RV Cirolana
RV Cirolana during the early 1990s | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | RV Cirolana |
| Owner | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) |
| Ordered | late 1967 |
| Builder | Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow |
| Yard number | 454 |
| Launched | 17/09/1969 |
| Commissioned | July 1970 |
| Decommissioned | c. 2003 |
| Homeport | |
| Identification | IMO number: 6928711 |
| Fate | Broken Up 11 December 2003 at Klaipeda |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 1,919 t (1,889 long tons) |
| Length | 72.54 m (238 ft 0 in) |
| Beam | 14.02 m (46 ft 0 in) |
| Draught | 5.04 m (16 ft 6 in) |
| Speed | 16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h) |
| Endurance | 10,000 mi (16,000 km) at 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h) |
| Complement | Up to 48 crew and scientists |
RV Cirolana was a fisheries research vessel used by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and originally built for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom). She was initially intended to replace the RV Ernest Holt operating in arctic waters around Bear Island (Norway) and Iceland, but following the Cod Wars spent most of her working life conducting fisheries surveys in the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel. For the first part of her career RV Cirolana was based in the fishing port of Grimsby, but after bridge and channel dredging work improved the depth, it was deemed acceptable to bring her to Lowestoft.
Her engines etc were housed in a sound and vibration proof enclosure which was supported on many pneumatic dampers. She had main electric propulsion motors which powered the screws. All ancillaries were also damped using anti-vibration mountings. All this damping was aimed at reducing noise/vibrations through the superstructure to enable the ability to conduct acoustic surveys of fish populations .
She was built in 1969, by Ferguson Shipbuilders, and delivered in 1970. She was placed out of service in approximately 2003 and replaced by RV Cefas Endeavour.
On Friday 24 June 1977 RV Cirolana participated in the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead in the Solent