D.S.I.R. studies ship options for Antarctica
Reports that the Government is negotiating for the charter of a ship suitable for Antarctic voyages are wrong, according to the superintendent of the Antarctic Division of the D.5.1.R., Mr R. B. Thomson.
“Negotiations are not under way. We are continuing a study of a number of different options on New Zealand’s need for a ship,” Mr Thomson said. A Wellington newspaper said on Monday that the Government was in the middle of negotiations to charter a ship to resupply Scott Base and service New Zealand’s Antarctic Research Programme, possibly on a long-term basis.
Mr Thomson said that the study under way was purely within the D.S.I.R.
“This is a D.S.LR. prob-
lem, initially anyway; to determine what ship is most suited to our needs,” he said.
, The options included building a ship, purchasing an existing ship, chartering or leasing a ship, or sharing a charter with other people or countries, Mr Thomson said.
“It depends a great deal on costs,” he said. The newspaper report said that negotiations were well under way to subcharter a northern hemisphere ship for several Government departments for year-round work from New Zealand. The report said that Mr Thomson would not name the ship or the country where it was based but said that it was just under 2000 tons, about 88 metres long, five years old, and icestrengthened. Mr Thomson said yester-
day that this was “the sort of basic ship that would meet out needs.” “We are not looking at one particular ship,” he said. There was no possibility of a ship’s being used by New Zealand in the 1983-84 Antarctic season, Mr Thomson said. “What we are looking at is the possibility of a ship for 1984-85 or even later, to meet our basic needs,” he said. New Zealand has not used a ship in the Antarctic programme since 1971 when the Endeavour, which was run by the Royal New Zealand Navy while on loan' from the United States, was withdrawn because of the costs of maintenance.
Once the type of ship needed had been determined, the D.S.I.R. would start making arrangements
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19830630.2.67
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, 30 June 1983, Page 9
Word count
Tapeke kupu
357D.S.I.R. studies ship options for Antarctica Press, 30 June 1983, Page 9
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in