Ice-breaker for US-NZ relations
A United States naval ship has docked in Wellington for the first time since the ANZUS breakup over New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation in the mid-1980s.
The US Coast Guard ‘‘Cutter’’ Polar Star docked early yesterday morning, making it the first time those on board had been on land in 42 days.
The ship is returning from cutting through 26 kilometres of ice to form a path to McMurdo Sound, cutting ice for 12 hours a day so cargo and fuel ships can reach New Zealand’s Scott Base and the United States-run McMurdo Station.
The annual resupply, also called Operation Deep Freeze, allows for year-round scientific activities in Antarctica and is critical to the operation of Scott Base and McMurdo Station.
In turn, McMurdo Station serves as a logistics hub for various field camps and for Amundsen-Scott South Pole Stations (1300km inland from McMurdo).
Commanding officer Gregory Stanclik said the ship was capable of cutting through ice 2 to 3 metres thick, thanks to its thick, pointed metal hull, 75,000 horse power engines, and two metal ‘‘screws’’ that could grind ice into slush.
‘‘We try and minimise that because it damages the blades, but they are capable of churning the ice like a blender and they’ll spit the ice out the back.’’
Stanclik said the amount of ice to the Antarctic port was nearly identical to last year, and a stark contrast to the 112km the crew cut through three years ago.
Operations officer Karen Kutkieurcz said: ‘‘If we had a Richter scale in here it would go crazy – the ship shakes and shudders because of the force of the ice and the pressure of the ice.’’
Eighty per cent of the supplies that arrive every year at McMurdo and Scott Base arrive thanks to the path cleared by Polar Star.
It often escorts ships that, at their closest, are following 8 to 15 metres behind the ship, so even travelling at 5 knots if the ship were to slow down it could get hit from behind, Stanclik said.
‘‘All the ice blew out because of a wind storm this year ... it minimised the risk to us when the container ship was going to leave because it could just turn around ... but it was a little disappointing in that we did about four weeks of very hard work to prepare the channel and then it all disappeared.’’
Stanclik said researchers and staff at the bases were always excited to receive fresh oranges and eggs off the cargo ships, making the Sunday brunch following their arrival a much talked about affair.
Built in 1976, the Polar Star is the only ship of its kind left in the US naval fleet after another icecutter was decommissioned in 2010, though US Government funding was recently approved for a second cutter.
Two Royal New Zealand naval lieutenants were aboard the ship this year, observing the techniques used to break into the channel and the damage of the vibrations and ice on the ship.
They came aboard in preparation for the Royal New Zealand Navy’s ship Aotearoa, currently under construction in South Korea, to make the trip behind Polar Star in the future.
It is the third time Polar Star has docked in New Zealand, previously docking in Lyttelton.
It’s one of only two US warships to travel here in the past 36 years.
USS Sampson was the first, arriving in November 2016 to commemorate the New Zealand Navy’s 75th birthday celebrations. It instead diverted to Kaiko¯ ura to provide relief after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
US Ambassador Scott Brown said the possibility of any future US ship visits to New Zealand would continue to be considered ‘‘on a case-by-case basis’’ by the two countries.