‘Weishan Lake’ supply ship chalks up multiple escort records

The "Weishan Lake" supply ship of the 11th naval escort taskforce under the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has joined the 439th mission of escorting merchant ships without a break after it wrapped up the lay-aboard replenishment.

To press date, the "Weishan Lake" supply ship had accumulated a total of 14, 150 hours on escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast covering over 77,000 nautical miles of voyage. It has created multiple No. 1s in the PLA Navy's oceangoing support and chalked up multiple records of supply ship on escort missions in world naval history.

As a large-scale domestically-made comprehensive supply ship, the "Weishan Lake" supply ship began its service in 2004.

During the escort missions with the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th Chinese naval escort taskforces in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast, the "Weishan Lake" supply ship has successfully created a good number of No.1s in the history of Chinese naval oceangoing support, living up to its name as "a floating comprehensive support base on the sea:" It organized the first continuous logistics and equipment support on an intensive basis in unfamiliar waters far from the seashore; It provided comprehensive supplies in large quantities in commercial mode at a foreign commercial port for the first time; It first tried to rely on commercial ship to bring along goods and materials for large-scale maritime material support; It organized various kinds of emergency medical service and rescue actions on high seas for the first time.

In addition, the "Weishan Lake" supply ship has also successfully refreshed quite a few records in world naval history, such as the longest time on escort missions as a supply ship, the most replenishment services provided, the longest duration on a single escort mission, the largest quantity of supplies in a single day and the largest number of merchant ships escorted.