MV Monsunen
MV Monsunen was a coaster ship built in Denmark in 1957 that operated as an inter-island supply vessel in the Falklands from 1972 to 1992. The ship was commandeered by the Argentine Navy in the course of the Falklands War, when she served as an armed transport linking the different Argentine garrisons scattered around the islands. In 1992 she was sold to a Chilean shipping company, and since then Monsunen, now renamed Navarino, serves as a coaster linking the island of Navarino with the port of Valparaíso.
Features
Monsunen was built as a motorship in 1957 by H. C. Christensens Staal in Marstal, Denmark, for C.H.C. Andersen of Svendborg, she originally had a gross register tonnage of 150 t and a net register tonnage of 69 t. Her dimensions were in length, in breadth, and a draft of. She was powered by two Alpha oil engines, featuring a controllable pitch propeller, allowing her to achieve a speed of. She had a single hold with two hatches and two derricks for loading and discharging, capable of lifting two tons each one. Her identification number is IMO 5239876. The ship endured an overhaul at Svendborg Skibsvaerft in 1968, and was extended to, with a gross register tonnage of 224 t, a net register tonnage of 124 t and a deadweight tonnage of 326 t.Service with the Falkland Islands Company
The coaster was sold to the Falkland Islands Company in 1972, arriving to Port Stanley on 12 October that year. Monsunens main task was to transport baled wool produced by 30 settlements. from piers across the Falklands to Port Stanley, where they would be shipped to Britain. She also carried supplies and mail throughout the islands, but no passengers.Monsunen and her fellow ship Forrest, owned by the Falklands Government, occasionally linked Port Stanley with Punta Arenas in southern Chile. In the late 1970s, the coaster took part in the partial salvage of the wreckage of St Mary, an American cargo sailing ship lost in August 1890 northwest of Whale Point, about southwest from Port Stanley. Monsunen missed good part of the 1975 sheep shearing season when a broken crackshaft saw her replaced by the old Antarctic survey ship. On 2 April 1982, after the surrender of British authorities to the Argentine military, the Argentine flag was raised over Monsunen and Forrest, although the ship was not formally requisitioned until ten days later.
ARA ''Monsunen''
Monsunen was confiscated by Argentine forces on 12 April 1982, after the refusal of the FIC representative to loan the ship to the Argentine Navy. The crew was selected from members of the complement of the transport ship ; the commander would be Corvette Captain Jorge Gopcevich-Canevari, a prominent young naval officer. Local skipper George Betts was charged to instruct the Argentine crew on how to operate the ship.The first mission of ARA Monsunen, on 14 April, was to transport supplies to the Argentine garrison at Darwin and sail back to Port Stanley with a flock of sheep. In the night of 27/28 April, the ship ferried personnel and equipment of the 5th Infantry Regiment from Port Stanley to Port Howard.
The first British airstrike on Port Stanley took place on 1st May, when Monsunen was on her way back from the Falklands Sound. The vessel sought shelter in an area northeast of the harbour, near Kidney Island. The ship was overflown by a Sea Harrier and later witnessed the attack of a Lynx helicopter from the frigate on the Argentinian coast guard vessel Islas Malvinas and the armed coaster ARA Forrest, another coaster confiscated to the FIC. The distance prevented Monsunen from intervening.
On 3 May, the supply vessel undertook a round trip to Port Howard, a key Argentine garrison in West Falkland. Her mission was the critical offloading of six anti-aircraft cannons, along with associated ammunition and equipment, transferred from the transport vessel. The consignment was bound for the GADA 101, an anti-aircraft artillery unit positioned in Cortley Ridge, on the northern bank of Stanley Harbour. During this journey, Monsunen defenses were temporary enhanced with a 7.62 mm MAG general-purpose machine gun, mounted on the forecastle and manned by a sergeant and a conscript from the army's 4th Infantry Regiment, another battery-powered 7.62 mm machine gun taken from a Pucará aircraft, and a third MAG machine gun which was eventually handed over to the 5th Infantry Regiment at Port Howard.
From 4 to 9 May the coaster offloaded JP1 fuel drums from the large cargo ship Río Carcaraña, which would be sunk in successive airstrikes between 16 and 22 May at Port King, on the eastern bank of the Falklands Sound.
On 7 May, while heading north to Fox Bay through Eagle passage, Monsunen was ordered to search for a small civilian vessel spotted earlier by Bahía Buen Suceso at anchor at Speedwell Island. The report was confirmed by Monsunen, and the sailboat, the long, was seized by naval commandos flown in by helicopter a few hours later. From Fox Bay, the coaster continued to Port Howard, where she resumed the transfer of oil drums from Río Carcaraña to Port Stanley. On 13 May, another offloading mission was completed alongside Bahia Buen Suceso in Fox Bay, consisting of 100 fuel drums and 1,000 artillery rounds of 105 mm. The payload would be delivered by Monsunen to the Argentine garrison in Darwin on the 19th not before having outmaneuvered two British frigates in the Choiseul Sound on May 17th. On the 21st, Monsunen was once again in Fox Bay, where it uploaded a cargo of 150 fuel drums from an improvised depot to be shipped to Port Stanley.
On the earlier hours of May 23 the British frigates and attempted to intercept and capture the Argentine supply ship west of Lively Island. A Lynx helicopter carrying Special Boat Service troops was forced to retreat after encountering heavy fire from Monsunen. Subsequently, Yarmouth opened fire on the coaster. To evade the British warships, Monsunens commander ran the vessel aground in Seal Cove, using the surrounding cliffs to obscure her from British radar. After an inaccurate shelling, the British eventually gave up their pursuit. Monsunen later refloated with the tide but was disabled by a sling entangled with her propeller. ARA Forrest came to the rescue, and towed Monsunen to Darwin, then completed the cargo's delivery to Port Stanley. The crew, along with the ship's machine gun, joined the local garrison. The second in command, Ship-of-the-line Lieutenant Oscar Vázquez, assisted the army's 105 mm guns as an artillery spotter against naval and ground targets. Monsunen was subsequently captured by British forces after the Battle of Goose Green on 29 May.
All said, the ship undertook 16 missions under Argentine flag, primarily consisting of round trips between the Falklands Sound and Port Stanley.