NKK To Build Icebreaking Patrol Ship For Safety Agency

Japan's Maritime Safety Agency has commissioned NKK Corp., reportedly Japan's only shipbuilder with icebreaking expertise, to build a 500-dwt icebreaking patrol ship. To be built at NKK's Tsurumi Works in Yokohama, it is scheduled for delivery in October 1995.

NKK has previously built seven vessels in this category, a company spokesman said. Two have been highly successful Antarctic observation ships; another, the Aurora, built in 1990, was Japan's first sightseeing cruise icebreaker and is in service off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido.

The same icebreaking and iceresistant shipbuilding technology was used by NKK in building the super CIDS (concrete island drilling system) offshore oil platform now operating in the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska.

The new vessel will be capable of navigating through ice nearly two ft. thick, or in charging mode will be able to crush through ice beds of more than 2.5 ft. thick. The ship will be 180 ft. (54.9 m) long by 33.5 ft. (10.2 m) wide and have a depth of 16.4 ft. (5 m).

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