Posted on 09/10/2015 11:03:13 AM PDT by thackney
Our nation's youngest icebreaker – US Coast Guard Cutter Healy – is all grown up, becoming the first US surface ship Saturday to make the trip to the North Pole unaccompanied.
Submarines normally follow ships underneath the ice.
Admittedly, "all grown up" might be the wrong phrase, Healy is a 420-foot, 16,000-ton, 30,000-horsepower ship, that’s capable of breaking more than 10 feet of ice.
The vessel made the journey from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in less than a month, powering through the frigid water and enormous blocks of ice one week ahead of schedule.
In addition to helping the Coast Guard’s law enforcement mission and search-and-rescue efforts, the ship functions as a research platform replete with lab spaces, oceanographic deck winches, and berthing for 50 scientists.
Healy’s northern expedition is part of the GEOTRACES mission, which is an international research effort to study the world’s oceans.
"As the Arctic region continues to open up to development, the data gathered on board Healy during this cruise will become ever more essential to understanding how the scientific processes of the Arctic work, and how to most responsibly exercise stewardship over the region," said the Coast Guard in a statement.
The trip to the top of the world began on Aug. 9 and was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Scientists aboard the Healy attempted to gather ice samples and measurements while on the voyage, but found slushy conditions, instead of solid ice until they were within 100 miles of the North Pole, they said in a press release.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
What will it do there?
Destroy the prehistoric killer virus from six threads down from this one?
Grapple that Russian flag off the bottom and return it to Putin?
Go fishing?
Capture the flag?
break the ice into small chucks for use during happy hour.
Will this cut back significantly the current polar crime wave?
Physically the north pole or just the region?
This will be a platform for Obama to ‘in his eyes’ prove the global warming claim. Never before has a vessel made it to the north pole, the ice must be thinner and melting.
Knowing Ø, serve lunch to the Russians.
Bury Obama’s BC and transcripts.
What’s the carbon footprint for powering a 30,000 hp ship for 2 months?
Actual North Pole.
http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgchealy/aws15/150906.asp
Despite challenging ice conditions, we made great time through the ice this week and arrived at the “top of the world” about a week earlier than planned. The cooperation and teamwork between the deck crew and scientists has been a key to our success. HEALY encountered the thickest ice during the 200 mile transit between 82°; and 85°;N. It was up to ten feet thick, and demanded three engines and careful ice piloting by the bridge team to keep the ship safe and transiting in the right direction. From time to time, the ice became so thick we were stopped dead in our tracks and needed to back up several hundred yards to give ourselves room to pick up speed and ram into the ice to break it. This so called “backing and ramming” is felt by the entire crew, as the entire ship rocks and rolls, and bounces as it crushes through the ice.
Though this area of thicker ice slowed us to 3 knots, we daily progressed toward the pole. Morale is high, as the crew celebrates our accomplishment, but our long and arduous journey is far from finished. More ice and science stations await us once we depart the North Pole and begin our transit south; heading further east than our northbound track carried us.
Not true. First time a US ship did it unaccompanied by another.
That’s the only heavy icebreaker we have.
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