CONGRATULATIONS!
After a bit of back and forth, it seems that Southern Actor will come to Bergen and Fjordsteam after all!
From Wikipedia;
"Southern Actor" is a whaleboat , now functioning as a museum boat based in Sandefjord . It was built in 1950 for the whaling company Chr. Salvesen in Leith in Scotland . When old whalers in the 1980s in Sandefjord found that an old whaleboat also had to be taken care of, it proved impossible to find one of the city's own whaleboats. None were in such a condition that it was suitable for restoration. The choice therefore fell on "Southern Actor". This could be justified, among other things, because the company Salvesen can be said to be half Norwegian. A large part of the crews on Salvesen's expeditions were from Vestfold , and the company's floating cooking facilities were equipped in Tønsberg.
In the 1950s, Salvesen's shipping company had two floating whaling farms in the Southern Ocean , as well as the land station Leith Harbour on South Georgia . In the period 1964–75, the "Southern Actor" caught whales in northern waters and belonged to the Whaling Station in Tromsø under the name "Polarbris 8".
In 1981, the Southern Actor (Ibsa Uno) was sunk in Vigo after sabotage by Watson's Sea Shepard. It was raised and repaired shortly afterwards and renamed ITAXA III. [1]
In 1995, the Southern Actor was completely restored, as authentically as possible to the original state of the boat. In the same year, she was declared a protected vessel by the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. [2] The boat belongs to the Whaling Museum in Sandefjord.
On 22 June 2017, the Southern Actor ran aground in the Sandefjord fjord on its regular tourist route, causing the propeller shaft to bend. One of the propeller blades broke, causing small holes that were repaired the same day. There were also large scratches on the port side of the boat. No one was injured. With these damages, the Southern Actor is no longer seaworthy and has been moored at the Museumsbrygga in Sandefjord since. The Whaling Museum has estimated that it will cost over two million kroner to repair the boat. [3]
On November 14, 2017, it was confirmed by the Whaling Museum that Southern Actor would be towed to Horten Skips Reparasjoner A/S (HSR/Horten Verft), and Color Line Marine was responsible for the repairs during week 48, following the damage it sustained on June 22, 2017. The boat returned to Sandefjord in May 2018, fully restored and ready for operation.
