Engine Troubles Cut Polarstern’s Mission Short

The German research icebreaker Polarstern will end its current expedition to the Antarctic earlier than planned due to hydraulic problems in the port engine, Alfred Wegener Institute informed.

The ship is scheduled to return to Bremerhaven for repairs at the Lloyd dock facilities in mid-March.

A planned subsequent research voyage in the Amundsen Sea will be cancelled as well.

“Because of a malfunction in one of the variable-pitch propellers, the ship is now extremely difficult to manoeuvre in ice. As such, the AWI decided to break off the current Antarctic mission,” explains Dr Rainer Knust, Scientific Coordinator of RV Polarstern at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).

Polarstern is currently in Atka Bay, where the crew is unloading fuel, provisions and replacement parts for Germany’s Neumayer III research station. If weather conditions remain stable, this should be completed by Monday of next week, according to the Institute.

Afterwards, the research vessel is planned to make its way to Cape Town, South Africa before embarking on the five-week return voyage to Bremerhaven.

“Given how technically complex the necessary repairs on the drive system are, having them carried out at more readily accessible ports in South America or southern Africa at such short notice wasn’t a viable option,” added Knust.

The 118-metre-long research icebreaker Polarstern has been an active part of German polar research for more than 32 years, during which it has spent an average of 310 days per year at sea.

The Institute said that this was the first time that a research season in the Antarctic had had to be prematurely ended due to technical problems.

“This shows that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s previously made decision to commission a successor ship to the Polarstern was both sound and necessary,” Knust went on to say.