MV Oceanic Viking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 MV Oceanic Viking |
|
| Career (Australia) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | MV Oceanic Viking |
| Owner: | Eidesvik Shipping AS |
| Operator: | P&O Marine Services/Australian Customs Service |
| Builder: | Flekkefjord Slipp & Maskinfabrikk |
| Launched: | 1996 |
| Notes: | Armed with 2 x .50 caliber machine guns |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | DnV + 1A1 Cable Laying Vessel |
| Tonnage: | 9,075 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 105.6 m |
| Beam: | 22 m |
| Draught: | 6.83 m |
| Propulsion: | 2 x 3,560 kW at 660 rpm |
| Speed: | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Complement: | Up to 60 |
| Notes: | Former offshore oil pipeline layer and cable layer |
The MV Oceanic Viking is an armed patrol vessel of the Australian Customs Service. It is owned by Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik Shipping AS and contracted to the Australian Customs Service through P&O Marine Services.
It was built in 1996 as an offshore supply vessel and named Viking Lady. In 2000 it was converted to a cable layer and renamed Oceanic Viking, and used for laying optic fiber cables between Europe and North America.[2][3]
In 2004 it was converted to an armed patrol vessel and chartered to the Australian Customs Service.[4][5] With the fitting of two deck-mounted .50 caliber machine guns, it became the first civilian ship in Australia to carry mounted weapons in peacetime. It is Australian flagged and operated by a civilian crew, carrying armed Customs officers. In this role it conducts Customs and Fisheries patrols in the Southern Ocean and the Australian territories of Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Heard Island and McDonald Islands.
[edit] Incidents
- In September 2005, Customs officers aboard the Oceanic Viking fired the deck-mounted machine guns at Indonesian fishing vessels off the Northern Territory.[6]
- In October 2006, the Oceanic Viking travelled 1,800 nautical miles (3,300 km) in 8 days to answer a distress call from the Kerguelen Islands.[7]
- In December 2007, the Australian government tasked the Oceanic Viking to monitor Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.[8] In this surveillance role the mounted guns would be removed and secured below deck.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Oceanic Viking Datasheet
- ^ Conversion of the Supply Boat Viking Lady to the trans-ocean Fibre Optic Cable Layer Oceanic Viking.
- ^ Subsea Telecom Notebook, January/February 2001.
- ^ "Toothfish pirates to face armed patrols", The Age, 2004-11-19. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ Oceanic Viking secures bareboat charter from Australia (2004-10-01). Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ "Warning shots fired at fishing boat", The Age, 2005-09-28. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Customs ship in eight-day rescue", 2006-10-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Armed vessel to monitor whalers", Herald Sun, 2007-12-18. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ "Unarmed Australians to watch whaling", Herald Sun, 2007-12-19. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
