Built for the German Navy by the yard of Unterweser at Bremerhaven.
25 Nov. 1965 launched under the name HELGOLAND (A 1457).
Displacement 1.558 tons full load. Dim. 67.9 x 12.74 x 4.2m
Powered: diesel electric by four 12 cyl. diesels, two shafts, 3.300 shp., speed 16.6 knots.
Armament 2 – 40 mm. under German flag.
Crew 34.
Commissioned 08 March 1966.
Homeport Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
In use by the German Navy as a salvage tug, equipped for firefighting, icebreaking and wreck location.
1998 Sold to the navy of Uruguay.
21 September 1998 for the first time she flew the Uruguayan flag at Wilhelmshaven, renamed in OYARVIDE (22). She was named after Lieutenant Andrés Oyarvide, who arrived in the River Plata region in 1777. He took part in the Demarcation Party that would fix the boundaries between Spanish and Portuguese lands. When this mission was over, Lieutenant Oyarvide took part in an important hydrographic campaign, to survey the River Uruguay and the River Plata, and the Uruguayan coastwaters.
December 1998 she arrived at Uruguay. The navy will mostly use her as a hydrographic vessel.
She is used in a project of the Uruguayan Navy off the coast of Uruguay and rivers, one of the most important in which the ship has ever taken part in.
Within the framework of this project the OYARVIDE, fitted out and equipped for this task will carry out the following tasks
To take a complete hydrographic sounding and bearing of a 6-mile wide lane, from the port of Montevideo to the lateral sea border with Brazil, with the purpose of increasing the safety of the shipping along the Uruguayan coast.
To verify the hydrographic soundings and bearings of the continental shelf, in order to collect the bathymetric data’s necessary to push – in conformity with the options established in CONVEMAR, article 76 Uruguayan rights on the continental shelf beyond the present 200 nautical miles. Such change could imply up to 103.000 extra square kilometers to be exploited in conformity with the regulating Convention.
The OYARVIDE is technical up to date to carry out rescue operations, to fight fires on other vessels, and to perform towing operations on the oceans.
Uruguay 2001 $12 sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/americas/uruguay.htm
MARHST-L David Asprey. Jane’s Fighting Ships 1965-66