The US Coast Guard Heavy Icebreaker Polar Star(WAGB 10) has finally gone back out to sea following years of engineering upgrades.It joins the Healy(WAGB 20) as the only other heavy icebreaker in the fleet.The Polar Star's sister ship,Polar Sea(WAGB 11),was also upgraded,but suffered an engine failure in 2010 and is slated for decommissioning.
The Polar Star is on a two week shakedown voyage,the Coast Guard said,out of its Seattle homeport.The ship is capable of rocking itself free of ice by means of three pairs of connecting tanks on opposite sides of the ship.Returning it to sea has been a priority in recent years as the Healy was left to do all the Arctic icebreaking on its own.
Polar Star was commissioned in 1976.It is estimated that building a new heavy icebreaker would cost upwards of a billion dollars-no mean feat in these cash-strapped times.
The vessel has five scientific labs and room for 20-35 researchers,in addition to the Coast Guard complement of 134 crew.It is 379 feet long,with a beam of 83.5 feet,and can sail at a speed of 20 knots.
Besides Arctic and Antarctic icebreaking,it supports research in such fields as geology,vulcanology,oceanography and sea-ice physics.
Polar Star carries two helicopters on major deployments.They are used for ice reconnaissance,scientific support,cargo transfer and search and rescue.The ship's armament consists of small arms.
Two blog posts by the Polar Star's crew are posted below to give an idea of the years of engineering work that was done to upgrade the ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment