MV Sirius

The MV Sirius is a Greenpeace ship named after the star Sirius. The Sirius was built with modern specifications at the Boele shipyard in the Netherlands in 1950 as one of 7 pilot vessels. The ship, originally owned by the Royal Dutch Navy, was sold to Greenpeace during 1981 while in dry dock. The ship was refitted, repaired, and repainted. It took ten weeks to paint her. The ship's colour scheme was soon changed to a green hull and rainbow colours and a white dove of peace with an olive branch was painted on the bow. Sirius was refitted with more modern navigation systems, communication equipment, lifeboats, and rafts. The pantries were turned into outdoor engine rooms and the mess room became a storage room.

Not to be confused with MV Sirius Star.
MV Sirius berthed at Amsterdam
History
Netherlands
Name: MV Sirius
Builder: Boele Shipyard
Cost: 2.5 million euro
Laid down: 1950
Fate: Sold To Greenpeace In 1981
Greenpeace
Name: MV Sirius
Owner: Greenpeace
Operator: Greenpeace
Port of registry: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Acquired: 1981
Out of service: 1996
Identification: IMO number: 8837461
Fate: Sold for scrap, January 2018
General characteristics
Tonnage: 440 gross tonnes
Length: 46 m (151 ft)
Beam: 8.43 m (27.7 ft)
Draft: 3.01 m (9 ft 11 in)
Installed power: 650 hp (480 kW; 640 hp)
Propulsion: 1 Smit MAN 6-cylinder diesel engine
Speed: 9–12 kn (17–22 km/h)

Sirius served as the flagship of Greenpeace Netherlands through 1998, after which she was retired. Until 2018 she was docked at Amsterdam, where she serves in an educational capacity, offering shipboard tours and environmental education.

At around midnight on September 30–31, 1988, while on passage from Cabrera to Barcelona, Sirius was forced to seek shelter in Majorca during a Force 9 severe gale. After turning the vessel, the crew sighted distress flares 8 miles from Dragonera Island. Sirius set course for the flares, and a small sailing yacht was found to be sinking. One of her four British crew was missing overboard, but two young men were rescued. A fourth, skipper Ron Davies of Honor Oak, Lewisham, went down with the yacht when it sank during the rescue. Sirius continued to search for the missing men and then took the two survivors to Port D'Andratx when she was relieved by a navy patrol boat and a tug sent from Palma.[1] She was towed from Zaandam NL January 10, 2018 to Haarlem NL to be scrapped.

See also

References
  1. Greenpeace Press Statement, Saturday September 31, 1988.


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