Eisvogel class icebreaker
Encyclopedia
The Eisvogel class icebreakers (Type 721) was a two ship class built for the German Navy
German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...
by the Hitzler Werft shipyard of Lauenburg/Elbe
Lauenburg/Elbe
Lauenburg/Elbe is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated at the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein. Lauenburg belongs to the Kreis of Herzogtum Lauenburg and had a population of 11,900 as of 2002...
.
The Eisvogel was in service for the Naval Base Command Kiel and sold to private owners after decommissioning. Since 2010 she is operated as a civil tugboat in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
.
The Eisbär was based along the German North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast. After decommissioning she was laid up in Wilhelmshaven later sold to the Netherlands for scrapping.
List of Ships
| Pennant number Pennant number In the modern Royal Navy, and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth, ships are identified by pennant numbers... |
Name | Call sign Call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations... |
Launched | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Fate/Base |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A 1401 | Eisvogel | April 28, 1960 | March 11, 1961 | March 3, 2006 | Sold to Italy | |
| A 1402 | Eisbär | June 9, 1969 | November 1, 1961 | October 30, 1997 | Scrapped |
The ships are named after the European Kingfisher
European Kingfisher
The Common Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, also known as Eurasian Kingfisher or River Kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa...
(Eisvogel) and Polar Bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
(Eisbär), both names contain the German word for ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
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External links
Further reading
- Gerhard Koop/Siegfried Breyer: Die Schiffe, Fahrzeuge und Flugzeuge der deutschen Marine von 1956 bis heute, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7637-5950-6 (GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
)