Icebreaker trying to reach trapped ship in Antarctica also stonewalled by ice

CNN ^ | December 28, 2013 | By Michael Martinez, Holly Yan and CY Xu

[jpsb]

Here is a pic of the stuck ship the one in blue, the red one is the Chinese ice breaker.

[cva66snipe]

Thanks. I doubt it has over 20 feet of draft looking at it. Finland built Russian registered. One thing is puzzling. Once you hit ice the smartest thing to do is get out fast and not head into it unless there is no choice. In this case turning around and loosing the trip profits would have been cheaper.

[jpsb]

Captain screwed up? He almost made it, got within 2 miles of open water. If he’d left and hour early he would have made it. Damn the bad luck. Well it is going to be very expressive to get that ship free. Not a sure thing that the two smaller ice breakers can get to her. Most likely a real polar ice breaker will be needed. The ship appears to be listing slightly, she’s feeling the ice.

[cva66snipe]

Well according to scientific predictions by “global warming zealots” they should be in at least 60 degree sea water temps LOL. Yea it does look like it's listing to it's port side some. They have the ladder down at the deck house also looks like. Looking at another thread the passengers seem to be oblivious to the seriousness. I'd say the pucker factor among crew is about 1000 times normal right now. They have enough sense to realize what might happen and the dangers of even an airlift rescue.

[jpsb]

Yes I am reminded of the Canadian helo crew that died trying to save fool tourists attempting the north west passage last year. Well off to bed form me, later.

[grey_whiskers]

That’s just *begging* to be made into some kind of meme with snarky captions.

I propose...

GLOBAL WARMING

[picture]

IS NEITHER

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Hey comrades. Try a couple small nukes on the ice. That’ll do it fur sur.

Also, your ships will glow at night so you’ll save money on running lights.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Not as long as there is money to be gotten from grants.

[Candor7]

Send in the Canadjuns! Send in the Canadian icebreaker Louis St. Laurant.

[fso301]

If true the ship would be ten - thirten feet in ice. That could possibly start to put the ships power plants and propulsion in danger. Once the sea water intake and discharge ports freeze up the ship can't function. That would include back up generator.

Photos of the Russian vessel show its bow up on the ice and listing a few degrees. I think it is going to have to be abandoned.

What most people don't know about the strength of ice is that in WWII, the Red Army made train bridges of ice to cross frozen rivers and lakes. They would pump water onto the existing ice and built up a layer to the required thickness and then lay track across it.

They could build an ice bridge faster than a conventional bridge and that in part greatly aided them in their winter offensives.