Journal of the Royal Naval Scientific Service. Volume 29, Number 6 ...

285
Vickers Oceanics take over most advanced Support Ship
Vickers Oceanics Ltd. of Barrow-in-Furness,
have taken delivery of their third submersible
support and oceanographic survey ship, the
Vickers Viking. The vessel has been delivered
after conversion by Manchester Drydocks Ltd.
(formerly Manchester Marine), with whom
Vickers Oceanics have now placed a further
contract for the conversion of a fourth ship
for operation in coastal waters.
Built by A. G. Weser at their Bremerhaven
shipyard in 1965, Vickers Viking was originally
the Hamburg and was later re-named Dortmund.
She was purchased by Vickers Oceanics
Ltd. in February and is 235 feet long, has a
beam of 44^ feet and a draught of 18 feet. She
displaces 3,110 tonnes. A Deutz V-12 diesel
engine developing 3,000 b.h.p. gives her a speed
of 15 knots.
The ship's facilities have been radically
changed so as to provide additional accommodation
and the workshop, hangar and other
facilities essential to the efficient operation of
the Pisces and Perry type submersibles operated
by Vickers Oceanics. She is equipped with
a built-in underdeck decompression chamber
with mating facilities for diver lock-out submersibles,
which will enable it to undertake—
in conjunction with Oceaneering International
Ltd.—diving operations down to 1,000 ft. A
second chamber is to be fitted later. The ship
also has four-point mooring for maximum precision
in positioning during operations.
With Vickers Viking, Vickers Oceanics will
provide an entirely new service to the offshore
industry. Having diver lock-out submarines,
divers provided by Oceaneering International
in a joint venture, will be taken to the bottom
by submersible; be able to swim free, and, after
the completion of their work, be able to reenter
the submersible and return to the mother
ship for transfer to a decompression chamber.
Alternatively a diver can be held under saturation
conditions for the next dive.
The Vickers-developed submersible handling
system fitted in the Viking, has an increased
over-stern lifting capacity of 50 tonnes. As with
the other ships in the VOL fleet, ship /sea
motions are automatically compensated for by
a special winch, and submersibles can be
launched routinely in conditions up to sea
state 6.
Vickers Viking has accommodation for 46
people, including the ship's company and submersible
and diving personnel, plus representatives
of the charterers if they are required to
be aboard. The ship's crew totals nine officers
and 25 men, and the vessel is commanded by
Captain Len Edwards, whose home is near
Cardiff, and who has been in command of
Vickers Venturer, the company's first support
ship, and has acted as relief captain aboard
Vickers Voyager, their first deep sea vessel.
Equipped so as to be able to operate for
one month without shore support, Vickers
Viking will follow Vickers Voyager into deep
sea service. She will commission at her home
port of Barrow-in-Furness before sailing to
Leith for the opening of Vickers Oceanics'
new base there and then taking up duties in
the North Sea.
$