POLARSTERN research/icebreaker

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Built as double-hulled research/icebreaker under yard No 707 by Nobiskrug yard at Rendsburg and the hull by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, Kiel for the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
22 February 1981 laid down.
06 January 19821982 launched.
25 January 1982 christened as POLARSTERN, means Polar Star.
Displacement 17,300 tons, tonnage 12,558 grt, 3,767 net, 4,374 dwt. Dim. 117.56 x 25.71 x 13.62m., draught 11.21m.
Powered by four KHD RBV 8M oil engines, 19,192 hp., twin shafts, speed 16.5 knots.
Accommodation for 44 crew and 50 scientists and technicians.
01 December 1982 completed.
Fitted out with a stern A frame, and for lowering research equipment she has a 15 ton crane, with a boom which can reach 24 meter. An other crane on the foredeck can be used to lift heavy equipment and supplies up to 25 ton.
09 December 1982 in service.

Special designed to work for working in the polar seas and is one of the most sophisticated polar research vessels in the world.
She can be used up to minus 50 degree Celsius, and can break ice to 1.5 metre thick, with a speed of 5 knots. Thicker ice can be broken by ramming the ice with her very strong ice strengthened bow.
Since she was first commissioned the POLARSTERN has been used in 50 expeditions (November 2010)

She spends almost 320 days per year at sea and usually travels in the southern summer months between November and March in the Antarctic waters and during the northern summer she is in the Arctic waters.
For scientific work she has on board, on deck or below nine laboratories.
With the help of eight winches she can obtain samples from the ocean from a depth to 10.000 metres.

07 September 1991 POLARSTERN assisted the Swedish icebreaker ODEN when she reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels.
2001 She reached the North Pole again together with the USCGC HEALY.

02 March 2008 one of her helicopters crashed on a routine flight to the Antarctic Neumayer II base, the pilot and a researcher were killed, and three other passengers wounded.

17 October 2008, POLARSTERN as the first research ship ever passed through both the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage in one cruise and thus circumnavigated the North Pole.

2021 In service, http://www.equasis.org gives IMO No 8013132, owned by Germany Govt Forschung and managed by Laeisz Bremerhaven.

Congo 2005 850F sg?, scott?
Germany 2001 2.20 Euro sg?, scott2143b
Mozambique 2009 175.00 MT sg?, scott? 2013 16.00MT sg?, scott?
Guinea-Bissau 2019 640 FCFA sg?, scott?
Sierra Leone 2020 14.500Le sg?, scott? Although this edition is authorized by the Sierra Leone postal administration, it was not sold in Sierra Leone, but was only distributed to the novelty trade by the Sierra Leone philatelic agency.
Guinea 2021 60,000 Fg sgMS?, Scott?
Central African Republic 2021 3300 fcfa sgms?, Scott?

Source: Wikipedia Lloyds Register and Deutsche Post info.