Laura Bassi (icebreaker)


Laura Bassi is an icebreaking research vessel operated by the Italian national institute for oceongraphic and geophysical experimentation, . Between 1999 and 2019, she was the British Antarctic Survey logistics ship, primarily used for the resupply of scientific stations in the Antarctic.

History

Launched in July 1995 as MV Polar Queen for GC Rieber Shipping, she was operated in the Antarctic by other national programmes. The British Antarctic Survey acquired her on a long-term bareboat charter in August 1999 to replace. She was renamed RRS Ernest Shackleton in 2000, after the Anglo-Irish polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton but was known to users as The Shack. After 20 years of polar duties for BAS, Ernest Shackleton was returned to her owners on 30 April 2019.
OGS acquired the ship on 9 May 2019. They renamed her RV Laura Bassi in honour of the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university and the first woman in the world to be appointed a university chair in a scientific field of studies.

Construction

N/R Laura Bassi is ice strengthened with a double hull construction. She is capable of a wide range of logistic tasks as well as having a scientific capability.

Service

Between 1999 and 2019, RRS Ernest Shackleton was the main logistic ship for the British Antarctic Survey. She was used to resupply the survey's Antarctic research stations and also had a research capability. "Tula", a cargo tender stored on deck allowed transfer ashore of stores and equipment when the ship could not berth alongside. During the northern summer, she was commercially chartered, often working in the North Sea. On charter to Crystal Cruise Line she escorted its 68,000 ton liner Crystal Serenity through Canada's Northwest Passage in late August/September 2016 and 2017.