MV Esperanza

MV Esperanza is a ship operated by Greenpeace. Previous to being a Greenpeace ship it was a fire-fighter owned by the Soviet Navy, built in 1984. It was recommissioned in 2000 and launched in 2002 after being named Esperanza ('hope' in Spanish) by visitors to the Greenpeace website. It had undergone a major refit by Greenpeace to make it more environmentally friendly. A new helicopter deck and boat cranes were also added.

Esperanza on the River Thames off Gravesend, England, August 2010.
History
Soviet Union
Name: Vikhr-4[1]
Operator: Northern Fleet
Builder: Stocznia Północna, Gdansk, Poland
Yard number: B98/04[2]
Launched: 1984
Renamed: 1998
Fate: Sold to Greenpeace
Netherlands
Name: MV Esperanza
Owner: Stichting Phoenix Maastricht
Operator: Greenpeace
Port of registry: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Acquired: 2000
Recommissioned: 2002
Homeport: Amsterdam
Identification:
Status: in active service
Notes: Former name: Echo Fighter
General characteristics
Class and type: Built as typ B98
Type: Expedition/research ship
Tonnage: 2,076 GT
Length: 72.3 m (237 ft 2 in) o/a
Beam: 14.3 m (46 ft 11 in)
Draft: 4.7 m (15 ft 5 in)
Ice class: 1A
Propulsion: 2 × 2,938 bhp (2,191 kW) Sulzer V12 engines
Speed: 18.8 kts
Range: 19,000 nautical miles
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 2 large and 3 small rigid hull inflatables (RHIB)
Crew: 33
Aviation facilities: Helipad

The ship has a heavy ice class,[3] giving it the ability to work in polar regions. It has a top speed of 16 knots and an overall length of 72.3 m. This makes it the fastest and largest of the Greenpeace fleet.[3]

It has been involved in many campaigns, starting with the logging 'save or delete' campaign and currently in Cape Town.

Video equipment aboard

Greenpeace added live webcams to the Esperanza in 2006. The webcams are positioned on the bow of the ship, the mast and the bridge, they send a new image every minute to their Defending Our Oceans website and provide an archive of action.

In April 2006, the Esperanza was equipped with state-of-the-art underwater monitoring equipment, including a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) which can shoot video down to a depth of 300 m, and a drop camera capable of reaching depths of 1,000 m.

Operational career

The Esperanza participated in fishery patrols with Kiribati and the Marshall Islands in 2006.[4]

See also

References
  1. Shipspotting.com. "VIKHR-4 - IMO 8404599 - Callsign PD6464 - ShipSpotting.com - Ship Photos and Ship Tracker". www.shipspotting.com.
  2. "Esperanza Arrives in Singapore for Maintenance Period".
  3. "The Esperanza". Greenpeace International.
  4. "PLUNDERING THE PACIFIC: Summary of findings of Greenpeace joint enforcement exercises with FSM and Kiribati, September 4th – October 23rd 2006". Greenpeace. Archived from the original on 2020-04-26. Greenpeace and fisheries authorities from Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati have, over the course of seven weeks, undertaken joint surveillance and enforcement exercises in the Pacific. The work included patrolling the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of both nations, and boarding and inspecting fishing vessels found in these areas. The collaboration has exposed some key findings about the nature of illegal, unreported and unregulated IUU fishing in the Pacific.
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