Inside Scotland's new lighthouse support ship Pole Star - which even has a sauna for the crew
The vessel’s replacement of its predecessor is compared to the difference between a Mini Metro and Porsche
It is Scotland’s highly-manoeuvrable new lighthouse support ship - which heads towards the rocks while other vessels try to avoid them.
The £52 million Pole Star will play a key role in maintaining the country’s network of coastal warning lights, which also include hundreds attached to buoys.
The Northern Lighthouse Board has unveiled the Spanish-built vessel in Leith before it departs for its first deployment in the Forth and along the east coast.
Its master has described the ship’s versatility compared to its predecessor’s as “like switching from a Mini Metro to a Porsche”.
It’s seen as a crucial attribute in the face of increasingly frequent severe weather caused by climate change.
Board operations director Phil Day said: “It has far better seakeeping - the old Pole Star would roll on a wet blanket.
“The ship came from Spain to Edinburgh through the Bay of Biscay with some pretty cheeky weather, and the Pentland Firth, which the board’s vessels would have really struggled with.
“Changing weather patterns have meant a lot of downtime in the past and uncomfortable sailing conditions for the crew. The new Pole Star is a much more comfortable ride.”
It is the latest of five ships dating back to 1892 to bear the name, replacing one which was completed in 2000 at what’s now the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow. The previous ships were constructed in Glasgow or Dundee.
The new Pole Star was completed £1m under budget but three months late at the Gondan shipyard at Castropol in northern Spain.
The 70m-long ship, officially a “buoy tender”, will work with the board’s other ship, Pharos, a “multi-functional tender”. The latter can carry a helicopter and does most of the lighthouse maintenance work.
However, Pole Star will drop off technicians to carry out lighthouse maintenance and collect them later each day.
Mr Day said: “Everyone else wants to stay away from the rocks, but we go in there.”
The new Oban-based vessel’s principal work will be looking after light buoys, 174 of which are operated by the board.
It also maintains hundreds of others as part of commercial contracts, including those at offshore wind farms under construction, sewage outfall pipes, harbours and for the Met Office, some of whose buoys are tethered in water several miles deep.
The ship’s other duties will include marking wrecks for the Ministry of Defence, and exercises with the Clyde-based Nato Submarine Rescue System.
Pole Star is longer and wider than its predecessor, making it more stable, and more powerful.
The ship will also be far quieter, causing less disturbance to whales and dolphins, with its hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system including a 10m-long battery which acts as a fourth engine.
Sightings are reported to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.
Mr Day said: “We will be much more welcome visiting places like Oban and Ullapool because we won’t be making lots of noise for the local population.”
The ship’s novel features include a sauna in the gym, and underfloor heating in the cabins’ ensuite shower rooms for the 17 crew, who work 28-day shifts between shore leave.
The current crew is all male, but there have previously been female crew members. There are a further ten cabins for contractors and other guests.
Alisdair Graham, 46, the ship’s master, said he compared the new ship to a Porsche because of its power.
He said: “The way you can interlink the engines with the batteries, there’s so many combinations of power management.
“Getting from Oban to the east coast used to take two days but we can now do it in a day and a half.
“With the old Pole Star, if the weather was poor, you would shelter. With this one, you can just plough on.”
The ship, which was launched in January last year in Spain, was named by the Princess Royal at a ceremony in Leith on Wednesday, where the vessel is registered, like its predecessors.
Princess Anne, who has been the board’s patron for 33 years, broke a bottle of new make whisky spirit produced by nearby Port of Leith Distillery against the ship’s hull.
She said: “As the fifth vessel to bear the name Pole Star, the new ship will support board’s vital role in maintaining and managing lighthouses, buoys, and other marine aids to navigation across Scotland and the Isle of Man.
“She will do this in a more energy-efficient way than her predecessors, marking an important step in the organisation’s journey towards greater sustainable maritime operations.
“I would like to thank everyone at the board - the mariners, engineers, technicians and all those staff behind the scenes - for keeping our shipping lanes safe and for providing this vital safety service to al seafarers navigating in Scottish and Manx waters.”
Board chief executive Mike Bullock said: “The new vessel is a step change from what has gone before using new technology to minimise the impact on the environment and brings additional capability to help deal with the effects of climate change.
“It has improved seakeeping, better and safer buoy servicing operations, as well as towing and firefighting capability in support of other vessels.
“We also specified an improved standard for crew accommodation and the inclusion of substantial environmental enhancements.”
The Edinburgh-based board, which was established in 1786, operates 208 lighthouses, and also has technicians based in Inverness, Shetland and Orkney.
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