Allseas reveals new name for ‘Pieter Schelte’

Zurich - Following an announcement that Allseas will rename the vessel “Pieter Schelte”, the company has today said that the vessel is being re-named “Pioneering Spirit”. In its statement, Allseas said that the name of the world’s largest platform installation/decommissioning and pipelaying vessel, reflects what she stands for: a new technological step in platform installation and decommissioning. “It also fits the 30-year tradition of Allseas to pioneer and surpass technical boundaries, as was done over the years introducing pipelay on dynamic positioning and laying pipelines in ever deeper waters. This vessel encompasses all innovations that have been developed by Allseas over the last 30 years,” Allseas said in a statement.

The company’s owner, Edward Heerema, chose to rename the vessel following the widespread pressure by the UK unions and Jewish groups. The ‘Pieter Schelte’ name sparked controversy as the vessel was named after the late father of the Allseas owner. The late Pieter Schelte Heerema was an officer in the Nazi Germany’s Waffen SS troops in the Second World War. In a letter signed by Heerema last week, he disassociated himself from his father’s sympathies in the Second World War, adding that the naming of the vessel reflected what the late Pieter Schelte Heerema accomplished in the field of construction, “which has been of great significance to the development of offshore oil and gas production until the present day.”

(Source: Offshoreenergytoday)