Guangzhou Shipyard International has delivered a new 78-meter scientific research vessel, named “Tan Kah Kee,” to its owner, the Oceanography and Geophysics College of Xiamen University. The vessel, named for the university’s illustrious founder, Mr. Chen Jia Geng (Tan Kah Kee), is chiefly meant for deep sea underwater exploration.
The “Jia Geng” is newsworthy for a number of reasons, not least of which is its attainment of the Det Norske Veritas class notation “SILENT A+S.” This is DNV’s certification that the subsurface noise generated by the ship is held at especially low levels in order to minimize impact on the marine environmental. Low noise levels are also needed in order for the ship to carry out its sensitive acoustic measurements. Any large ship is normally a cacophonous bandwagon, running engines, shafts, propellers, generators, pumps, cranes and a myriad of other machines from stem to stern. A few unique, special-purpose ships, like the 3600 gross ton “Jia Geng,” are designed and built with special noise abating techniques, enabling them to be quiet.
The “Jia Geng” carries more than fifty crewmen, scientists and students and has elaborately-equipped laboratories. Below its waterline the ship is fitted with multi-beam sonar and a myriad of other hydrographic and oceanographic sensors. Wheelhouse systems include Highlander ARPA radars, ECDIS and radio communications equipment.
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