HDMS Hvidbjørnen (F360)
Encyclopedia
Royal Danish Navy
The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese territorial waters...
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Service
Hvidbjoernen served as a platform for Commander Danish Task Group, in the period 1998-2002, whereafter her sister ship ThetisHDMS Thetis (F357)
HDMS Thetis is a Thetis-class ocean patrol vessel belonging to the Royal Danish Navy.In mid-1990s the ship served as a platform for seismic operations in the waters near Greenland. In 2002 she took over the role from her sister ship Hvidbjørnen as a platform for Commander Danish Task Group. The...
assumed the role.
During a patrol in Faroes
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
waters, the French trawler Bruix (c/s
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
: FTID ) was suspected of illegal fishery. When approached by Hvidbjørnen the French trawler refused to let an inspection team aboard and started to sail towards the territorial border. During the chase the two ships collided (no persons injured).
The Hvidbjoernen and the HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen
HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen (P571)
HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen is a Royal Danish Navy patrol vessel.Launched in November 2007, she is the second vessel of the Knud Rasmussen class. The normal patrol area of the Ejnar Mikkelsen, and her sister ships, will be the waters around Greenland....
participated with Danish air elements in sovereignty and Search and Rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
exercises off Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
's west coast.
The vessels patrol took them to the Nares Strait
Nares Strait
Nares Strait is a waterway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland that is the northern part of Baffin Bay where it meets the Lincoln Sea. From south to north, the strait includes Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel...
, close to Hans Island
Hans Island
Hans Island is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring , located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea...
, the approaches to the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
, and to Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound is a body of water in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound...
. In Lancaster Sound they joined in a Search and Rescue exercise with the Canadian Coast Guard
Canadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
vessel the CCGS Henry Larsen
CCGS Henry Larsen
CCGS Henry Larsen is a Canadian Coast Guard T1200 Class Medium Arctic icebreaker serving in the Newfoundland and Labrador Region and based in St John's, Newfoundland....
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