MY Sam Simon is the fourth vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, named for Sam Simon, who donated the money needed to purchase the vessel. The ship's identity was kept secret, to be revealed when it met the Japanese whaling fleet in 2012, but was identified when its registration was discovered on the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's list of registered ships.
"Sam Simon" is the former Japanese weather survey ship "Kaiko Maru No.8". Sea Shepherd paid the Government of Japan AUD $2,000,000 for the vessel. It was renamed MV New Atlantis shortly before being moved to Brisbane, Queensland. It was subsequently re-registered under the Australian flag as a pleasure craft called Sam Simon.
Sam Simon was built by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd in Tokyo, Japan as Seifu Maru, a marine meteorological and oceanographic observation ship. The purpose of Seifu Maru and her sister ships was to conduct observations of the pollution affecting the marine environment in the waters around Japan and the western North Pacific, covering greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances, heavy metals, and oils. The Japan Meteorological Agency operated five ships: Chofu Maru, Kofu Maru, Seifu Maru, Ryofu Maru and Keifu Maru. Seifu Maru was operated by the Maizuru Marine Observatory and worked in the Sea of Japan. Once the Japanese ARGO Program was completed, the un-needed vessel was sold to Offshore Operation Co. Ltd and was renamed Kaiko Maru No 8 in 2010.
In September 2012, Kaiko Maru was purchased by New Atlantis Ventures LLC, based in Wilmington, Delaware (a shell corporation of Sea Shepherd), and renamed New Atlantis, registered under the flag of Tuvalu. In December 2012, New Atlantis was renamed Sam Simon. $500,000 of upgrades for increased speed and range were undertaken in Brisbane, where she was docked and supplies were taken on-board for the voyage to the whale sanctuary. The vessel was publicly unveiled in Hobart, Tasmania in December 2012.
(taken almost literally, with very few changes in text, from wikipedia)
Enough "bla-bla",
, here is the ship :(commentaries are welcomed)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/arrwx20h3ffp1 ... 0Simon.PNG
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/arrwx20h3ffp15l/MY%20Sam%20Simon.PNG)
(sorry had to edit, first time using this "new wonder" of dropbox (thanks Ian,
), and francly didn`t know how it would work. Works fine.)(Thanks again, Kilomuse, for your brilliant discovery in how to get the direct link working , for new dropbox users, reasons why I decided to edit this post with it, once more in order to get the image working right, here too, as well,
; and I cannot see why this topic should atttact negative attitudes 
.
)
