Antarctica -- October-November 2010

Punta Arenas, Chile. The hull of the supply ship seemed to be designed to give it at least some icebreaker-type capability. There were actually two such ships at this dock, both of which seemed to have icebreaker-type hulls, perhaps one moreso than the other. Was surprised to see US ships here, since I thought most of the US bases on the coast of Antarctica were on the "other" side, where they would be supplied from Australia and/or New Zealand.

There were also to Chilean naval gunboats at this dock, which I did not photograph. The gunboats had gray hulls. We later saw a coast guard vessel, which had white hull, I think these were likely navy.

My memory is that there was another dock, in a different part of town. A cruise ship (Holland American, I think) was docked there.

(21 Nov 2010)

This is the dock in Punto Arenas. Fram is on the left. A ship on the right-hand side is apparently a supply ship for US Antarctic bases. There were two such ships docked there. The both seemed to have ice-breaking capability. I don’t fully understand how the US supply system works, since (I think) most, but not all, US bases are closer to Australia than to South America. At least one of these ships listed New Orleans as its home port.