The nation’s fifth and largest ocean research vessel, Legend, was yesterday inaugurated at Kaohsiung’s Banana Pier (香蕉碼頭) by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The 2,629-tonne vessel has a top speed of 12 knots and can accommodate 19 crew members and 24 researchers for 30 days at sea, the ministry said.
The vessel is equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle and a giant piston coring system, among other equipment, it added.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Legend is tasked with collecting information about oceanic geography, sampling marine sediment and exploring energy sources in the waters surrounding the nation, the ministry said.
The vessel is docked at Kaohsiung Wharf (高雄港) and is expected to embark on its first official mission in September, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said.
The ministry has not yet decided on its first scientific project, but is seeking to collaborate with neighboring nations for research topics, Chen added.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
The ship has three female crew members, including its captain, Huang Chiu-hsing (黃久倖), 37, who graduated from National Taiwan Ocean University and has worked in the industry for a decade.
“It is a pleasure to serve as the nation’s first female captain of an ocean research vessel,” Huang said, adding that her most challenging task would be to familiarize herself with the ship’s twin azimuth thruster propulsion system.
Asked if it would be stressful to manage male crew members, Huang said it is not a problem for her.
The vessel was built by Triyards Marine Services, a Singaporean company, at its Vietnamese shipyard at a cost of NT$880 million (US$29.37 million at the current exchange rate). It arrived at Tainan’s Anping Port (安平港) on Jan. 18, although it was originally scheduled to arrive in October last year, Taiwan Oceanic Research Institute director Wang Chau-chang (王兆璋) said.
The delay was due to a financial crisis at the shipbuilder, which was exposed in June last year, he said.
The vessel’s ownership was transferred from the shipbuilder to the institute on March 31, and the administrative paperwork was finished on Friday last week, he said.
While most of the ship’s devices were purchased from foreign manufacturers, it has two ocean-bottom seismometers jointly developed by the institute and National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Undersea Technology, Wang said.
The university’s institute, which is committed to developing underwater devices, is working to build a deep-diving crewed submersible in five years, its director, Chen Hsin-hung (陳信宏), said, but added that some technical difficulties still need to be overcome.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique