Voyager of the Seas
LARGEST CRUISE SHIP TO VISIT AUCKLAND
Royal Caribbean���a mega-cruiseship Voyager of the Seas berthed
in Auckland in November, becoming the largest vessel to come
alongside Princes Wharf since February 11, 1974.
38 years ago the record was held by the 66,350-tonne France,
pride of the French Line, built as a direct competitor to Cunard���s
original Queen Elizabeth. Even today, France at 315.5m,
remains the longest ship ever to grace Auckland���s principal
cruise ship berth. The 13-year-old Voyager of the Seas, despite
weighing-in at 13,7276grt, more than twice the gross tonnage of
France, is just 311m.
France
However, records are made to be broken and France will next
month lose her long-standing number one placing, with the arrival of
Celebrity Cruises��� 316m Celebrity Solstice on December 19, 2012.
New Zealand has been renowned since the 1980���s for it���s status
as a nuclear-free nation. Since that time no nuclear-powered or
nuclear armed vessel has been welcomed here until Japan���s first
and only nuclear-powered ship made a three-day stop-over at the
City of Sails, Auckland in November.
Now known as the Japanese oceanographic research ship Mirai,
up until 1995 she was the nuclear-powered freighter Mutsu,
constructed for the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The
8240 ton Mutsu was launched in 1970 and her nuclear fuel loaded
in 1972. In 1974, the ship suffered a minor radiation leak which
saw her blockaded for some weeks by fishermen, preventing her
from returning to her home port of Sasebo.
Mutsu never carried commercial cargo. She was used only
for nuclear propulsion tests and following modifications to her
reactor and a subsequent overhaul she completed her initial
objective of covering a distance of 82,000kms in testing and was
finally decommissioned in 1992.
In 1995, her reactor was removed and the ship decontaminated.
She was completely rebuilt and relaunched as Mirai, an
oceanographic research ship operated by the Japan Agency for
Marine-Earth Science and Technology and has been deployed in
surveying the subtropic and subarctic waters of the Pacific,
Indian and Arctic oceans.
VIP.S88
EX-NUCLEAR SHIP WELCOME IN AUCKLAND
Mirai
January/February 2013 Professional Skipper 69
