Argentine Navy Rescues Chilean Supply Vessel off Antarctica

 

Last week, the Argentine Navy carried out a challenging rescue tow for a Chilean supply vessel that had lost power off Livingston Island, north of the Antarctic Peninsula. 

On March 13, the newly-established Maritime Rescue Coordination Center at Argentina's base on Dundee Island received a distress call from the Chilean supply vessel Betanzos, operated by logistics company DAP. The Betanzos had lost propulsion and gone adrift north of Livingston Island, in the notoriously rough Drake Passage. The Argentine Navy dispatched the icebreaker ARA Bahia Agradable to assist, and the Argentine vessel was on scene by the early hours of the next morning. 

Courtesy Argentine Navy

In difficult surface conditions, the Agradable approached Betanzos and rigged a tow. Over the course of 24 hours, Agradable towed the smaller vessel for 130 nautical miles, passing icebergs in low visibility conditions.

Betanzos was delivered safely to a sheltered anchorage in Discovery Bay, Greenwich Island; her 19 passengers were transferred to the Chilean base on King George Island, 30 nautical miles to the east, for a repatriation flight.

Agradable resumed her seasonal Antarctic patrol, part of Argentina's contribution to regional SAR duties and Antarctic base support.