IXSEA Launches Refitted Survey Vessel

IXSEA has completed work on the SV John Lethbridge on behalf of Comex Deep Sea Salvage Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Subsea Resources PLC. The refit was undertaken by H2X shipyard in cooperation with IXSEA and COMEX SA. The vessel is currently in the Atlantic working on a number of projects including the Miranda project and the Ella project.

The survey ship is equipped with top of the range sonar equipment, fitted by IXSEA, which is capable of surveying depths to 6000 m as well as a Comanche Sub-Atlantic ROV, which can reach similar depths.

The ROV has two work manipulators, HMI lights, digital cameras and flash and 100kgf/ 200 lbf DC Thrusters. The SV John Lethbridge is also equipped with an IXSEA positioning system including POSIDONIA USBL positioning system, PHINS 6000 subsea inertial navigation system and an OCTANS gyrocompass and full motion sensor. COMEX SA, supervised the integration of the survey equipment with the ROV and also supervised the refit of the salvage ship. The refit was carried out by H2X, shipyard specialists in building, refitting and refurbishing oceanographic ships. This Mediterranean coast, bureau veritas certified shipyard has over 10 000 sqm facilities,1500 m of quays with dry docks, and up to 2000 tonnes lifting capacity.

The SV John Lethbridge will have a crew of twenty as well as a ten-man survey crew.