© APA/AFP/ANDY BUCHANAN / ANDY BUCHANAN
March 22nd is the R/V Petrel overturned in dry dock. The incident in Edinburgh, Scotland, injured 35 people and required 23 hospital treatment. It has been since the accident research vessel on the side in the dock, at an angle of about 45 degrees.
In the past few days, the Petrel has been erected again. As the BBC reported, the dry dock was probably flooded. The ship floating in this way was then repositioned by 2 tugboats.
How the 76 meter long and 15 meter wide ship could tip over is currently being investigated by the US Navy and British authorities. It is believed that strong winds loosened the ship from the supports and it therefore overturned.
Schiff was owned by Microsoft founder Paul Allen
The owner of the R/V Petrel is the US Navy. She has the ship from the estate of the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen purchased for $12.4 million. He in turn bought the ship in 2016. He used it to find Japanese and US warships sunk in the Pacific Battles of World War II. The ship continued to carry out its mission after Allen’s death in 2018: from 2017 to 2019, 22 ships were discovered on the seabed.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Petrel ended up permanently in dock and was eventually sold to the US Navy in October 2022. What exactly the Navy intends to do with it is not yet known. Launched in 2002, the ship was originally designed to Work on pipelines and submarine cables to do. Allen converted it for wreck search and equipped it with a diving drone and a diving robot, among other things. The Petrel is said to have been able Shipwrecks at depths of up to 6,000 meters track down.
It is conceivable that the US Navy will use the Petrel to inspect pipelines and deep-sea cables for damage or tampering. The manipulation and sabotage of undersea infrastructure becomes an increasing threat. Russia and China have their own ships for this. The US will get a new nuclear submarine for such activities as Subsea and Seabed Warfare be designated.
