Viking Poseidon (Ariadne)

Ship history

Equipped with a large ROV hangar suitable for 2 WROVs, with side-launching and through-moonpool launching capabilities. She is also provided with a 250T offshore crane, with heave compensation and an auxiliary whip hoist for 25T and with man-riding capability. Comes with a helideck and a diesel-electric propulsion system. Delivered from Ulstein Verft in January 2009. The technical information above relates to the vessel upon delivery from Ulstein Verft.

After delivery, the vessel travelled around Stad, a very rough area along the Norwegian west coast, and the wind reached hurricane strength with waves up to 12 m. The ship owner reported the vessel's great sea-keeping qualities:

"We are very satisfied with the X-BOW® vessel 'Viking Poseidon'. The ship operates smoothly with minimal vibrations and movements. This grants optimal vessel comfort, which is very important for the working conditions of our seafarers."
Jan Fredrik Meling, CEO at Eidesvik Offshore.

2009: Viking Poseidon entered into an eight-year charter (2009-2017) to Veolia ES Special Services (Inc.), USA. The ship would be a base for advanced ROV vehicles that would be inspecting and repairing offshore installations in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, USA.
2010: The Deepwater Horizon, a major oil blow-out, occurred, and it took weeks to gain control over the leakages. Several vessels, including the Viking Poseidon, monitored the leaks, sending down their remotely operated vehicles to the leaking well. Viking Poseidon was the vessel that lowered the second top hat device in an attempt to stop the leakage from the well. On this occasion, the operator gave the following feedback:

"The vessel is working very well. We are at the source leak with this vessel assisting with various aspects of trying to stop or slow the leak. It should make you proud".
Christopher M. Hohol, Sr. Vice President/General Manager in Veolia

2013-16: Harkand buys Veolia ES Special Services’ main assets. The ship's contract was unaltered. In May 2016, Harkand fell into administration due to financial pressures, leading to a charter termination notice for Viking Poseidon.
2016, June: The vessel commenced on a 3-5 month contract for Siemens Wind Power to provide support for their offshore wind farm operations in the German market.

2017 (Mar): Eidesvik sold the vessel to Universal Faith Shipping Company Ltd. The vessel is operated by Assodivers. The vessel has been built to the requirements of DnV Comfort Class (C-3, V-3). Upon delivery, her class was transferred from DnV to ABS in line with company policy.

2021: Today, the 'Ariadne' is a DP-3 Multipurpose Support Vessel built for worldwide subsea operations, specially designed for OWF inter-array and export cable installation, interconnector cable installation and cable protection and repairs, as well as diving, ROV, Survey and IMR work. The primary function of the vessel is the execution of challenging power cable installation projects. Still, she can be used on any kind of subsea and offshore project, for which she is ideally suited and equipped.

2022: The vessel has completed her 2nd conversion stage, emerging with a complete and permanent cable laying spread consisting of a 5000 MT carousel on deck, a 1,500 MT below deck carousel (with a combined capacity of max. 6,500 MT), two firing lines with one cable tensioner each, conforming to a cable MBR of 4m and a bight quadrant deployment system. The vessel is also fitted with a Work-class ROV. The next conversion stage will see her with a 4,000 MT carousel below deck (instead of the 1,500MT one) and compliant with the SPS2008 Code. See more at Asso.subsea