ARA Almirante Irízar ( Q - 5 ) The ARA Almirante Irízar is a large icebreaker of the Argentine Navy . She was built in Finland in 1975 . The ship has been out of service since 2007 , when a fire broke out in the auxiliary generator compartment . , the repairs should be completed by the end of 2013 at a cost of over US $ 100m . Background . The ship was named after Julián Irízar . In 1903 , when he held the rank of Lieutenant , he commanded the Argentine corvette ARA " Uruguay " during a successful mission to rescue the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of Professor Otto Nordenskjöld , after the expedition had been trapped by the Antarctic winter . The vessel was built at the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki , Finland , under a contract signed in 1975 between the Argentine Navy and the shipyard . " Irízar " was launched in February 1978 and was formally commissioned on December that year , arriving in Argentina on . She replaced the elderly icebreaker ARA " General San Martín " , which was then retired from active service . " Almirante Irízar " ' s peacetime missions include annual campaigns to resupply and rotate the personnel assigned to the Argentine Antarctic outposts , as well as conducting and supporting scientific endeavors in Antarctica . She has also conducted several passenger tours to Patagonia and the Antarctic . The ship ' s homeport is at the Argentine Navy ' s Buenos Aires Naval Anchorage ( ) in the capital city of Buenos Aires . Service . During the Falklands War ( ) the vessel served as a troop transport and then as a hospital ship , a role for which her crew included medical personnel from the Argentine Army in addition to the naval medical staff . After the end of the war , she was used to return Argentine injured personnel back to the continent . The ship gained attention in 2002 , when she attempted to rescue the trapped supply vessel " Magdalena Oldendorff " . Even though " Irízar " failed to break the " Magdalena Oldendorff " free , she managed to move it to a safety position and resupply the ship with food , medicine and medical personnel until the ice melted and " Magdalena Oldendorff " could return to open sea . 2004 Incident . On March 15 / 16 2004 , the ship entered a maritime area designated as conservation zones under the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands and issued demands for other ships to identify themselves . This prompted a protest from the British government to the Argentine government over its policing of seas under Falkland jurisdiction . The diplomatic note also re - asserted British sovereignty over the islands . 2007 Fire . On at 22 : 00 , a fire broke out in the auxiliary generators compartment . By midnight , the captain Guillermo Tarapow had ordered the evacuation . Argentine Navy and Argentine Coast Guard aircraft , including P - 3 Orion and Hercules C - 130 aircraft , operated to keep track of the 24 lifeboats . The 296 persons inside the icebreaker — including civilians of the Antarctic bases — were helped by the nearest ships , the Panamanian tanker " Scarlet Ibis " and a Uruguayan fishing vessel . The icebreaker was returning from its annual Antarctic summer campaign , and the incident took place some east of Puerto Madryn . The crew arrived safely to Puerto Madryn on . There were no casualties . The vessel ' s captain had stood alone for almost 24 hours after seeing his crew safely abandoned the ship . Starting April 11 , destroyer ARA " Almirante Brown " , corvette s ARA " Granville " , and ARA " Robinson " , aviso s ARA " Gurruchaga " , ARA " Suboficial Castillo " , and ARA " Teniente Oliveri " , and Coast Guard PNA " Thompson " , surrounded the Icebreaker and began rescue operations . " Buzos Tacticos " and members of the Rescue Team ( ) of the Argentine Navy boarded the ship and extinguished the fire . On April 18 , the ship started being towed to the Puerto Belgrano naval base . " Irizar " finally arrived to Puerto Belgrano on April 20 . The fire caused the loss of the two Sea King helicopters stored in their hangar , worth million each . These have been replaced by four Sea Kings transferred from the US government . Following this incident the British government offered to supply Argentine bases in Antarctica in support of scientific missions , using HMS " Endurance " . This offer was turned down by the Argentine government , instead they leased the Russian icebreaker " Vasily Golovnin " for the subsequent Antarctic summer campaigns at a cost of US $ 2m / month . Dutch vessel " Timca " was hired for the 2012 / 3 campaign . Upgrade . After a long period in Puerto Belgrano due to legal issues surrounding the incident , the " Irizar " finally arrived in Buenos Aires on to be taken to Tandanor ' s shipyard for repairs . Repairs were expected to be completed in 2010 but they have continued into 2011 , and are supervised by Norwegian shipyward Aker Yards . , the refit had costed over million and the ship was not expected to be ready until late 2013 . In , it was disclosed that the ship was still awaiting the necessary repairs and that sea trials had been delayed by a year , with oppositors claiming the money spent — some million plus another million in contracting supplying vessels — could have been used to buy a new ship ; a month later , it was informed that works regarding control panels were still pending . The Tandanor shipyard is not just repairing the fire damage but also reconfiguring the vessel to increase the laboratory space from up to . This will allow it to be used primarily as a research vessel in addition to its role of resupplying the southernmost Antarctic base Belgrano II . The diesel engines will be replaced by two new ones purchased from MAN , in October 2011 . The main radar of the " Irizar " is also being repaired in Argentina by CITEDEF Works are estimated to be finished by November 2011 .