Tanker becomes first to cross Arctic without icebreaker | Hacker News Reader

Tanker becomes first to cross Arctic without icebreaker

money.cnn.com

68 pointsmcone19 comments

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CNN article fails to mention that tanker is an icebreaker.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/24/russian-...

"On its maiden voyage, the innovative tanker used its integral icebreaker to cross ice fields 1.2m thick"

You're quibbling over semantics. The article clearly mentions the ships ability to navigate through ice,

specially designed to sail independently through ice as thick as 2.1 meters

Does that make it "an icebreaker"? The 2 articles seem to use the term to describe a ship specifically designed to break ice, e.g. "massive, nuclear-powered Russian icebreakers", not a cargo transport ship.

The article specifically says the tanker is designed to operate independently, without need for an ice breaker:

> But the Christophe de Margerie, named for a former CEO of French oil giant Total, is specially designed to sail independently through ice as thick as 2.1 meters (nearly 7 feet), its owner said.

So, the article is interesting but the stated "first" seems like it would have happened anyway, because the ship was designed specifically for the task.

It's always so weird to see maps from the arctic perspective. That these routes are all fairly close parallel lines, and moderately short by global standards, is so strange. I remember thinking the same thing when first seeing the ICBM routes from USSR to USA, how they just straight over the arctic and how counterintuitively close USA and USSR really were.

I'm really dreading the first major spill. The ecosystem up there is pretty fragile to begin with, lots of species that don't live anywhere else, and as the article mentions a cleanup would be impossible.

I'm afraid this ecosystem will die anyway as the ice thaws.

The fossil fuels that are transported that way will further that process one way or the other.

As the article mentions, this was enabled by climate change making the ice much thinner than usual this summer.

Also because the ship was specially designed to break ice like an ice breaking ship does.

You see headlines like this every couple years. The first ship to do this did it in 1906 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gj%C3%B8a, and it was done again in in 1942 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Roch_(ship)

I'm sure we'll be seeing these articles much more often than in the past now.

Articles claiming it is the first have no more reason for being written after this one.

Except, this was a specially designed ship that likely would have made the journey alone anyway.

When a non-specialised ship goes through without an ice breaker will be another first.

But not articles saying "operate in the harsh Arctic waters year round rather than just the summer months."

Agree that navigation of the northern passage of itself is not new, but the anticipated year round transit without icebreaker is.

The article isn't describing a crossing of the Northwest Passage, it is about a crossing of the Northeast Passage.

These aren't at all the same thing as the current story. The 1906 expedition took three years. The St. Roch took two years.

i.e. these were major expeditions of the "visit the South Pole" sort, not commercial ventures that took a couple weeks.

So what is the record it broke? - for crossing the Arctic or a record for a non-Arctic route?

Other than the significance of depleted Arctic ice, the significance in the record-breaking time it took is lost on me.

Broke the record by a second perhaps?

Second paragraph:

“The ship, the Christophe de Margerie, traveled from Norway to South Korea in 19 days, about 30% quicker than the regular route through the Suez Canal, its Russian owner, Sovcomflot, said this week.”

I like how the ship is named after the Total CEO :)

I want free trade with Europe! btw im Canada

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