page_title: RV Sonne
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: RV Sonne / Career
caption_attribution_description: The German ship Sonne, a former fishing trawler now converted into a research vessel, registered in Bremen, Germany. Shown entering the Port of Auckland, Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, photographed from the ferry to Bayswater. IMO Number: 6909777 MMSI Number: 211216200 Callsign: DFCG Length: 98 m Beam: 14 m
context_page_description: The RV Sonne was a former German fishing trawler converted into a research vessel by Schichau Unterweser AG, doing mostly geoscience-related work for a variety of commercial and scientific clients. She was registered in Bremen. In 2015 she was sold to the Argentine institute CONICET and was renamed ARA Austral. A new geoscientific research ship, also called RV Sonne, replaced her role in Germany that same year.
context_section_description: Rickmers Werft built Sonne in 1969 as a stern trawler and delivered her to Hochseefischerei Nordstern. From her homeport of Bremerhaven she operated mainly in the waters around Iceland, Greenland and Labrador.
  Sonne was converted for use in a scientific exploration role by Schichau Unterweser AG in 1977 and by Rickmers Werft in 1978. In 1991 Schichau-Seebeck-Werft lengthened and modernized her.
  An order worth €124.4 million for a new geoscientific research ship was placed by the German federal ministry for education and research (90%) together with the coastal states Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bremen and Hamburg (10%) in May 2011. The new ship, also called Sonne, was built in Meyer Werft in Papenburg, and replaced the old Sonne in 2015. Its launch took place on 5 April 2014.
  The last German cruise of RV Sonne took place in August 2014, after which she was retired from German scientific use.
caption: RV Sonne in Auckland, 2007
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