MV ''American Tern'' (T-AK-4729) is a
container ship
A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...
managed by APL Maritime. Formerly the
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
n-flagged ''Kariba'', the vessel was renamed ''American Tern'' under the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
flag in 2002. Since then, the ''American Tern'' has been chartered by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...
. She was contracted through 2010 to make resupply voyages to
McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...
in
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
(
Operation Deep Freeze
Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There w ...
) and
Thule Air Base
Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north o ...
in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
(Operation Pacer Goose).
The vessel is named after the
tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...
, a type of bird that makes annual migrations from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
File:MV American Tern at McMurdo Sound.jpg, ''American Tern'' unloading containers at McMurdo Station
File:Operation Deep Freeze 2006, MV American Tern, Krasin 200601.jpg, ''American Tern'' being led into McMurdo Station, Antarctica, by the Russian icebreaker ''Krasin'' during Operation Deepfreeze, 2006
File:American tern and Russian icebreakers.jpg, ''American Tern'' and Russian icebreakers
References
http://www.cargo-vessels-international.at/MV_AMERICAN_TERN_IMO8908088.pdf
External links
1989 ships
Container ships of the United States Navy
Ships built in Rostock
{{US-mil-ship-stub