Thick
ice thwarts efforts to rescue ship trapped in Antarctic
Chinese icebreaker unable
to reach Russian vessel stranded in packed ice since Tuesday; Australian ship
to reach area on Sunday
A group of tourists
and scientists remain trapped aboard a ship off the coast of Antarctica on
Saturday after watching a rescue vessel appear on the horizon only to grind to
a halt in heavy ice.
The MV Akademik
Shokalskiy has been stuck in a desolate stretch of sea ice since a heavy
blizzard on Christmas Eve.
The passengers and
20-odd Russian crew members now remain in an icy limbo.
They are hoping a
third rescue vessel, Aurora Australis, an Australian resupply ship, will be
able to break through the ice. It is due to arrive on Sunday.
“We all know that
there’s a possibility of this becoming quite a protracted sit and wait,” a
passenger,
06 Jul 2013
The 74 passengers,
including researchers and tourists from Australia, New Zealand and Britain,
thought their ordeal had finally ended on Saturday as a Chinese icebreaker, the
Snow Dragon, came within sight and prepared to lead them to open water.
“There’s a lot of
relief amongst the team, and there’s lots of happy faces,” an Australian
scientist, Chris Turney, said on Friday in a video posted online.
But the Snow Dragon
came no further. It stopped about six nautical miles away as the ice proved
thick and its master opted — wisely, according to maritime experts - to ensure
the safety of his own crew. A nearby French vessel also failed to break through
the ice.
The Russian ship
remains trapped some 100 nautical miles east of a French Antarctic station,
Dumont D’Urville, and about 1,500 nautical miles south of the Australian island
state of Tasmania. The vessel was two weeks into a four week voyage to follow
the path a century ago of the great explorer, Sir Douglas Mawson, whose own
expedition across Antarctica went perilously close to disaster.
Professor Turney, who
helped organise the voyage, said in a tweet that “everyone [is] well”.
He said the vessel
initially became trapped in the ice pack off Antarctica just two nautical miles
from open water after strong winds pushed blocks of ice into the ship’s path.
“We just wanted to let
all our family and friends know there is no risk to the vessel and everyone is
well,” he said in a blog post.
The Shokalskiy is
stocked with enough fresh food for another two weeks and some dehydrated food.
The crew has been running the engines for part of each day to prevent the
boat’s workings being damaged by the ice.
Authorities say the
passengers are not in danger and could be winched to safety by helicopter if
necessary.
The expedition is
repeating many of the original experiments conducted by Mawson, an Australian
explorer, and are seeking to assess the changes in the environment over the
past century. Mawson nearly died while traversing part of the continent and
lost his two fellow team members before dragging a sledge 100 miles to safety;
he famously survived by eating some of the dogs he brought to assist with
transport
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