The MV ''Oceanic Viking'' was an armed patrol vessel of the

Australian Customs Service The Australian Customs Service was an Australian Government agency responsible for Australian border protection, duties and taxes between 1985 and 2009. The Service was first under the portfolio of the Department of Industry, Technology and Comme ...

. Originally built in 1996 as the offshore supply vessel ''Viking Lady'' for Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik Shipping AS, the ship was converted into a cable layer in 2000 and renamed ''Oceanic Viking''. The ship was chartered to the Australian Customs Service through P&O Marine Services from 2004 to 2010. In 2011, it was purchased by A&P Tyne, Isle of Man, and renamed ''European Supporter''.

Construction

The ship was built in 1996 for Norwegian shipping company Eidesvik Shipping AS as an offshore supply vessel and named ''Viking Lady''. The vessel is long and has a gross tonnage of over 9,000.

Operational history

Eidesvik Shipping

In 2000, the ship was converted to a cable layer, renamed ''Oceanic Viking'', and used for laying

optic fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means ...

cables between Europe and North America.

Australian Customs Service

In 2004, ''Oceanic Viking'' was converted to an armed patrol vessel and bareboat chartered to P&O Maritime Services, who operated the ship for the Australian Customs Marine Unit. The vessel was primarily assigned to patrols of Australia's southern offshore territories for illegal fishers, particularly those seeking

Patagonian toothfish The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most ...

, but was also deployed on other border protection and patrol operations around Australia. While chartered, ''Oceanic Viking'' was

flagged Flagging may refer to: *Running out of time on a chess clock *Flagging (tape) Flagging is a coloured non-adhesive tape used in marking objects. It is commonly made of PVC or vinyl, though wood fibre cellulose-based biodegradable flagging also ex ...

as an Australian vessel, and was operated by a 60-strong crew, including Customs and Fisheries personnel, along with civilians. ''Oceanic Viking'' was fitted with two .50 calibre machine guns, making it the first Australian-flagged merchant vessel to be armed in peacetime. In early September 2005, ''Oceanic Viking'' intercepted a Cambodian vessel found poaching in the Southern Ocean. Later that month, the ship apprehended three Indonesian vessels illegally fishing near the Northern Territory's

Wessel Islands The Wessel Islands is a group of uninhabited islands in the Northern Territory of Australia. They extend in a more or less straight line from Buckingham Bay and the Napier Peninsula of Arnhem Land, and Elcho Island, to the northeast. Marchinbar ...

; one of the vessels failed to stop when ordered, and one of ''Oceanic Viking''s machine guns was used to fire

warning shot In military and police contexts, a warning shot is an intentionally harmless artillery shot or gunshot with intent to enact direct compliance and order to a hostile perpetrator or enemy forces. It is recognized as signalling intended confronta ...

s. In October 2006, ''Oceanic Viking'' traveled in eight days to answer a distress call from the Kerguelen Islands. In December 2007, the Australian Government tasked the ''Oceanic Viking'' with monitoring Japanese-flagged vessels involved in

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

. During the seven-week surveillance exercise, personnel aboard ''Oceanic Viking'' filmed Japanese whalers and their activities to gather evidence for possible legal action. The machine guns were secured below deck during the surveillance mission. During the deployment, two

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation activism organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States. Sea Shepherd employs direct action tactics to achieve its g ...

protesters who boarded the whaling ship '' Yūshin Maru No. 2'' were transferred to ''Oceanic Viking'' after being detained by the Japanese. The Australian government regarded the operation as successful, but it was criticised by some political commentators, such as Dennis Shanahan, as not having been effective in countering Japanese whaling, and potentially harming Japanese-Australian relations. In October 2009, ''Oceanic Viking'' was involved in an operation to apprehend 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers and move them to an Australia-funded immigration detention centre on the Indonesian island of

Bintan Bintan Regency (formerly Riau Islands Regency; id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Riau) is an administrative area in the Riau Islands Province of Indonesia. Bintan Regency includes all of Bintan Island (except for the city of Tanjung Pinang which is sep ...

for processing. The asylum seekers were taken to Indonesia but refused to disembark until 17 November, after a preferential processing deal was agreed upon. The 78 asylum seekers were transferred to Indonesian detention, and after a month, were determined to be refugees by the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

and resettled in several countries. While travelling back to Australia, ''Oceanic Viking'' intercepted a boat on 3 December carrying 53 suspected asylum seekers and four crew off the Ashmore Islands; the 50th asylum seeker vessel to be intercepted in Australian waters for the year 2009.

''European Supporter''

''Oceanic Viking'' was taken out of service in June 2011. It was replaced by the chartered offshore supply ship MV ''Skandi Bergen'' which was renamed ACV ''Ocean Protector''. ''Oceanic Viking'' subsequently became the UK-flagged MV ''European Supporter''. The ''European Supporter'' was fitted out at A&P Tyne, so she would be able to install power cables between wind turbines to take advantage of the rapidly expanding offshore renewables market in the UK and Europe. A 7m long abrasion resistant steel chute was installed onto the vessel’s stern, from which cables could be lowered onto the sea bed. Other work included a major overhaul of the generators, modifications to the steelwork inside the hangar accommodating the ROVs and to the switchboard, electrical repairs and refurbishment of the pumps. The European Supporter has the capacity to accommodate 5,000 tons of power cable in two static tanks, using a newly installed power cable loading arm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oceanic Viking Ships built in Norway Patrol vessels of the Marine Unit (Australian Border Force) 1996 ships Merchant ships of the Isle of Man