ARA ''Bahía Paraíso'' was an

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; ). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Argentine Army, Army and the Argentine ...

auxiliary ship that sank in 1989, from Palmer Station at

Arthur Harbor Arthur Harbour () is a small harbour entered between Bonaparte Point and Amsler Island on the south-west coast of Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. History Arthur Harbour was roughly charted by the French Antarctic Expediti ...

, Antarctica, resulting in a

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

Construction and design

''Bahía Paraíso'' was ordered by the

on 27 February 1979 as a supply ship for use in

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 ...

waters. The ship was launched from the Argentine shipyard '' Astilleros Príncipe y Menghi SA'' on 3 July 1980, entering service on 3 December 1981, with the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

Q 6. ''Bahía Paraíso'' was long overall and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a beam of and a draught of . The ship had an icebreaking hull.

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was full load. Two

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 ...

s rated at a total of drove two controllable pitch propellers, giving a speed of . The ship's holds had a capacity of dry cargo, with an additional refrigerated storage, together with 1200 tons of cargo fuel. A flight deck and hangar for two helicopters was fitted. The ship had a crew of 124, and could carry 84 civilian passengers, who could be replaced by 252 troops.

Operational history

The ship operated as a naval auxiliary vessel from 1981 to 1986 and served in the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

as a troop transport as well as a hospital ship. It was involved in transporting troops to Leith Harbour prior to the

Invasion of South Georgia The invasion of South Georgia, also known as the Battle of Grytviken or Operation Georgias, took place on 3 April 1982, when Argentine Navy forces seized control of the east coast of South Georgia after overpowering a small group of Royal Marin ...

. After the war it reverted as an Antarctic supply ship for the Navy with occasional tourists on board. It was on a resupply trip with tourists to Antarctica on January 28, 1989 when it struck rock and sank off

Anvers Island Anvers Island or Antwerp Island or Antwerpen Island or Isla Amberes is a high, mountainous island long, the largest in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It was discovered by John Biscoe in 1832 and named in 1898 by the Belgian Antarctic Expe ...

. Passengers and crew were rescued by the

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation ...

oceanographic research vessel ''Las Palmas'' and the

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy () is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense (Chile), Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Ori ...

tug Cruz de Forward. The resultant oil spill of about 200,000 gallons of diesel and jet fuel constitutes the largest oil spill in Antartica. Chilean Coast Guard Tender Yelcho arrived February 6 to begin clean up operations.

Construction and design

Operational history

See also

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading