A fire in the engine room of the Aurora Australis, Australia’s only Antarctic
research vessel, has forced the ship to return to its home port of Hobart. The
fire started last Wednesday, when the ship was in loose ice 180 kilometres off
the Antarctic coast, nine days into a two-month expedition to study winter sea
ice formation. None of the 79 people aboard was hurt. One engine was destroyed,
but engineers repaired the second, avoiding a costly salvage operation. The ship
is due back in port this weekend.
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