Chilian Icebreaker “Almirante Viel”.
Andrés Tavolari, a lawyer and Chilean Marine Reserve Officer, who wrote one of our most popular posts, Three Nations Share German OPV Design has stayed in touch and tells me, on July 3rd the Chilean Navy commissioned their new Icebreaker/Antarctic supply ship, “Almirante Viel”. This is how he described it.
The ship is a PC-5 icebreaker equipped with a flight deck and has a hangar for two medium helicopters of the Super Puma or Cougar type. The crew is 86 people + 32 scientists. It can transport 19 containers of 20 feet, 2,202 m³ of fuel, 153 m³ of fresh water, and 86 m³ of aviation fuel for the helicopters. Its maximum speed is 15 knots and 3 knots in ice 1 meter thick. Its range is 14,000 miles and it has an autonomy of 60 days. Its length is 111 meters, it has a beam of 21 meters, and a draft of 7.2 meters. Its propulsion plant is composed of 2 main engines of 6,303 hp and a bow thruster of 670 hp.–
With Andrés’ help we did a 2016 post on the ship when it was in the planning stages that, with the attached comments, has a lot of discussion about the ship’s mission, Chile’s coast guard counterpart, the Chilean Navy and Marines.
–
Andrés sent along a link to the YouTube video of the commissioning ceremony I have posted below. It is off course in Spanish. He suggested that “…it is most interesting from minute 31 to minute 34 and from minute 57 up to the end.”
–
We see the crew board the ship beginning about 31:30. Something I have not seen at a USCG commissioning, the entire crew was singing beginning about 37:00 to 39:30. They sing again 57:50 to 1:00:00 during which the video shows some drone footage of the ship’s exterior and photos of interior compartments.
–
The Chilean Navy has a long association with the British Royal Navy. I think you can see it in their uniforms.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 