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Specification

The Research Vessel PRINCE MADOG was a small multi-purpose ship of the stern trawler type. She was commissioned in December 1965 for the University College of North Wales, Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÒÅÆ×ÊÁÏ, at the Ramsey Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. in the Isle of Man, and was delivered to the owners in February 1968. The vessel was designed by Burness, Corlett & Partners Ltd. of Basingstoke, while T.R. Little & Co. Of Liverpool acted as owners’ consultants. While the vessel is primarily intended for use in the Irish Sea it is also capable of work along the eastern continental margin of the North Atlantic.  She was decommissioned in 2001.

Breadth (moulded)

Draft

Gross tonnage

Service Speed

Range

Endurance

7.01 m

The main propulsion unit was a Lister Blackstone ESS6M diesel engine developing 600HP at 900 RPM. This was coupled to a Liaaen controllable pitch, three bladed propellor giving the service speed of 9½ knots. For extra manoeuvrability at slow speeds, and particularly for station work, a Stone Manganese Marine 80 HP hydraulic transverse bow-thruster was fitted. Both the bow-thruster and the CP propellor were controlled from the bridge.

Main electrical supplies were from a 50 KW 220 volts DC generator, belt-driven from the main engine. In addition an auxiliary generator, driven by an air-cooled diesel engin, supplied 53 KW 220 volts DC. Two 18 KVA rotary converters provided 230 volts 50 cycles AC power for the scientific equipment.

The vessel was equipped with an Arma Brown gyro compass and automatic pilot and has a full range of radio and navigational equipment, including a Decca Navigator and Track Plotter; differential GPS satellite navigators linked to colour video plotter.

Hydraulic A/S Bratvaag, Norway provided the three low pressure hydraulic winches and the anchor windlass. In addition to the conventional 2-drum trawl winch, carrying 350 fathoms of 2" wire on each drum, there was another single drum spit-type trawl winch carrying 1000 fathoms of 1¾" wire. On the starboard side another winch carried electrical cable and hydrographic wire on two drums, one of which had electrical slip rings attached; this winch led to a Munro accumulator hydrographic davit and to an A-frame davit. At the stern a hydraulic gantry was used for operating fishing gear and bottom sampling equipment. A 2 ton SWL derrick plumbed the after working deck, and 1 ton and ½ ton SWL derricks were provided for the fibreglass workboat, lifeboat and the starboard working area respectively.

The vessel was certified by the Board of Trade for nine crew and eight scientists; when students were carried on day trips the L.S.A. (Life Saving Appliances) provided for a total of 30 persons on board.

The Electronic Office housed the permanently-fitted scientific equipment; barograph, surface wave, weather chart, precision depth recorders, ADCP and the power supplies for the acoustic sub-bottom profiler. A chart table was fitted across the after bulkhead.

The General Laboratory had bench space for five workers. It had roxann and echo sounder fitter at console, a deep-freeze cabinet, and a sink with hot and cold fresh and salt water. A 20-paired distribution box, fitted to the after bulkhead, made direct contact with the slip rings fitted to one drum of the hydrographic winch.

The Wet Laboratory had racks fitted for water-sampling bottles on the forward bulkhead and a work bench along the after bulkhead. A non-toxic pump was included in the equipment so that clean sea-water could be supplied to small aquaria and to deck fish tanks.

The vessel was capable of conventional surface and mid-water fish trawling, plankton sampling and bottom dredging for biological programmes. Water sampling and temperature measurements were possible to a depth of 2500 metres, and a "Bathysonde" for micro-structural studies of the sea could be operated to a depth of 250 metres. Sea-floor coring could be carried out in water depth down to 2000 metres, and rock dredging could be performed in depths commensurate with that length of wire. Soft sediment sampling and sea-floor photography could be achieved in depths down 2500 metres. The vessel carried a wide range of equipment for underwater acoustic observations: a Simrad directional sonar for fish-finding, a 12KHz Edo transducer housed in a bow pod for the precision depth recorder, and a range of E.G.&G. Sub-bottom profiling equipment up to a maximum energy capability of 10 kilojoules. A Varian marine proton magnetometer was also fitted.

The vessel carries enough fuel to cover 2000 miles at 9 knots, and enough food and water to endure 10 days at sea. However, because of watchkeeping problems, the normal working procedure on long cruises was to spend five days at sea and two days in port.

According to Welsh legend, Madog was one of the sons of Owain, Prince of Gwynedd (North Wales). On the death of his father in 1170, Madog is supposed to have set sail with a shipload of companions on a westward course. He is reputed to have reached America, left some of his party, returned to Wales for additional compatriots, and repeated the crossing of the Atlantic. As a result of this story the belief grew up that somewhere in North America there existed a tribe of white Indians who spoke perfect Welsh, produced supposedly by the inter-marriage of the original Welsh seafarers and indigenous inhabitants as in Patagonia today.

As for Madog himself, there is no historical proof of his existence. A medieval poem refers to Madog ab Owain Gwynedd as a sailor; and, quite probably, the Welsh Tudors used the story for propaganda purposes to challenge Spanish claims to the New World. Romantically, however, and particularly in view of the maritime traditions of North Wales, it is perhaps fitting that this research vessel should bear the name of Madog, the legendary marine explorer of an earlier age.