The nation’s newest research vessel, Legend (勵進), is to conduct research in the South China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean next year, the Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday.
The National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) said that Legend was launched into waters off Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on May 7 at a ceremony hosted by Representative to Vietnam Richard Shih (石瑞琦).
Legend is Taiwan’s fifth-largest research vessel and was built at a cost of NT$870 million (US$28.9 million at the current exchange rate), said officials from NARL’s Taiwan Ocean Research Institute.
Photo: Courtesy of the National Applied Research Laboratories
Built by Triyards Marine Service, a Singaporean company based in Vietnam, the vessel features a Remote Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) — capable of operating at depths of 3,000m — and a Gravity Core sampler that can work in waters 20m deep, Ocean Exploration Division chief Liu Shao-yong (劉紹勇) said.
Equipped with a 360° electric propulsion system, the ship’s design has eliminated traditional engines and promises onboard researchers more comfortable trips, he said.
“It will be quieter than Taiwan High Speed Rail trains when moving,” Institute Director-General Lin Hui-ling (林慧玲) said.
Legend is scheduled to conduct earthquake research in the Eastern China Sea together with Japanese research vessels before formally embarking on its own in September next year, Liu said.
There are also plans for ocean-bottom exploration in the South China Sea and in the Manila Trench, he said.
Legend is to sail to Taiwan at the end of this year after the construction of its internal equipment is completed, he added.
NARL Director Wang Yeong-her (王永和) rebutted reports that the ship might stop at Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) or other ports on its way to Taiwan.
It is to collect abundant research samples en route, Wang said.
Legend is to continue the work of Ocean Researcher V, which hit a reef off the coast of Penghu and sank in 2014, Liu said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is