ARA Almirante Irízar (Q-5)

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The ARA Almirante Irízar is a large icebreaker in service with the Argentine Navy.

1 Background
2 Service
3 Specifications
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Background

The ship is named after Vice Admiral Julián Irízar, who in 1903 (then with the rank of Lieutenant) commanded the Argentine corvette ARA Uruguay in a mission to rescue the scientific expedition of Professor Otto Nordenskiöld, which had been trapped by the Antarctic winter. The mission was a success.

She was built at the Oy Wartsila shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, as per a contract signed in 1975 between the Argentine Navy and the shipyard. Irizar was launched in February 1978 and was formally commissioned on December of that year, arriving at Argentina on March 23 1979. She replaced the elderly icebreaker ARA General San Martín from active service.

Almirante Irizar's peacetime missions include annual campaigns to resupply and rotate the personnel assigned to the Argentine Antarctic outposts, as well as conducting and supporting scientific endeavors in Antarctica. She has also conducted several passenger tours to Patagonia and the Antarctic.

Almirante Irizar is homeported at the Argentine Navy's Buenos Aires Naval Anchorage (Apostadero Naval Buenos Aires) in the capital city of Buenos Aires.

[edit] Service

During the 1982 Falklands War<ref name="naming">The Falkland Islands are referred to by the ISO designation of Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Therefore the war is sometimes called Malvinas War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas)</ref> Irizar served as a troop transport and then as a hospital ship, a role for which her crew included medical personnel from the Argentine Army in addition to the naval medical staff. After the end of the war, she was used to return Argentine POWs and injured personnel back to the continent.

The ship gained fame in 2002 when she attempted to rescue the trapped supply vessel Magdalena Oldendorff. Even though Irizar failed to break the Oldendorff free, she managed to move it to a safety position and resupply the ship with food, medicine and medical personnel until the ice melted and Oldendorff could return to open sea.