Arktika-class icebreaker
The "Arktika" class is a Russian (former Soviet) class of nuclear-powered icebreakers. Formerly known as "Project 10520 nuclear-powered icebreaker", they were the largest and most powerful icebreakers until the 2016 launch of the ship named Arktika. Ships of the "Arktika" class are owned by the federal government, but were operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) until 2008, when they were transferred to the fully government-owned operator Atomflot. Of the ten civilian nuclear-powered vessels built by Russia (and the Soviet Union), six have been of this type. They are used for escorting merchant ships in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia as well as for scientific and recreational expeditions to the Arctic.
Martin Bayerle
Captain Martin Gerard Bayerle (born April 23, 1951) is an American treasure hunter and author, best known for finding the 1909 shipwreck of the White Star Liner RMS Republic. He is also star of the History Channel show "Billion Dollar Wreck." The "Republic" was the largest ship to sink in history to her day, only to be eclipsed by the loss of RMS Titanic in 1912. Capt. Bayerle and his company, Martha's Vineyard Scuba Headquarters, Inc. ("MAVIS") were referred to as "modern day pirates" but in a complimentary sense by Judge Nancy Gertner of the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts in a 2005 opinion granting exclusive salvage rights to the "Republic" to MAVIS. MAVIS subsequently acquired legal title to the RMS Republic shipwreck and her contents in August 2011, with the U.S. District Court of Boston also barring all future claims.