ship. The American icebreaker Polar Star, which is not hindered by many meters of ice, comes to their aid. True, he will not arrive in Antarctica until next week. There will be enough food and water for the crew members of the Russian ship for another month. (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
(AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
The rescued 52 passengers ended up on board the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, but the unexpected happened and the Australian ship had to make an unplanned stop: it was prevented from moving further by the same Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon, which also took part in the rescue operation, but in the end I got stuck in the multi-meter ice of Antarctica. The icebreaker Aurora Australis managed to find a workaround and is now heading towards Tasmania.
Chinese icebreaker "Snow Dragon". (Reuters Photo):
View from "Academician Shokalsky". (AFP Photo | Andrew Peacock):
UPD. On January 7, the Russian ship Akademik Shokalsky was freed from ice captivity. It was not the icebreakers that saved him - they were never able to get through to the ship - but the weather. The wind changed direction and a wide crack formed in the ice.
"Akademik Shokalsky" is a small ice-class cruise ship owned by Russian Federation and operated by Australian operator Aurora Expeditions, was built in 1982
in Finland for polar and oceanographic research. Named in honor of the Russian and Soviet geographer, oceanographer and cartographer Lieutenant General and academician Yuli Shokalsky.
The vessel was built in 1982 in Finland for polar and oceanographic research and is UL ice class. The size of the vessel allows it to go where larger ships cannot. "Akademik Shokalsky" accepts 46 passengers on trips to the Arctic and 48 passengers on cruises to the Antarctic.
The ship has 26 sea view cabins (including the 23.2 m² Amundsen Suite) and has undergone several modernizations and refurbishments (2008).
On December 25, 2013, a ship with 74 Australian scientists, tourists and crew members on board became stuck in the Antarctic ice 1.5 thousand nautical miles (2.7 thousand km) from Hobart.
Early in the morning of December 25, a distress signal was received from the ship. Three icebreakers were sent to rescue him, but they were powerless to help the Russian ship.
On January 2, 2014, all the ship's passengers were evacuated by helicopter from the Xue Long ship to the icebreaker Aurora Australis, while the Xue Long icebreaker also found itself frozen 20 km from the Akademik Shokalsky. On January 7, as a result of ice movement, a wide crack formed near the ship “Akademik Shokalsky” and it began moving at a speed of seven knots towards the Chinese icebreaker “Xue Long”.
On January 8, 2014, “Akademik Shokalsky” was finally freed from ice captivity and reached clean water.
On board
Wardroom, crew canteen.
Lecture hall.
Salon and bar.
Library.
Satellite connection.
Expedition doctor and outpatient clinic.
All that remains of Russian research vessels are beautiful names: “Academician Korolev”, “Academician Kurchatov”, “Academician Shokalsky”. Enterprising people got involved and use them for cruises. So "Akademik Shokalsky" with tourists and several Australian climatologists went to Antarctica to obtain new data on global warming. But on the 16th day, global warming came to an end and the ship hit the ice.
TOURISTS KEEP THE FLEET AFLOAT
On November 24, 2013, the Russians were notified that the Russian research vessel Akademik Shokalsky was covered in ice near the coast of Antarctica and was asking for help. And soon we learned that “Akademik Shokalsky” has not served for the benefit of Russian science for a long time. Converted into a cruise ship, it makes money for its Australian operator Aurora Expeditions by taking tourist cruises to Antarctica one after another, and there is not a single Russian scientist on board the distressed vessel. In 2012, Akademik made three commercial voyages along the same route to commemorate the 1912 landing in Antarctica of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson.
News agency reports stated that the Akademik Shokalsky carried out work commissioned by the Australian Antarctic Expedition. In reality, he continued to work for a tour operator that made good money from the desire of a group of Australian climatologists to take a comfortable Christmas cruise with sponsors' money. At the same time, tourists set sail on the Akademik Shokalsky, paying for the cruise out of their own pockets. All cabin berths were sold. Moreover, the ship belongs to a federal budgetary enterprise - the Vladivostok-based Hydrometflot, subordinate to the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring.
The Antarctic epic of “Academician Shokalsky” once again recalled the sad fate of the collapsed Russian scientific fleet. This ship was named after the outstanding Russian geographer and oceanographer Yuli Shokalsky. It was built in Finland in 1982 and equipped with the most modern scientific equipment at that time. But then the ship was extensively converted into a tourist liner with the famous Amundsen luxury suite. On board there are two expensive restaurants with a daily changing menu, a lounge and a bar with wide choice wine “Akademik” works in the Arctic in the summer and moves to the Antarctic summer in the winter. Thirteen day cheapest cruise on Kurile Islands it will cost from $8,450 in a three-berth cabin without amenities, that is, with only one washbasin, and for sailing in the captain's suite you will have to pay $12,050. Other former flagships of the Soviet oceanographic fleet, such as Akademik Vavilov and Akademik Ioffe, are engaged in exactly the same business, far from scientific research.
It is possible that soon “Akademik Shokalsky” will be sent for another repair and given a new, loud English name. As happened with a similar ship “Professor Khromov”. Now the operating company Ocean Adventures has renamed it Spirit of Enderby, and they have suggested forgetting about Professor Khromov. “Our chefs will delight you with international cuisine made from the freshest ingredients,” cruise businessmen promise. At the same time, the Spirit of Enderby still continues to be listed as a Russian research vessel.
But “Akademik Shuleikin” turned into Polar Pioneer with 29 cabins for 54 people. Sailing on it to Antarctica in a room for two will cost at least $8,700.
IN THE WOODS OF THE "CANNISH"
Traveling for Australian tourists on the Akademik Shokalsky was also not a cheap undertaking. According to the Daily Mail, it cost 900 thousand British pounds. Australian Antarctic researchers have announced their goal is to obtain new data confirming global warming in Antarctica. A member of the Australian Parliament from the Green Party, as well as journalists from the Guardian and the BBC, promoting the theory of global warming, also boarded the ship. But on the 16th day of the journey, global warming came to an end and the ship ran into ice. The conquerors of Antarctica clearly could not appreciate the seriousness of their situation and cheerfully reported that the wind should soon drive the ice away from them. However, the current Antarctic summer turned out to be somehow irregular; the ice, instead of melting as it should at this time of year, on the contrary, grew, and impressive hummocks appeared around the Akademik.
Perhaps the participants should not have dedicated the cruise to the memory of Sir Douglas Mawson and followed his Antarctic footsteps, given how Mawson's fatal Antarctic epic ended. In December 1912, one of the expedition members fell into a deep ice crevasse, and they were lost along with him. most of supplies, tent and best dogs. Mawson and his companion, champion cross-country skier Javier Mertz, had to travel 300 miles to base camp with only a week and a half of food left. The famous historian David Day, in his documentary book, talked about how Mawson and Mertz ate all the remaining dogs, and unknowingly poisoned them from their liver. According to one version, Mertz went crazy and died, according to another, as Day describes it, Mawson deliberately killed his companion and ate him, only this allowed him to reach his goal barely alive. He had no other way to survive.
THE CLIMATE DID NOT OBEY THE PROFESSOR
If you look at photographs of Antarctica at the beginning of the 20th century, including those taken by Mawson, then this part of Antarctica was significantly less covered with ice than is the case in the 21st century. At that time, there was not a single piece of ice in the bay where the Akademik Shokalsky was stuck today. Now three icebreakers, which themselves were under the threat of ice captivity, were unable to break through the ice thickness.
Australians are in vain assuring the public that the current ice is still the same result of global warming. They do not say that in reality the area covered by ice in Antarctica has reached two million square kilometers, which is significantly more than in 1981 and 2010. But climatologists, including those who were on board the ship, recently stated that by the summer of 2020, Antarctic waters will be completely free of ice. But this summer, the area of ice cover has increased by almost 30 percent compared to last year.
The Daily Mail writes that all the blame for the disaster of the expedition lies with its leader, professor from the University of South Wales Chris Tierney. A geographer by training, he argues that carbon dioxide emissions will lead to climate disaster and they need to be reduced immediately. He made a brilliant career for himself on this hypothesis and established connections with influential politicians. At the same time, he is the main shareholder of Carbonscape Holdings Ltd, which develops and implements methods for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
When the Russian ship sent an SOS, it clean water separated by only two nautical miles, after seven days the sea moved back 20 miles. In some places the ice thickness reached five meters. It seems that all the Antarctic ice has gathered around the “Akademik Shokalsky”. Disputes began among tourists and scientists; some blamed the enterprising professor for the incident, who led the ship into an ice trap and neglected the critical ice situation in the area. The Russian crew of the ship could only obediently follow the instructions of the cruise organizers. Another indication that these scientists did not have much knowledge of Antarctic ice was their belief that one of the icebreakers was about to break through to help. But they were not capable of crushing ice that reached more than three meters in thickness. On January 2, 52 passengers of the Akademik Shokalsky were transported by helicopter from a Chinese icebreaker to a floating ice floe, and from there they were transported to an Australian ship. And the Russian crew will have to remain on board their ship, possibly for several more weeks. The captain intends to wait until the ice breaks up. There is another option - to use the help of a powerful American icebreaker. They say that there remains a sufficient supply of food on the ship and the Russians will not have to starve.
Nikolay Ivanov
Photo WIKIPEDIA
