MV American Tern

MV American Tern (T-AK-4729) is a container ship managed by APL Maritime. Formerly the Liberian-flagged Kariba, the vessel was renamed American Tern under the United States flag in 2002. Since then, the American Tern has been chartered by the United States Navy Military Sealift Command. She was contracted through 2010 to make resupply voyages to McMurdo Station in Antarctica (Operation Deep Freeze) and Pituffik Space Base in Greenland (Operation Pacer Goose).^[1] The vessel is named after the tern, a type of bird that makes annual migrations from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

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  American Tern unloading containers at McMurdo Station
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  American Tern being led into McMurdo Station, Antarctica, by the Russian icebreaker Krasin during Operation Deepfreeze, 2006
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  American Tern and Russian icebreakers

American Tern (T-AK-4729)
History
United States
Name	Serenity (1990–1996) Kariba (1996–1997) Torm Africa (1997–1999) Kariba (1999–2000) Lykes Flyer (2000) Kariba (2000) Kota Agung (2000–2002) Kariba (2002) American Tern (2002–2011) Tern (2011)
Builder	VEB Schiffswerft Neptun, Rostock, Germany [1]
Launched	16 December 1989
Out of service	2010
Identification	Call sign WAHF IMO number: 8908088 MMSI number: 369113000
Fate	Scrapped in 2010
General characteristics [2]
Type	Container ship
Tonnage	13,382 gt 17,175 dwt
Displacement	8,650 long tons (8,789 t)
Length	521 ft (159 m)
Beam	76 ft (23 m)
Draft	33 ft (10 m)
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement	21 contract mariners