Australia's new icebreaker is just a shell of its future self but shipbuilders are claiming a construction milestone as the massive ship takes to water for the first time.
The billion-dollar-plus Research Vessel Nuyina is only a hull at the Romanian shipyard where it is being built and is not due to reach its home port of Hobart until 2020, with trips to Antarctic waters beginning thereafter.
Enough water to fill 50 Olympic swimming pools was pumped into the dock to float RV Nuyina, which will weigh 16,000 tonnes and rise to 10 decks when complete.
"The team have put in a tremendous effort to meet the deadline for the floating of the Nuyina and I commend them for their hard work and dedication," Mark Irwin said on behalf of the building and maintenance contractor, Serco Australia, on Monday.
The new ship will be more than one-and-a-half times longer than Australia's existing icebreaker, Aurora Australis, and about three times heavier.
"We have worked with scientists and specialists in the Australian Antarctic Division to consider what the future for scientific research in the Southern Ocean will look like, and how this vessel can best meet the research and operational needs required over its 30-year lifetime," Mr Irwin said.
"The result is a vessel that offers unrivalled scientific, logistics and icebreaking capabilities.
"The Nuyina will usher in a new era of Australian-Antarctic leadership and scientific endeavour."
More than 800 suggestions were received from schoolchildren across Australia on a name for the new icebreaker.
Nuyina was chosen, after the Tasmanian Aboriginal word for the Southern Lights.
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