''Xue Long'' (, ) is a Chinese

icebreaking An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

. Built in 1993 at

Kherson Shipyard The Kherson Shipyard () is a joint stock company located in Kherson, Ukraine, at the mouth of the Dnieper River. The shipyard specializes in building merchant ships to include dry cargo ships, tankers, ice-breakers, container-ships, drilling vesse ...

in Ukraine, she was converted from an Arctic cargo ship to a polar research and re-supply vessel by

Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). It produces civilian and military ships. Hudong–Zhonghua claims to be the "Cradle of Chinese Frigates and Landing Ships" for its work for the Peop ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

by the mid-1990s. The vessel was extensively upgraded in 2007 and 2013. Until 2019, ''Xue Long'' was the only Chinese icebreaking research ship in service. A second Chinese polar icebreaker named , slightly smaller but more capable, entered service in July 2019.

Description

Built at the

in Ukraine, ''Xue Long'' started her life as a Project 10621 icebreaking cargo and supply ship designed for the Russian Arctic.Alltför svåra isförhållanden för de tillgängliga fartygen
. Sjöfarts Tidningen, 4 January 2014. List of ships designed by "Chernomorsudoproject" S.A. since 1955
Chernomorsudoproject S.A. She was purchased by the People's Republic of China when the vessel's technical readiness level was 83% and completed as a polar research and re-supply vessel in 1994. Note that the author is mistaken about the name: "Snow Dragon" is the ''translation'' of "Xue Long", not a former name of the ship. In 2007, the ship was extensively upgraded to extend her service life by another 15 years. During the mid-life refit, the ship received a new superstructure that considerably changed her external appearance. She received another technical update in 2013 which included replacing her main engine.New icebreaker to improve China's polar research
. The 4th Media, 4 November 2011. ''Xue Long'' is long and has a beam of . When loaded to a draft of , she has a displacement of 21,025 tons. The ship was originally powered by a single

8-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...

BMZ 8DKRN60/195 low-speed, two-stroke

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

, a licence-built version of B&W 8L60MC, producing . During the 2013 refit, the main engine was replaced with an equally powered

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...

6RT-flex60C diesel engine. The main engine is coupled to a ducted controllable-pitch propeller.La Chine s'intéresse à l'Arctique et à l'Antarctique — Textes Gilles Barnichon & Françoise Massard / Photos Agence Adhemar
. In open water, ''Xue Long'' can achieve a maximum speed of while in ice she can proceed at . Originally designed for the Soviet Arctic

ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have ...

ULA, the

China Classification Society The China Classification Society (CCS) is a state-owned enterprise directly under the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China, in charge of the classification of ships and offshore installations. It was originally established in 1 ...

(CCS) has assigned her ice class B1*. ''Xue Long'' has a crew of 34 and can accommodate 128 researchers or passengers. She has of laboratory space. In addition to a

Kamov Ka-32 JSC Kamov () is a rotorcraft manufacturing company based in Lyubertsy, Russia. The Kamov Design Bureau ( design office prefix Ka) has more recently specialised in compact helicopters with coaxial rotors, suitable for naval service and high-spee ...

"Xueying" (Snow Eagle) helicopter, the ship also carries an Arctic-class ARV

autonomous underwater vehicle An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring continuous input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification tha ...

on a regular basis.

Career

Visit to Canada

''Xue Long'' unexpectedly arrived in 1999 at the small

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

coastal village of

Tuktoyaktuk Tuktoyaktuk ( ; , ) is an Inuvialuit hamlet near the Mackenzie River delta in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway.Montgomery, Marc"Canada now officially connected ...

, on the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

. The inability of the Canadian authorities to track the vessel stirred enough controversy that the incident is still being cited as evidence of Canadian unpreparedness to defend its northern sovereignty.

Arctic expeditions

The ship undertook a second Arctic expedition from 15 July to 26 September 2003. More recently the ship had been used in connection with China's efforts to maintain a scientific presence in the

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

. Although used primarily to support China's annual expeditions to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, ''Xue Long'' has made four voyages to the Arctic, via the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

in 1999, 2003, 2008 and summer 2010. During her 82-day voyage in July–September 2010, the ice-strengthened research ship was able to reach a new 'highest North' record (for China), reaching 88.22 degrees North latitude, at 177.20 degrees West longitude. At that point a team of scientists boarded the ship's Ka-32 helicopter and flew to the North Pole on 20 August 2010. The ship returned to Shanghai on 20 September 2010. At China's annual Polar conference held in Shanghai in September 2011, the director of the Antarctic & Arctic agency said that ''Xue Long'' would undertake her fifth voyage to the Arctic in July 2012.

Trans-Arctic voyage, 2012

In the summer of 2012 ''Xue Long'' became the first ship from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

to cross the Arctic Ocean to Europe amid the record ice melt. The ''Xue Long'' left port on 2 July, sailed through the

then joined a westbound convoy on the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

to the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

, before arriving in Iceland in mid-August. It departed Iceland on 20 August, sailed past

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

—without stopping to visit China's Arctic Yellow River Station—and made a run at the North Pole, falling short. It then sailed a high-latitude line east, back to the Bering Strait, returning to her base in Shanghai on 27 September 2012, completing its fifth Arctic voyage. "Unfortunately we didn't reach the North Pole because ''Xue Long''s icebreaking capability isn't strong enough," said one of the ship's officers. The highest latitude reached on that voyage was 87°37' N.

Arctic circumnavigation, 2017

In 2017, ''Xue Long'' circumnavigated the Arctic, transiting both

and

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

Antarctic operations

''Xue Long'' provides annual resupply for China's Antarctic Zhongshan Station at

Prydz Bay Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glac ...

. In January 2019, Xue Long hit an iceberg during sea fog whiteout in the

Amundsen Sea The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It lies between Cape Flying Fish (the northwestern tip of Thurston Island) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish ...

and sustained damage when about 250 tonnes of ice fell on the ship.

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

had video of sailors removing large blocks of ice, and China's Ministry of Natural Resources reported damage to the foredeck and mast.Chinese icebreaker damaged after hitting iceberg in Antarctica

ABC News Online ABC News, also known as ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The service covers both local and world affairs, broadcasting both nationally as ABC News, and across the Asia- ...

, 23 January 2019

Rescue operation of ''Akademik Shokalskiy'', 2013–2014

In December, 2013, ''Xue Long'' embarked on her first circumpolar voyage in Antarctic. It was heading eastward from Zhongshan Station when it was dispatched along with several other icebreakers by the

Australian Maritime Safety Authority Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is an Australian statutory authority responsible for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's International Maritime Organization, international ...

to free ''

Akademik Shokalskiy MV ''Akademik Shokalskiy'' () is an ice-strengthened ship, built in Finland in 1982 and originally used for oceanographic research. In 1998 she was fully refurbished to serve as a research ship for Arctic and Antarctic work; she is used also for ...

'' which had become trapped in ice off the East Antarctic coast. By 27 December, ''Xue Long'', closed to within 6 nautical miles of the ''Akademik Shokalskiy'', but had stalled in its efforts to complete the rendezvous due to encountering thick ice. ''Xue Long'' withdrew to open water to rendezvous with and provide air support for ''

Aurora Australis An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

'' and ''

L'Astrolabe ''Astrolabe'' was originally a horse-transport barge converted into an exploration ship of the French Navy. Originally named ''Coquille'', she is famous for her travels with Jules Dumont d'Urville. The name derives from an early navigational ins ...

''. On 30 December, after all three icebreakers had failed to penetrate the icepack, a decision was reached to use ''Xue Long''s helicopter to evacuate the 52 passengers off ''Akademik Shokalskiy'', but the flights were grounded due to continuing extreme weather conditions. Originally, the plan was to have the helicopter ferry the passengers to a barge with which they would sail to the ''Aurora Australis'', but the ''Xue Long'' became stuck in sea ice itself, unable to launch the barge. On 2 January 2014 beginning at 18:15 Australian time (07:15 GMT) the Ka-32 helicopter from the ''Xue Long'' conducted five flights airlifting groups of 12 people from the ice next to the ''Akademik Shokalskiy'' and landing them on an ice floe near the ''Aurora Australis''. Two additional flights were made to collect their equipment and baggage. The passengers were transferred to a small boat which took them to the Australian ship ''Aurora Australis'' as the Ka-32 helicopter is too heavy for the helipad of the Australian icebreaker. The airlift was completed within four hours. By 3 January, the ''Xue Long'' remained trapped in ice itself although it was in no immediate danger and her captain declined assistance from the still-nearby ''Aurora Australis''. On 4 January 2014, the American icebreaker ''

Polar Star A pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the axis of rotation of an astronomical body; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles. On Earth, a pole star would lie directly overhead when ...

'' was dispatched to assist ''Akademik Shokalskiy'' and ''Xue Long'' at request of the Chinese and Australian authorities. However, on 7 January 2014, a change of wind direction which loosened the icepack around the ships enabled ''Xue Long'' and ''Akademik Shokalskiy'' to work their own way free before the American ship arrived.

Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Following the ''Akademik Shokalskiy'' rescue operation in the Antarctic, ''Xue Long'' docked in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. On 8 March 2014,

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned de ...

from

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

disappeared. Satellite imagery from the Australian authorities led the search for the aircraft to an area in the Indian Ocean, approximately south-west of Perth. Due to its proximity to this area, ''Xue Long'' was dispatched to join the multinational search operation.

References

External links

Xue Long
(fro

Web site)
M/V Xuelong
(brief English-language summary from the

Polar Research Institute of China The Polar Research Institute of China () is the main research institute of the People's Republic of China for the study of Earth's polar regions. It is based in Shanghai, China. The Institute manages six polar research stations (five in Antarcti ...

site) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Xue Long Icebreakers of China Arctic research Research vessels of China 1993 ships Vessels involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370