America’s Bollinger Shipyards at Houma, Louisiana expects to deliver the first of three oceanographic research ships it is building for the US National Science Foundation, Taani, to Oregon State University soon.
The second vessel, Narragansett Dawn, to go to the East Coast Oceanographic Consortium led by the University of Rhode Island and the third, Gilbert R. Mason, to the Gulf-Caribbean Oceanographic Consortium, led by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and the University of Southern Mississippi.
All three 60.6m by 12.4m ships are powered by a Siemens diesel-electric propulsion system that develops 1,200hp at 1,800rpm and drives two identical azimuthing twin propeller Z-drive thrusters to provide a speed of 12-knots and a cruising range of 6,600 nautical miles. JS
