Uncharted rock reef off the coast of Mawson

Professional Mariner Forum
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This “Old Boomer” is going to ramble a little bit which may upset some of the young boots on gcaptain, :grin: but at your mention of Mawson, the USCGC Staten Island discovered an uncharted rock reef off the coast of Mawson. We discovered it by knocking a six by eight foot hole in the hull, flooding four compartments. Old memories of exciting times.

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I wonder if it was “rediscovered” February 19th 2023 by the Dutch ship the Happy Diamond under escort of the Aiviq going down to Mawson Base or did she find a whole new shallow rocky spot? The below quote is from the Maritime Executive article I linked earlier. Maybe someone didn’t update a chart?

" The vessels had completed resupply efforts at Australia’s Casey and Davis stations and proceeded to Mawson where during the supply operation the Happy Diamond grounded on a shoal on Sunday morning, February 19. She was able to float free after about an hour and no one was injured aboard the ship."

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The coast of Antarctica and the sub antarctic islands have been imperfectly surveyed and will remain that way given the difficulty and expense of survey.

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Supposedly, the shoal we hit was placed on charts as “Staten Island Shoal”. But I don’t know how up-to-date or complete charts are for Antarctica.