The nation’s fifth and largest ocean research vessel, Legend, was yesterday inaugurated at Kaohsiung’s Banana Pier (香蕉碼頭) by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The 2,629-tonne vessel has a top speed of 12 knots and can accommodate 19 crew members and 24 researchers for 30 days at sea, the ministry said.
The vessel is equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle and a giant piston coring system, among other equipment, it added.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Legend is tasked with collecting information about oceanic geography, sampling marine sediment and exploring energy sources in the waters surrounding the nation, the ministry said.
The vessel is docked at Kaohsiung Wharf (高雄港) and is expected to embark on its first official mission in September, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said.
The ministry has not yet decided on its first scientific project, but is seeking to collaborate with neighboring nations for research topics, Chen added.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
The ship has three female crew members, including its captain, Huang Chiu-hsing (黃久倖), 37, who graduated from National Taiwan Ocean University and has worked in the industry for a decade.
“It is a pleasure to serve as the nation’s first female captain of an ocean research vessel,” Huang said, adding that her most challenging task would be to familiarize herself with the ship’s twin azimuth thruster propulsion system.
Asked if it would be stressful to manage male crew members, Huang said it is not a problem for her.
The vessel was built by Triyards Marine Services, a Singaporean company, at its Vietnamese shipyard at a cost of NT$880 million (US$29.37 million at the current exchange rate). It arrived at Tainan’s Anping Port (安平港) on Jan. 18, although it was originally scheduled to arrive in October last year, Taiwan Oceanic Research Institute director Wang Chau-chang (王兆璋) said.
The delay was due to a financial crisis at the shipbuilder, which was exposed in June last year, he said.
The vessel’s ownership was transferred from the shipbuilder to the institute on March 31, and the administrative paperwork was finished on Friday last week, he said.
While most of the ship’s devices were purchased from foreign manufacturers, it has two ocean-bottom seismometers jointly developed by the institute and National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Undersea Technology, Wang said.
The university’s institute, which is committed to developing underwater devices, is working to build a deep-diving crewed submersible in five years, its director, Chen Hsin-hung (陳信宏), said, but added that some technical difficulties still need to be overcome.
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