Old USP ship is abandoned in the port of Santos – 07/03/2023 – Daily life

A pioneer in Brazilian oceanographic research, the ship Professor W. Besnard has been docked in the port of Santos for 15 years, with its hull corroded by rust and other wear and tear caused by lack of maintenance.

The 49.3-meter vehicle manufactured in Norway and delivered in 1967 was used for four decades by students and professors at USP’s Oceanographic Institute in their studies.

Named after the Russian-French scientist Wladimir Besnard, one of the creators of the then Instituto Paulista de Oceanografia (incorporated into USP in 1951), the ship collected 50,000 samples of marine organisms on its more than 150 voyages, including the first Brazilian expedition to Antarctica in the 1980s.

In 2008, however, the equipment caught fire when it was anchored in Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro. With that, he was transferred to Santos, where he is still waiting for a destination. Among the alternatives analyzed during this period were a renovation, the possibility of donating the equipment to Uruguay and transforming it into a museum.

After years of stalemate, USP donated the ship to the Municipality of Ilhabela (on the north coast of São Paulo) in 2016. According to the university, the plan was for the vehicle to be sunk and transformed into an artificial reef — which never happened.

The municipal management stated that it invested BRL 102,000 in hiring a specialized company to carry out the necessary studies for the controlled sinking, but that it canceled the project after the NGO Imar (Instituto do Mar), asked for the equipment to be listed in Condephaat ( state body responsible for historical heritage).

In 2019, the ship was then donated to Imar, which would be responsible for renovating it so that it could work again, which also did not happen.

A Sheet contacted the NGO by email, but did not receive a response until the publication of this text.

In 2020, Imar president Fernando Liberalli wrote on social media that he had always worked to preserve the ship, even spending his own resources to do so, but that he received only criticism.

“On record here, I repudiate all those who failed to support the preservation of the memory of a ship that sailed uninterruptedly for 40 years, which collected around 50,000 samples of marine organisms and carried out the first Brazilian polar expedition”, he wrote at the time.

The Santos Airport Authority stated that it maintains constant monitoring of the vessel, to guarantee safe buoyancy conditions, as well as inspection and strengthening of the mooring.

The body said that the obligation to carry out maintenance is Imar’s, but that it has acted for safety reasons.

“It is the owner’s obligation to keep the ship safe. In 2018, 2020 and 2022, the Port Authority of Santos carried out actions to remove water from inside the hull, since there was a risk of sinking, in light of Imar’s statement that no was able to carry out the actions. However, the resources spent for the operation are collected in court”, he explained.

There is currently a lawsuit against the Municipality of Ilhabela that determines the removal of the ship from the pier —Imar is not a party to the action.

The Municipality of Ilhabela stated that it is in constant contact with the Port Authority of Santos and the next step will be to contract a removal plan for the ship, which involves the Navy, Ibama, Environmental Secretariats and other bodies and entities.

“For the city hall, it is only interested in the removal for the initial project, of shipwreck”, said the municipality.