RV Cirolana

RV Cirolana was a fisheries research vessel used by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and originally built for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom). She was initially intended to replace the RV Ernest Holt operating in arctic waters around Bear Island (Norway) and Iceland, but following the Cod Wars spent most of her working life conducting fisheries surveys in the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel. For the first part of her career RV Cirolana was based in the fishing port of Grimsby, but after bridge and channel dredging work improved the depth, it was deemed acceptable to bring her to Lowestoft. Her engines etc were housed in a sound and vibration proof enclosure which was supported on many pneumatic dampers. She had main electric propulsion motors which powered the screws. All ancillaries were also damped using anti-vibration mountings. All this damping was aimed at reducing noise/vibrations through the superstructure to enable the ability to conduct acoustic surveys of fish populations . She was built in 1969, by Ferguson Shipbuilders, and delivered in 1970. She was placed out of service in approximately 2003 and replaced by RV Cefas Endeavour.