Deep Pioneer

Deep Pioneer

IMO : 8222240

Build : 1984 by Fincantieri Cant. Nav. Italiani S.p.A. – Triest in Italy, nr 304 as Anatoliy Zheleznyakov

For the last 5-6 weeks, while being offshore, every day I have been looking at this monster of a vessel. In the beginning I didn’t realise it but after a while I  discovered that she actually is a ugly modified monster of a vessel. And I wasn’t the only person on board who carried the same feelings for her. The fact that half of the time she seemed to have to work upwind of our vessel and thus smothering us with her exhaustgasses did not contribute to her being liked as well. And boy: does she have a few exhaust stacks on her! I counted about 15 of them….there was just no escaping from them.

This is how she looked in her original disguise, not really pretty then but neither ruined, just a simple LASH-carrier.

Picture by J Krusmann via http://www.marine-marchande.net

She and her sisters were sold in 1998 to the famous towing company Smit who managed to ruin her looks by converting her into a multi-purpose offshore support & salvage vessel…….and from there it went down-hill fast.

 

Picture by Andre le Mens via http://www.marine-marchande.net

Here is a PDF-file that tells you all about the transformation: Smit Pioneer Conversion.

In 2002 she was sold on to Technip, an offshore installation company who put a pipelay tower on her, and kept modifying it to their needs. Now this floating nightmare was complete. Voila!