What is the biggest icebreaker ship in existence?
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.
Project 22220 icebreaker
Project 22220 (also referred to as LK-60Ya) is a Russian class of three nuclear-powered icebreakers. Once entering service, the ships of the class will be the largest and most powerful icebreakers ever constructed. As of February 2018, two ships were launched and one is under construction at Baltic Shipyard in Russia.
Otso (icebreaker)
During extensive ice trials in the Bothnian Bay in March 1986, "Otso" was put through a series of test to determine her icebreaking capability. In a race against the 1975-built "Urho" in level ice, "Otso" beat the older but more powerful four-propelled icebreaker by more than a ship's length, showing that in terms of ice resistance the new icebreaker was superior to her predecessor. In ice, she could easily maintain a speed of and small ice ridges along the way appeared to be of no consequence to the vessel. However, the strength of the new icebreaker was put to the ultimate test when she encountered a large pressure ridge reaching all the way to the seafloor some below the surface. After preparations, "Otso" was accelerated to a speed of and rammed into the ridge at full power. Since the new icebreaker had a smooth inclined stem and lacked the bow propellers of her predecessors, she rode up the ridge and began listing to the port side as the hull rose from the water. After coming to a stop, "Otso" slid back by herself without utilizing the engines, and the ridge was penetrated on the second charge. The robustness of the ship and its propulsion system were further proven when the icebreaker was backed into a ridge at "to prove to the customer it doesn't break".
Moskva (1959 icebreaker)
"Moskva" was long overall and at the waterline. At the widest point of the hull, the vessel had a beam of , but due to the sloping sides the maximum beam at waterline was slightly less, . At design waterline, the icebreaker drew of water and had a displacement of 13,290 tonnes. However, the maximum draught of the vessel was , corresponding to a maximum displacement of 15,360 tonnes. "Moskva" was the largest non-nuclear icebreaker in the world at the time of the delivery, having almost twice the displacement of the largest western icebreakers.
Oden (1988 icebreaker)
Oden is a large Swedish icebreaker, built in 1988 for the Swedish Maritime Administration. It is named after the Norse god Odin. First built to clear a passage through the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia for cargo ships, it was later modified to serve as a research vessel. Equipped with its own helicopter and manned by 15 crew members it has ample capacity to carry laboratory equipment and 80 passengers, functioning independently in harsh Polar ice packs of the Arctic and Antarctic seas. It was the first non-nuclear surface vessel to reach the North Pole (in 1991), together with the German research icebreaker "Polarstern". It has participated in several scientific expeditions in Arctic and Antarctica.
Sampo (1960 icebreaker)
The "Sampo" has a long and distinguished service record. The massive vessel, which was completed in 1961, was built to operate in extreme arctic conditions. In the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia it kept lanes free for shipping for nearly 30 years. Its predecessor of the same name (1898–1960) was the first icebreaker in Europe with a propeller in the bow and stern. The ship is now used for tourist cruises.
Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt
The Administration operates a fleet of about a dozen icebreakers. The newest, the "Keiler", was delivered in December 2011. Their oldest existing icebreaker, the "Steinbock", was commissioned in 1935. The "Keiler", and another new vessel, the "Kietz", are long and wide, with a draft of . They are diesel powered, with engines that produce . They cost 5 million Euros each. Other vessels include the "Widder, Stier" and the "Wisent".
Iceberg
The largest icebergs recorded have been calved, or broken off, from the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. Iceberg B-15, photographed by satellite in 2000, measured , with a surface area of . The largest iceberg on record was an Antarctic tabular iceberg of over [] sighted west of Scott Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, by the USS "Glacier" on November 12, 1956. This iceberg was larger than Belgium.
SS Great Western
SS "Great Western" of 1838, was an oak-hulled paddle-wheel steamship, the first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic, and the initial unit of the Great Western Steamship Company. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1837 to 1839. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, "Great Western" proved satisfactory in service and was the model for all successful wooden Atlantic paddle-steamers. She was capable of making record Blue Riband voyages as late as 1843. "Great Western" worked to New York for 8 years until her owners went out of business. She was sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was scrapped in 1856 after serving as a troop ship during the Crimean War.
Drillship
From the first drillship CUSS I to the Deepwater Asgard the fleet size has been growing ever since. In 2013 the worldwide fleet of drillships tops 80 ships, more than double its size in 2009. Drillships are not only growing in size but also in capability with new technology assisting operations from academic research to ice-breaker class drilling vessels. U.S. President Barack Obama's decision in late March 2010 to expand U.S. domestic exploratory drilling seems likely to increase further developments of drillship technology.
Aker Arctic
Aker Arctic and its predecessors have designed more than half of the world's icebreakers. In addition, the company is responsible for a number of recent inventions in the design of icegoing ships, such as the double acting ship and oblique icebreaker concepts.
Jääkarhu
Being one of the last large steam-powered icebreakers in active service, "Sibiryakov" was used in a 1960s Soviet documentary film to represent the steam-powered icebreaker, "Yermak", which had been broken up in 1964. She was also used in the 1969 Soviet/Italian film "The Red Tent" to represent another Soviet icebreaker, "Krasin", which had participated in the rescue mission of Umberto Nobile and other survivors of the crash of airship "Italia" in 1928. While the original 1917-built icebreaker was still in service at that time, her extensive rebuilding in 1953–1960 had changed the look of the vessel completely and thus a more traditional-looking icebreaker was needed for the role.
Icebreaker
Canada's largest and most powerful icebreaker, the , was delivered in 1969. Her original three steam turbine, nine generator, and three electric motor system produces . A multi-year mid-life refit project (1987–1993) saw the ship get a new bow, and a new propulsion system. The new power plant consists of five diesels, three generators, and three electric motors, giving about the same shp.
Icebreaker
On 22 August 1994 "Louis S. St-Laurent" and became the first North American surface vessels to reach the North Pole. The vessel was originally scheduled to be decommissioned in 2000; however, a refit extended the decommissioning date to 2017.
Queen of the Netherlands (ship)
Queen of the Netherlands is a Dutch Trailing suction hopper dredger ship constructed in 1998. After lengthening in 2009, she was the largest and most powerful dredger in the world. The vessel has been used in high-profile salvage and dredging operations including the investigation into the Swissair Flight 111 crash and in the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It has been called "the world's largest floating vacuum cleaner".
Voima (1952 icebreaker)
Voima is a Finnish state-owned icebreaker. Built by Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki in 1954, she was the first icebreaker in the world to be equipped with two bow propellers and generated widespread publicity that helped the Finnish shipbuilding industry to become the world leader in icebreaker design.
Yukon Striker
Yukon Striker is a steel Dive Coaster currently under construction at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario. It is scheduled to open in April 2019 as a replacement for SkyRider, a roller coaster that closed on September 1, 2014 and relocated to Cavallino Matto in Italy the following year under the name of Freestyle. At tall, long, and a ride speed of , Yukon Striker will become the world's tallest, longest, and fastest Dive Coaster, sharing its height record with Valravn at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. It will also hold the record for most inversions on a Dive Coaster, four, and the longest Dive Coaster drop at .
Polar Security Cutter program
The Polar Security Cutter Program is the program to replace the United States Coast Guards aging fleet of icebreakers. The current fleet of large icebreakers consists of one operational heavy icebreaker, the USCGC "Polar Star", and one medium icebreaker, the USCGC "Healy". Both ships are planned to be replaced by 3 heavy and 3 medium icebreakers. The new fleet of icebreakers, will allow the USCG to perform missions in the Arctic such as defense operations and readiness, defending U.S. sovereignty and interests, national security activities and maritime safety, PWCS (Ports, waterways, and coastal security), research, search and rescue, and logistic support and vessel escort. The first icebreaker will be funded by the US Navy.
Ymer (1976 icebreaker)
Ymer is the fifth and last icebreaker in the . She was launched in late 1976, and on 25 October 1977 she was delivered to the Swedish Navy and departed the Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard bound for Stockholm, where she arrived on 3 November.
Murtaja (1890 icebreaker)
In 1889, the Finnish factory owners encouraged the Danish shipping company Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab to send their icebreaker, "Bryderen", to the northern Baltic Sea and try to open a path to the icebound port of Hanko. "Bryderen", the most powerful icebreaker in Europe at that time, had steam engine and could easily break ice up to thick. As word got around, people in the Senate of Finland became interested in the experiment as its result would affect the general opinions regarding icebreakers and winter navigation.
USNS Maumee (T-AO-149)
From 1968 to 1971, the ship was also used in the Navy's "Operation Deep Freeze II", where it was used to transport fuel supplies to McMurdo Sound (South Pole). It was the largest ship to visit Antarctica, and was led into the ice pack by ice breakers. She eventually was reclassified as a "transport oiler", resulting her redesignation from "T-AO-149" (as an oiler) to "T-AOT-149" (as a transport oiler).
SS Manhattan (1962)
SS "Manhattan" was an oil tanker constructed at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts that became the first commercial ship to cross the Northwest Passage in 1969. Having been built as an ordinary tanker in 1962, she was refitted for this voyage with an icebreaker bow in 1968–69. Registered in the United States at the time, she was the largest US merchant vessel as well as the biggest icebreaker in history.
Viktor Chernomyrdin (icebreaker)
"Viktor Chernomyrdin" will be long overall and have a maximum moulded beam of . When ballasted to the maximum draught of , her displacement is approximately 22,000 tonnes. However, the vessel can also operate at a reduced draught of in shallow waters. These main dimensions make "Viktor Chernomyrdin" the largest diesel-powered icebreaker in the world, second only to the Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Sibir (1937 icebreaker)
The "I. Stalin" was the biggest icebreaker of the Soviet fleet at that time. In 1938 it reached the Arctic in its first expedition.
Sparta (ship)
Pack ice meant nearby vessels such as the Norwegian "Seljevaer" and the "Sparta's" Russian sister ship "Chiyo Maru 3" were unable to come to "Sparta's" aid. The crew of the "Sparta", made up of 16 Indonesians, 15 Russians and a Ukrainian researcher, had to wait until 26 December 2011 when the South Korean icebreaker "RV Araon" arrived. One of the "Araon's" first tasks was to pump fuel into the raised side of the "Sparta", thus lifting the damaged hull and exposing it to the air. The hole was patched with a concrete box, after which the ship was deemed seaworthy. The "Araon" cleared a path through the ice for the "Sparta" to follow into open waters, to rejoin her sister ship and sail to New Zealand for repairs.
Icebreaker
The steam-powered icebreakers were resurrected in the late 1950s when the Soviet Union commissioned the first nuclear-powered icebreaker, "Lenin", in 1959. It had a nuclear-turbo-electric powertrain in which the nuclear reactor was used to produce steam for turbogenerators, which in turn produced electricity for propulsion motors. Starting from 1975, the Russians commissioned six "Arktika"-class nuclear icebreakers of which the last, 2007-built "50 Let Pobedy", is the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world at . In addition, two shallow-draft "Taymyr"-class nuclear icebreakers were built in Finland for the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. The Soviets also built a nuclear-powered icebreaking cargo ship, "Sevmorput", which had a single nuclear reactor and a steam turbine directly coupled to the propeller shaft. Russia, which remains the sole operator of nuclear-powered icebreakers, is currently building a new icebreakers to replace the aging "Arktika" class. The first vessel of this type is expected to enter service in 2017.
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.
List of Great Lakes museum and historic ships
"Col. James M. Schoonmaker" sailed from 1911 to 1980. She was first owned by the Shenango Furnace Company under her present name and was sold to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which renamed her "Willis B Boyer". "Col. James M. Schoonmaker" was the largest bulk freighter in the world when commissioned. In an ambitious restoration, "Col James M. Schoonmaker" was re-christened with its original name July 1, 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the ship's launching in Toledo, Ohio. In October 2012, she was moved with great fanfare from her longtime berth at International Park in Toledo downriver to a site next to the new home of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. Ship and museum are scheduled to open to the public in Spring 2014.
Crystal Serenity
Crystal Serenity was the largest cruise ship ever to navigate the Northwest Passage. Starting on 10 August 2016, the ship sailed from Vancouver to New York City with 1,700 passengers and crew, taking 28 days for the journey. In the Canadian Arctic it successfully made stops at Ulukhaktok and Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island, then passed up Franklin Strait and through the narrow Bellot Strait, adjacent to Zenith Point, the most northerly extension of North America. It explored Beechy Island where Franklin overwintered, followed by seldom visited fjords on the south side of Devon Island, plus fjords on Baffin Island and the village of Pond Inlet. On Sept. 5, 2016 it sailed for Disko Bay in Greenland. Her transit triggered comments on Canada's Arctic sovereignty.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
The ships of the "Arleigh Burke" class are among the largest destroyers built in the United States. Only the , () and classes () are longer. The larger ships were constructed on "Spruance"-class hull forms, but are designated as cruisers due to their radically different mission and weapons systems than the "Spruance" and "Kidd"-class destroyers. The "Arleigh Burke" class were designed with a new, large, water-plane area-hull form characterized by a wide flaring bow which significantly improves sea-keeping ability. The hull form is designed to permit high speed in high sea states.
The designers of "Arleigh Burke" incorporated lessons learned from the "Ticonderoga"-class guided-missile cruisers, which were deemed too expensive to continue building and too difficult to further upgrade. With the "Arleigh Burke" class, the U.S. Navy also returned to all-steel construction. An earlier generation had combined a steel hull with an innovative superstructure made of lighter aluminum to reduce top weight, but the lighter metal proved vulnerable to cracking. Aluminum is also less fire-resistant than steel; a 1975 fire aboard gutted her aluminum superstructure. Battle damage to Royal Navy ships exacerbated by their aluminum superstructures during the 1982 Falklands War supported the decision to use steel. Another lesson from the Falklands War led the navy to protect the ship's vital spaces with double-spaced steel armor (creating a buffer against modern rockets) and kevlar spall liners.
The "Arleigh Burke" design incorporates stealth techniques, such as the angled rather than traditional vertical surfaces and the tripod mainmast, which make the ship more difficult to detect, in particular by antiship missiles. A Collective Protection System makes the "Arleigh Burke" class the first U.S. warships designed with an air-filtration system against nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. Other NBC defenses include a "countermeasure wash down system".
Their Aegis Combat System differs from a traditional rotating radar that mechanically rotates 360 degrees for each sweep scan of the airspace. Instead, Aegis uses a passive electronically scanned array, which allows continual tracking of targets simultaneous with area scans. The system's computer control also allows centralization of the previously separate tracking and targeting functions. The system is also resistant to electronic countermeasures. Their stand-alone Harpoon antiship missile launchers give them an antiship capability with a range in excess of .
With the retirement of the Tomahawk antiship missile variant, only the "Arleigh Burke"-class ships before Flight IIA versions are well-equipped for antisurface warfare with Harpoon launchers. Others are not, but are loaded with SM-2 missiles in their vertical launch cells capable of an antiship mode, though they have limited range and damage potential.
Admiral Makarov (icebreaker)
Admiral Makarov (Адмирал Макаров) is a large Russian icebreaker operated by the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO). Completed in 1975, she is FESCO's oldest icebreaker. "Admiral Makarov" and her sister ship "Krasin" (1976), are the largest of the four icebreakers in FESCO's fleet. She is named after the Imperial Russian Navy Admiral Stepan Makarov and was one of two icebreakers involved in Operation Breakthrough, an international effort to free three gray whales from pack ice in the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow in the U.S. state of Alaska in 1988.
Taymyr (1987 icebreaker)
While "Taymyr" is slightly smaller than the "Arktika"-class nuclear icebreakers, with an overall length of nearly and beam of she is still among the largest polar icebreakers ever built. At the maximum draught of , "Taymyr" has a displacement of 21,000 tons. However, she can also operate at a reduced draught of only .
Norwegian Breakaway
She is in size, and has capacity for 3,963 passengers, double occupancy. At launch, "Norwegian Breakaway" was the world's ninth largest cruise ship by gross tonnage.The ship has a total of 1,024 staterooms and 238 suites.
CCGS Terry Fox
Designed to escort tankers through ice as a heavy icebreaker, "Terry Fox" and her sisters were designed to act as heavy tugs and supply vessels to support offshore oil rig platforms in a hostile environment. Their bows are spoon-shaped, which allows the ship to ride up on the ice, making it easier to break it. "Terry Fox", as a heavy icebreaker, is certified as Arctic Class 4. This allows the vessel to press through ice up to thick. The ship has a displacement of fully loaded, a and a . "Terry Fox" measures long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The ship is equipped with two Raccal Decca ARPA and one Furuno 1411 navigational radar.
Liftboat
The naval architecture firm A. K. Suda, Ltd. has successfully completed the
design of a 450-foot (137.25m) truss-legged liftboat for Teras Offshore.
Built by Triyards Marine, Saigon Shipyard in HCMC,
Vietnam, this vessel, which is the world’s largest
liftboat, was delivered at the end of 2nd Quarter 2014.
This state-of-the-art vessel is a 3-legged, self-propelled,
self-elevating general service workboat,
known as the BH-450, and is suitable for operation in
the North Sea. It is an ABS classed with Unrestricted
Service, DP-1, Accommodation Service DRC, and
carries a Wind Farm Installation Maintenance and
Repair Certification. The molded steel hull
dimensions are 60m x 54m x 6m. It has two deck
cranes, one leg encircling around the starboard
jackcase, and the other, a pedestal crane on the port
side of the vessel. The quarters arrangement can
accommodate 250 persons including crew.
With the long legs on this vessel, this Self-Elevating
Unit is capable of working in water depths up to 367
feet. A unique feature of this vessel is its easy
deployment. Unlike other vessels in this size
range, this Mobile Offshore Unit has no rack chocks.
Royal Caribbean International
The "Freedom"-class ships are lengthened versions of the second-generation "Voyager"-class ship, and contain a Royal Promenade mall running much of the length of the ship, an ice skating rink, basketball court, several pools, a mini-golf course, and a rock wall. New features on the "Freedom" class include the FlowRider surfing simulator, the H2O Zone kids water play area, a boxing ring, and hot tubs cantilevered over the side of the ship. At 154,407 gross tons, the "Freedom"-class ships were the largest ships in the world from 2006, until the debut of the Oasis class in 2009.
CCGS John G. Diefenbaker
"John G. Diefenbaker" is designed to break level ice with a thickness of and with a snow cover at over 3 knots. In terms of icebreaking capability, this ranks her just below the largest Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers. Her operational range at in Sea State 3 is projected to be over and she can operate in ice at full power for 25 days. The logistical endurance of the vessel will be 270 days. The new icebreaker will be able to achieve a maximum speed of about in open water, but her normal cruising speed is around 12 knots.
Icebreaker
In the 19th century, similar protective measures were adopted to modern steam-powered icebreakers. Some notable sailing ships in the end of the Age of Sail also featured the egg-shaped form like that of Pomor boats, for example the 'Fram", used by Fridtjof Nansen and other great Norwegian Polar explorers. "Fram" was the wooden ship to have sailed farthest north (85°57'N) and farthest south (78°41'S), and one of the strongest wooden ship ever built.
Vaygach (1989 icebreaker)
While "Vaygach" is slightly smaller than the "Arktika"-class nuclear icebreakers, with an overall length of nearly and beam of she is still among the largest polar icebreakers ever built. At the maximum draught of , "Vaygach" has a displacement of 21,000 tons. However, she can also operate at a reduced draught of only .
Windjammer
The largest remaining original windjammer is the four-masted barque "Moshulu", today a restaurant ship moored in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The largest windjammer still sailing is a Russian school ship, the four-masted barque . The last windjammer in original layout is the , today a museum ship at Mariehamn.
Jääkarhu
"Jääkarhu" left Rotterdam on 3 March 1926. When the new icebreaker arrived in Finland on 7 March, she was welcomed by a number of icebound ships outside Utö. After "Sampo" had arrived from Hanko with the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Tyko Reinikka, other representatives of the state, and members of the press, the newest and largest state-owned icebreaker demonstrated her power by easily overcoming the notorious pack ice fields surrounding the island and escorting a convoy of three merchant ships to the open seas. After spending her first winter escorting ships in the Gulf of Finland, "Jääkarhu" arrived in Helsinki on 27 April 1926. In July she was drydocked in Liepāja, Latvia, where her bottom was repainted.
Ice Boat No. 3
To replace "Ice Boat No. 3", the Department ordered a modern icebreaker from William Cramp & Sons at a cost of $350,000. Said to be "the most powerful icebreaker ever constructed" in the United States, and able to do the work of two of the older ice boats combined, the new icebreaker, named "John Weaver" after the Mayor of Philadelphia, entered service in time for the winter of 1906. The new icebreaker eventually became known as "Ice Boat No. 3" after her predecessor.
Royal Arctic Line
The three largest ships the "Naja Arctica" (782 Twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU)), "Nuka Arctica" (782 TEU), and "Mary Arctica" (588 TEU) are principally used for the Aalborg route. The "Irena Arctica" (424 TEU), "Arina Arctica" (283 TEU), and "Pajuttaat" are used within Greenland and have equipment for unloading in cities without harbors. All these container ships are double-hulled and built with high freeboards and the highest ice ratings: the "Mary Arctica" has even been chartered for Antarctic service. The settlement ships "Angaju Ittuk", "Anguteq Ittuk", "Aqqaluk Ittuk", and "Johanna Kristina" are all older and smaller (220–320 m³) and used for supplying the smaller ports. In 2011, the ships had an average on-time rate of 72%.
Double acting ship
The double acting ship concept has been selected as the main transportation concept for the Yamal LNG project. In July 2013, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) won the tender for the construction of sixteen Arc7 ice class LNG carriers and the contract for the first vessel, worth 339.3 billion won ($316.4 million), was signed in March 2014. The Arctic LNG carriers, fitted with three 15MW ABB Azipod propulsion units, are the largest icebreaking vessels in the world with an independent ice-going capability in level ice up to in thickness. The first vessel, "Christophe de Margerie", was launched in January 2016.
Icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels, such as the icebreaking boats that were once used on the canals of the United Kingdom.
Nuclear-powered icebreaker
"Arktika"-class icebreakers have a double hull, with the outer hull being approximately 48 mm thick at the ice-breaking areas and 25 mm thick elsewhere. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. Some ships have polymer coated hulls to reduce friction. "Arktika"-class ships can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards. Although they have two reactors, normally only one is used to provide power, with the other being maintained in a standby mode.
SS Arctic disaster
"Arctic" was the largest and most celebrated of the four Collins steamers that had operated a regular transatlantic passenger and mail carrying service since 1850. After the collision "Arctic"s captain, James Luce, first attempted to assist the stricken "Vesta", which he believed was in imminent danger of sinking. When he discovered that his own ship had been seriously holed below the waterline, he decided to run her towards the nearest land, in the hopes of reaching safety. His plan failed; the engines stopped when the ship was still a considerable distance from land. "Arctic"s lifeboat capacity was sufficient for less than half of those on board; when Luce ordered these launched, a breakdown in order and discipline meant that most places in the boats were taken by members of the crew or the more able-bodied male passengers. The rest struggled to build makeshift rafts, but most were unable to leave the ship, and went down with her when she sank, four hours after the collision. "Vesta", which initially appeared to have sustained mortal damage, was kept afloat by her watertight bulkheads, and managed to limp into harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland.
Diesel–electric transmission
Some modern diesel–electric ships, including cruise ships and icebreakers, use electric motors in pods called azimuth thrusters underneath to allow for 360° rotation, making the ships far more maneuverable. An example of this is "Harmony of the Seas", the largest passenger ship as of 2016.
CCGS D'Iberville
CCGS "D'Iberville" was a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that was in service from 1952 to 1983 and was Canada's first modern icebreaker. The ship commissioned as CGS "D'Iberville" for the Department of Transport's Marine Service, using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship", "D'Iberville" was transferred into the newly-created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. When launched, she was the largest icebreaker in use by Canada post-World War II until was put in service. In 1984, the icebreaker was renamed "Phillip O'Hara" before returning to her old name in 1988. In 1989 the vessel was sold for scrap and broken up at Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
USS Glacier (AGB-4)
USS "Glacier" (AGB-4) (later USCGC "Glacier" (WAG/WAGB-4)) was a U.S. Navy, then U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker which served in the first through fifteenth Operation Deep Freeze expeditions. "Glacier" was first icebreaker to make her way through the frozen Bellingshausen Sea, and most of the topography in the area is named for her crewmembers. When built, "Glacier" had the largest capacity single armature DC motors ever installed on a ship. "Glacier" was capable of breaking ice up to thick, and of continuous breaking of thick ice at .
Norwegian Epic
The "Norwegian Epic" surpasses the "Breakaway"-class as NCL's second largest ship class. The "Breakaway Plus"-class is the largest in the NCL fleet so the . "Norwegian Epic" represents the "third generation" of Freestyle cruising vessels and its size allows NCL to have ships in the "mega-class" of their competitors at Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Lines, though still 32% smaller by gross tonnage than Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas, the world's largest passenger vessels.
List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy
The , the lead ship of the , was the first destroyer named after a living person—World War II Admiral Arleigh Burke. At her commissioning, USS "Arleigh Burke" was extolled as the most powerful surface warship ever built. "Arleigh Burke" is one-third longer and correspondingly heavier than the "Fletcher"-class destroyers of the squadron Burke commanded in World War II; but about the same complement. The "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers were based around the "Aegis" Combat System, like the larger s. The "Arleigh Burke" class was introduced in four "flights": Flight I, consisting of "Arleigh Burke"; Flight IA composed of 20 ships; Flight II, composed of 7 ships; and Flight IIA, composed of 34 ships. The "Arleigh Burke" class became the U.S. Navy's only active destroyer class when the last member of the "Spruance" class was decommissioned in 2005.
Voima (1952 icebreaker)
Despite being the most advanced icebreaker in the world, "Voima" still looked aesthetically pleasing with her low, gently rounded hull and superstructure. Many of her features, such as the open bridge with covered bridge wings, could be traced back to the pre-war steam-powered icebreakers. She had two continuous decks and a long forecastle that contained most of the cabins and social areas for the crew of 58. Although "Voima" was built with two small cargo holds for storage purposes, most of the space under the main deck is occupied by the engine and propulsion motor rooms, making the icebreaker literally "a ship loaded with power". She also has eight heeling tanks that can be used to free the icebreaker from compressive pack ice. Like the steam-powered icebreakers built before the war, she was also fitted with deck gun mounts. During the refit, the old superstructure was completely removed and replaced with an angular deckhouse slightly resembling those of "Sisu" and "Urho". The crew, now accommodated in individual cabins high in the superstructure away from the noises generated by the icebreaking process, was reduced to 44 due to advancing automation. Later the crew has been further reduced to 21.
Icebar Orlando
Icebar Orlando (stylized as ICEBAR Orlando) is an ice bar located in International Drive in Orlando, Florida. At over , the company claims that it is the world's largest permanent ice bar. Its decor, furniture and glassware are constructed entirely of ice, and the bar also has various ice carvings. Icebar Orlando also runs a bar and nightclub named the Fire Lounge, which is located next to the ice bar and is maintained at a standard room temperature.
List of Great Lakes museum and historic ships
is a vessel designed for icebreaking duties on the Great Lakes. "Mackinaw" was home-ported in Cheboygan, Michigan during its active service. Due to "Mackinaw"s age and expensive upkeep, the cutter was decommissioned and replaced with a smaller multipurpose cutter (, which was commissioned in Cheboygan the same day). The old "Mackinaw" moved under its own power on June 21, 2006 from the port of its decommissioning to a permanent berth (at the dock) at the ship's namesake port, Mackinaw City, Michigan, where she now serves as the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
Icicle (yacht)
Icicle is the name of the largest ice yacht ever built. It was built for John Aspinwall Roosevelt for racing on the Hudson River, New York state in 1869.
It was 21 metres (68 ft 11 inches) long and carried 99 m² (1070 ft²) of canvas. The yacht is still, nearly 140 years later, recognized by the "Guinness Book of Records" as a world record.
Voima (1952 icebreaker)
With an overall length of and a moulded beam of , "Voima" was once the longest and widest icebreaker ever built in Finland. At a draft of , her waterline measures in length and she can break a channel with a width of . Although her refit increased the draft of the ship to and displacement from 4,415 tons to 5,209 tons, she is now the smallest and lightest of the Finnish state-owned icebreakers. "Voima" was built to the highest ice class at the time, Lloyd's Register 1A, with a fully welded hull and shell plating measuring in thickness in the ice belt. Her ice strengthening was further increased in the refit. While "Voima" holds the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class, 1A Super, it has hardly any meaning for icebreakers which are of considerably stronger build than merchant ships operating in their care.
Ilya Muromets (2016 icebreaker)
Ilya Muromets (; also referred to as "Project 21180") is a Russian icebreaker. The vessel was built by Admiralty Shipyard in Saint Petersburg and commissioned on 30 November 2017. She is the first icebreaker built for the Russian Navy in almost 40 years.
Nuclear-powered icebreaker
The icebreakers have also been used for a number of scientific expeditions in the Arctic. On August 17, 1977, was the first surface vessel in the world to reach the North Pole. Since 1989, some icebreakers have been used for Arctic tourist cruises.
RMS Titanic
The wreck of "Titanic" was discovered in 1985 (more than 70 years after the disaster), during a US military mission and remains on the seabed. The ship was split in two and is gradually disintegrating at a depth of . Thousands of artefacts have been recovered and displayed at museums around the world. "Titanic" has become one of the most famous ships in history; her memory is kept alive by numerous works of popular culture, including books, folk songs, films, exhibits, and memorials. "Titanic" is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister , the largest ever sunk, although she holds the record as the largest sunk while actually in service as a liner due to "Britannic" being used as a hospital ship at the time of her sinking. The final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97.
SS Keewatin
"Keewatin" is one of the largest of the remaining Edwardian era passenger steamers left in the world. The ship has thus become a time capsule of those days, along with a few other ships lucky enough to survive, such as , lake steamer TSS "Earnslaw" (1913), (currently still operational in New Zealand), and surviving ex-Manly ferry MV "Baragoola" (1922) (out of service held in Australia). "Keewatin" is also noted as part of the evolution of the Great Lakes as a strong maritime center, and her long service record is attributed to her popularity and solid engineering.
Icebreaker
The world's first diesel-electric icebreaker was the 4,330-ton Swedish icebreaker in 1933. At divided between two propellers in the stern and one propeller in the bow, she remained the most powerful Swedish icebreaker until the commissioning of in 1957. "Ymer" was followed by the Finnish , the first diesel-electric icebreaker in Finland, in 1939. Both vessels were decommissioned in the 1970s and replaced by much larger icebreakers in both countries, the 1976-built in Finland and the 1977-built in Sweden.
Jääkarhu
Although sometimes called the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world by the press in the 1920s, "Jääkarhu" was no match for the Soviet polar icebreakers "Yermak" and "Svyatogor" that had nearly twice the displacement and over twice the power of the Finnish icebreaker. However, as a Baltic escort icebreaker she was considered better than the giants and was often compared with the Soviet icebreaker "Lenin", which was roughly of the same size and was considered a very successful design.
Fyodor Litke (1909 icebreaker)
"Litke" became famous for its Arctic operations in 1932–1935, survived World War II and was retired in 1958 after nearly 50 years of service. Unlike conventional icebreakers that crush ice with their own weight from above, "Litke" belonged to an older generation of vessels, relying on ramming and cutting ice without any downward movement. For this reason, "Litke" was uniquely classified as an "ice-cutter" () or "icebreaking steamship" (), rather than a true icebreaker.
Sampo (1898 icebreaker)
After the newest and most powerful state-owned icebreakers, "Voima" and "Jääkarhu", were handed over to Soviet Union as war reparations, Finland was left with four old steam-powered icebreakers and the small diesel-electric "Sisu", which had been rejected due to the extensive damage it had sustained in the war. The newest steam-powered icebreaker, "Tarmo", was almost 40 years old and along with the others long overdue for replacement — even the largest Finnish icebreakers were not wide and powerful enough to assist the biggest post-war cargo ships. There was also a severe shortage of coal and occasionally the Finnish icebreakers had to rely on firewood. The steam-powered icebreakers were completely overhauled for the last time in 1951–1952 when they finally received modern navigation equipment — even as late as 1952 some had neither gyrocompass, sonar nor radar — and their crew spaces were rebuilt to modern standards. There were talks about converting the furnaces of "Sampo" from coal to oil, but it was not deemed necessary as the old icebreaker was due to decommissioning in the near future.
List of icebreakers
The following icebreaking supply ships have been used in the Caspian oil fields:The following lists include icebreakers owned and/or operated by both government-owned as well as commercial entities.The following ships are anchor handling tug supply vessels, platform supply vessels, research vessels, patrol vessels or other multipurpose vessels with significant icebreaking capability.
Three icebreaking anchor handling tug supply vessels were chartered by the Swedish Maritime Administration for escort icebreaking duties in the Baltic Sea until 2015.
Suur Tõll (icebreaker)
When "Suur Tõll" was delivered in 1914, she was one of the most modern icebreakers in the world. Extensively electrified, she had electrical lighting and her anchor windlass, winches and two coal cranes were all powered by electricity to avoid having easily freezing steam pipes on the deck. Furthermore, she had an electrical salvage pump that could be transported to a grounded ship in a boat or on a sledge over ice without bringing the icebreaker too close to the shallow waters. When delivered, her radio station had a range of , but it was later increased to .
RV Kronprins Haakon
With a length of , beam of and draft of , "Kronprins Haakon" is the largest Norwegian icebreaker ever built despite being slightly shorter than "Svalbard", the 6,375-ton icebreaking offshore patrol vessel operated by the Norwegian Coast Guard. The research vessel has accommodation for 55 personnel in 38 cabins, including a crew of 15–17. She is equipped with hangar for two small to medium-sized helicopters, but the helipad in the bow is strengthened also for the heavier helicopters such as NHIndustries NH90 operated by the Norwegian Coast Guard and Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma search and rescue (SAR) helicopters based in Svalbard.
Polaris (icebreaker)
Although the topic of ordering a new icebreaker surfaced from time to time, funding for the vessel projected to cost 100 to 120 million euro was not included in the budget until 2012 when 125 million euro was allocated for a new vessel with a design lifetime of 50 years. Of this, 25 million euro would come from the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) program of the European Union. Initially, the new icebreaker was supposed to replace the 1954-built "Voima", the oldest and smallest icebreaker in the Finnish state-owned fleet as well as technically the oldest icebreaker in the world still in active service. However, when the new icebreaker was ordered, it was stated that the new vessel would primarily replace the "Atle"-class icebreaker "Frej" that the Finnish government has chartered from Sweden while "Voima" would remain in limited service.
Nuclear-powered icebreaker
A nuclear-powered icebreaker is a nuclear-powered ship purpose-built for use in waters covered with ice. The only country constructing nuclear-powered icebreakers is Russia. Nuclear-powered icebreakers have been constructed by the USSR and later Russia primarily to aid shipping along the Northern Sea Route in the frozen Arctic waterways north of Siberia. Nuclear-powered icebreakers are much more powerful than their diesel-powered counterparts, and although nuclear propulsion is expensive to install and maintain, very heavy fuel demands and limitations on range, compounded with the difficulty of refueling in arctic region, can make diesel vessels less practical and economical overall for these ice-breaking duties.
Timeline of United States discoveries
The RMS "Titanic" was an "Olympic" class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, in what is now Northern Ireland. At the time of her construction, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world. Shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912, four days into the ship's maiden voyage, "Titanic" struck an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on April 15, 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. After nearly 74 years of being lost at sea on the bottom of the ocean floor, a joint Franco-American expedition led by American oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the wreckage of the RMS "Titanic" two miles (3 km) beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on September 1, 1985. Ballard was then forced to wait a year for weather conditions favorable to a manned mission to view the wreck at close range. In 1986, Ballard and his two-man crew, in the ALVIN submersible, made the first two and-a-half hour descent to the ocean floor to view the wreck first-hand. Over the next few days, they descended again and again and, using the Jason Jr. remote camera, recorded the first scenes of the ruined interior of the luxury liner.
Brazilian icebreaker Almirante Maximiano
"Almirante Maximiano" (H-41) is an icebreaker and oceanographic research ship of the Brazilian Navy. The ship bears this name in honor of Admiral Maximiano Eduardo da Silva Fonseca. It was built by the Todd Pacific Shipyards of Seattle, Washington, and was launched on 13 February 1974. It was acquired by the Brazilian Navy on 3 September 2008 for the Brazilian Antarctic Program. Prior to Brazilian service, the ship served commercial operations under the names "Ocean Empress", "Naeraberg", "American Empress", "Maureen Sea", "Scotoil I" and "Theriot Offshore I".
Icebreaker
With its rounded shape and strong metal hull, the Russian of 1864 was an important predecessor of modern icebreakers with propellers. The ship was built on the orders of merchant and shipbuilder Mikhail Britnev. It had the bow altered to achieve an ice-clearing capability (20° raise from keel line). This allowed "Pilot" to push herself on the top of the ice and consequently break it. Britnev fashioned the bow of his ship after the shape of old Pomor boats, which had been navigating icy waters of the White Sea and Barents Sea for centuries. "Pilot" was used between 1864–1890 for navigation in the Gulf of Finland between Kronstadt and Oranienbaum thus extending the summer navigation season by several weeks. Inspired by the success of "Pilot", Mikhail Britnev built a second similar vessel "Boy" ("Breakage" in Russian) in 1875 and a third "Booy" ("Buoy" in Russian) in 1889.
The cold winter of 1870–1871 caused the Elbe River and the port of Hamburg to freeze over, causing a prolonged halt to navigation and huge commercial losses. Carl Ferdinand Steinhaus resused the altered bow "Pilot"s design from Britnev to make his own icebreaker, "Eisbrecher I".
The first true modern sea-going icebreaker was built at the turn of the 20th century. Icebreaker , was built in 1897 at the Armstrong Whitworth naval yard in England under contract from the Imperial Russian Navy. The ship borrowed the main principles from "Pilot" and applied them to the creation of the first polar icebreaker, which was able to run over and crush pack ice. The ship displaced 5,000 tons, and its steam-reciprocating engines delivered . The ship decommissioned and scrapped in 1963, making it one of the longest serving icebreakers in the world.
Viktor Chernomyrdin (icebreaker)
Viktor Chernomyrdin (Russian: "Виктор Черномырдин"; also referred to as Project 22600 or LK-25) is a Russian icebreaker. When completed, the 22,000-ton icebreaker will be the largest diesel-powered icebreaker in the world.
MT Mastera
The icebreaking capability of the double acting tankers proved to be superior to other ships since the beginning — in shuttle service between Primorsk, Russia, and the Finnish refineries the tankers require no icebreaker assistance and have even acted as an icebreaker for other merchant ships that have utilized the wide channel opened by the Aframax tanker. However, this has not been intentional — when the world's largest 1A Super class ice tanker "Stena Arctica", also owned by Neste Shipping, became stuck in ice outside the port of Primorsk during the winter of 2009–2010, a decision was made to leave the assisting to Russian icebreakers.
Suleyman Kerimov
From 2005-2015, Kerimov owned one of the world's largest private yachts, which is known as "Ice". Previously known as "Air", she was built by German company Lürssen in 2005. "Ice" measures 295 feet (90 metres) in length, and can reach a speed of 18.6 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She has won the Superyacht of the Year award at the World Superyacht Awards in 2006, and is currently the 54th largest yacht in the world. He sold "Ice" to Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue's Equatorial Guinea interests in 2015.
Icebreaker
Today, most icebreakers are needed to keep trade routes open where there are either seasonal or permanent ice conditions. While the merchant vessels calling ports in these regions are strengthened for navigation in ice, they are usually not powerful enough to manage the ice by themselves. For this reason, in the Baltic Sea, the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and along the Northern Sea Route, the main function of icebreakers is to escort convoys of one or more ships safely through ice-filled waters. When a ship becomes immobilized by ice, the icebreaker has to free it by breaking the ice surrounding the ship and, if necessary, open a safe passage through the ice field. In difficult ice conditions, the icebreaker can also tow the weakest ships.
Factory ship
The world's largest freezing trawler by gross tonnage is the 144-metre-long "Annelies Ilena ex Atlantic Dawn." In 2015, the "Annelies Ilena" was detained by the Irish Navy and the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency for breach of regulations. The owners were subsequently fined 105,000 Euros for illegally fishing in Irish waters. She is able to process 350 tonnes of fish a day, can carry 3,000 tons of fuel, and store 7,000 tons of graded and frozen catch. She uses on board forklift trucks to aid discharging.
Zidell Companies
Shortly after the end of World War II, in 1946, Sam Zidell's son Emery, who now headed the business, purchased the shipyard of Commercial Iron Works in Portland and turned it into a shipbreaking yard, called the Zidell Ship Dismantling Company. With scrap steel in high demand for rebuilding America's industrial base in the postwar period, business boomed and by the 1960s the company, now known as Zidell Explorations, Inc., had become America's largest shipbreaker. In the course of its thirty years of shipbreaking operations, Zidell dismantled a total of 336 ships, including many World War II-era Liberty ships and naval auxiliaries, and some warships.
Nuclear-powered icebreaker
In all, ten civilian nuclear-powered vessels have been built in the USSR and Russia. Nine of these are icebreakers, and one is a container ship with an icebreaking bow. All six nuclear-powered icebreakers of the "Arktika" class have been built at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. "Vaigach" and "Taimyr" were built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Finland and then brought to Russia for installation of the reactors and turbogenerators.
CCGS D'Iberville
In 1972, "D'Iberville" was one of three icebreaking escorts for a convoy of cargo ships travelling to Mokka Fjord and Eureka. This was the largest convoy to travel that far north into Canada's Arctic. In 1976, in conjunction with , "D'Iberville" travelled into the Northwest Passage to aid after the small icebreaker damaged both her propellers. In 1981, "D'Iberville" made her last Arctic voyage. The ship was decommissioned in 1983. The vessel was laid up first at Quebec City, then at Sorel. Renamed "Phillip O'Hara" in 1984 and back to "D'Iberville" in 1988, the icebreaker was sold for scrap in 1989 and broken up at Kaoshiung, Taiwan.
Aurora Borealis (icebreaker)
Aurora Borealis is a proposed European research icebreaker, comparable to the world's strongest icebreakers, planned jointly by a consortium of fifteen participant organizations and companies from ten European nations. If built, she would be the largest icebreaker ever built as well as the first icebreaker built to the highest IACS ice class, Polar Class 1.
HMS Ontario (1780)
HMS "Ontario" was a British warship that sank in a storm in Lake Ontario on 31 October 1780, during the American Revolutionary War. She was a 22-gun snow, and, at in length, the largest British warship on the Great Lakes at the time. The shipwreck was discovered in 2008 by Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. "Ontario" was found largely intact and very well preserved in the cold water. Scoville and Kennard assert that "the 80-foot sloop of war is the oldest shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes."
Nuclear marine propulsion
The Soviet icebreaker "Lenin" was the world's first nuclear-powered surface vessel in 1959 and remained in service for 30 years (new reactors were fitted in 1970). It led to a series of larger icebreakers, the 23,500 ton of six vessels, launched beginning in 1975. These vessels have two reactors and are used in deep Arctic waters. NS "Arktika" was the first surface vessel to reach the North Pole.
Titanic replica (Sichuan)
In 1912, the original "Titanic" set out on its maiden and only voyage from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York City. Five days into the voyage, the ship hit an iceberg and sank, killing approximately 1,500 of the 2,224 aboard. "Titanic" was the largest ship of its time.
Emma Mærsk
Emma Mærsk is the first container ship in the E-class of eight owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When launched in 2006 she was the largest container ship ever built, and in 2010 she and her seven sister ships were among the longest container ships. Officially, she is able to carry around or 14,770 TEU depending on definition. In May 2010, her sister ship "Ebba Mærsk" set a record of in Tanger-Med, Tangiers.
Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessel
In 2006 Prime Minister Stephen Harper had spoken about building three to four icebreakers capable of travelling through thick ice in the Arctic Ocean. In 2007 it was announced that the Canadian Forces would purchase six to eight patrol ships having an ice class of Polar Class 5, meaning that they were capable of limited ice breaking, based on the "Svalbard" class. This announcement was met with some controversy, and the proposed ships have been called "slush-breakers", by Dr. Gary Stern, a scientist aboard , and Jack Layton of the NDP. However, it is notable that of the nineteen Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers currently in service, only six have an ice class higher than Polar Class 5.
HMCS Micmac (R10)
However the selection of the Halifax yard also had several advantages. While Halifax Shipyards had not produced a large number of ships, it had produced some advanced and successful vessels. Two of its 1920 refrigerated freighters, SS "Canadian Cruiser" and were very large by Canadian standards, and remained the largest Canadian steel ships built until the end of the war. The icebreaker built by the yard, CGS "N.B. McLean" was a powerful and long-serving ship as well as one of the largest icebreakers in the word when constructed. The Halifax yard also benefited from the proximity of naval staff at the RCN's Halifax Naval Dockyard adjoining just to the south of the Halifax Shipyard. Finally, an important consideration for the wartime operation of the crucial convoy port of Halifax was the destroyer program's retention of a skilled workforce which helped stabilize the repair capacity of the port. Demand for skilled shipyard works soared in the winter but fell off in the summer causing many workers to leave. The destroyer program kept a large year round workforce available that could be switch from repair to new ship construction as needed.,
Sisu (1938 icebreaker)
The Finnish Board of Navigation decommissioned "Sisu", now the oldest and smallest icebreaker in the state-owned fleet, in 1974. At the time, Finland had a fleet of nine diesel-electric icebreakers in service and two more under construction. The new icebreakers, which had nearly five times the displacement and more than five times the power of the old "Sisu", were designed to guarantee year-round traffic to all Finnish ports in the Bothnian Bay. The second of these icebreakers was named "Sisu" in 1975.
Pilot (icebreaker)
With its rounded shape and strong metal hull, "Pilot" had all the main features present in the modern icebreakers, therefore it is often considered the first true icebreaker. Another contender for this title is icebreaker "Yermak", built in England for Russia according to the design of Admiral Stepan Makarov and under his supervision. Makarov borrowed the main principles from "Pilot" and applied them for creation of the first polar icebreaker, which was able to run over and crush pack ice.
USCGC Healy (WAGB-20)
USCGC "Healy" (WAGB-20) is the United States' largest and most technologically advanced icebreaker as well as the US Coast Guard's largest vessel. She is classified as a medium icebreaker by the U.S. Coast Guard. She is homeported in Seattle, Washington and was commissioned in 1999. On September 5, 2015, USCGC "Healy" became the first unaccompanied United States surface vessel to reach the North Pole.
Polaris (icebreaker)
While all Finnish state-owned icebreakers survived the war, Finland had to hand over its newest and most powerful steam-powered icebreakers to the Soviet Union as war reparations. The rebuilding of the icebreaker fleet began in the early 1950s with the commissioning of the diesel-electric "Voima", the first icebreaker in the world to feature two bow propellers, in 1954. She was followed by two more icebreakers before the end of the decade to replace the steam-powered pre-war icebreakers now deemed obsolete, four in the 1960s to answer to the demands of the growing foreign trade, and finally three in the 1970s to keep all Finnish ports open through the winter.
Moskva (1959 icebreaker)
Moskva (Russian: "Москва") was a Soviet polar icebreaker and the lead ship of a series of five diesel-electric icebreakers named after major Soviet cities. She was built at Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, in 1960 and was at the time of her delivery the largest and most powerful non-nuclear icebreaker ever built. Shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, "Moskva" was decommissioned after a long and successful career along the Northern Sea Route and sold for scrap in 1992.
Derecktor Shipyards
Derecktor Shipyards is an American ship building company located in Mamaroneck, New York and founded in 1947 by Robert E. Derecktor. The company is known for building "Cakewalk V", one of the largest yachts ever built in the United States. Derecktor currently operates two facilities, one in Mamaroneck, New York, which is focused upon the construction and repair of custom yachts and small commercial vessels, and the other in Dania Beach, Florida, which is dedicated to the maintenance, repair and refitting of mega-yachts up to 200’ in length. According to sources, Bob “Old Man” Derecktor is remembered by some for his tough rhetoric and direct leadership, the most notable example of which occurred at a Company Christmas party circa 1970 in which he separated all Production employees to one side of the room and all non-production employees to the other. After separating the groups he remarked “all you non-Production people need to understand one thing: you are here to support the people on the other side of the room, and if you can’t understand that, than there is the door.”
Vitus Bering (icebreaker)
"Vitus Bering" is long overall. Her hull has a moulded breadth of and depth of to upper deck. When loaded to a draught of , the deadweight tonnage of the ship is 4,158 tons. The four Wärtsilä diesel generating sets — two twelve-cylinder 12V32 and two six-cylinder 6L32 engines — have a combined output of and provide power for all shipboard consumers, including two 6.5 MW ABB Azipod VI1600 propulsion units. A double acting ship, "Vitus Bering" is designed to be able to break ice both ahead and astern. She is capable of operating in ice up to thick and maintain a speed of in level ice with a thickness of . Her ice class, assigned by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, is "Icebreaker6".
Otso (icebreaker)
Although the "Otso" is slightly shorter than her predecessors "Urho" and "Sisu", she is slightly wider and was, at the time of her delivery, the widest subarctic icebreaker in the world with a beam of . However, with a maximum draft of and a minimum operating draft of only , "Otso" is able to escort ships to shallower ports than her predecessors. The displacement of the icebreaker is 9,130 tons.
Norwegian Breakaway
"Norwegian Breakaway" is home ported at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in Manhattan, making seven-night cruises to Bermuda (May thru Sept) and seven-night cruises to the Bahamas & Florida (October thru April). She is the largest cruise ship homeported year-round from New York City. Beginning in late 2018, Breakaway will leave New York, traveling to New Orleans, followed by Miami in early 2019, before sailing out of the Orlando-area port in November 2019.
Arktika (1972 icebreaker)
NS "Arktika" () is a retired nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Soviet (now Russian) "Arktika" class. In service from 1975 to 2008, she was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole, a feat achieved on August 17, 1977 during the expedition, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Great October.
Kontio (icebreaker)
Although the "Kontio" is slightly shorter than her predecessors "Urho" and "Sisu", she is slightly wider and was, at the time of her delivery, the widest subarctic icebreaker in the world with a beam of . However, with a maximum draft of and a minimum operating draft of only , "Kontio" is able to escort ships to shallower ports than her predecessors. The displacement of the icebreaker is 9,130 tons.
Ward Hunt Ice Shelf
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in the Arctic, located on the north coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. During the 20th century the Ellesmere Ice Shelf broke up into six separate shelves, the largest being Ward Hunt. Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is about in size, and has been in place for approximately 3,000 years as part of a continuous ice shelf that encompassed the northern coast of Ellesmere Island until the beginning of the twentieth century. In 2005 one of the other shelves, the Ayles Ice Shelf, calved completely.
Aiviq
The vessel has been called the world's largest privately owned icebreaker.