Le Commandant Charcot
French icebreaking cruise ship
Le Commandant Charcot (French: [l(ə) kɔmɑ̃dɑ̃ ʃaʁko]) is an icebreaking cruise ship operated by the French shipping company Compagnie du Ponant. Named after the French polar scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot, the vessel was built at Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania, from where she was moved to Søviknes for final outfitting and delivery in 2021.
01Description
Le Commandant Charcot is a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaking vessel capable of reaching remote polar destinations such as the Geographic North Pole. She features a hybrid power plant powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 5 MWh electric batteries, capable of briefly driving the ship without engines running.
02Design and construction
The ship was launched in March 2020 and left the yard in Romania on 29 March, heading for Norway. She arrived at VARD shipyard in Søvik, Haram, Norway on 28 April 2020. In June 2021, she was in the Arctic for the first time during sea trials.
03Notable events
After delivery on 29 July 2021, Le Commandant Charcot sailed from mainland Norway to Svalbard and from there to the Geographic North Pole, where she arrived on 6 September 2021.
In December 2021, the ship went on a 16-day exploration cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula, allowing passengers to experience a total solar eclipse from the Weddell Sea ice pack.
In February 2022, Le Commandant Charcot collaborated with the British Antarctic Survey research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough in Antarctica. The cruise ship, capable of breaking much thicker ice, created a channel for the research vessel in second-year ice covered with thick layer of snow in Stange Sound.
In late July 2022, Le Commandant Charcot accompanied the Norwegian polar research vessel Kronprins Haakon to the North Pole.
In June 2024, Le Commandant Charcot participated in a multinational rescue and assistance exercise Operation Tugaalik together with the Royal Danish Navy frigate HDMS Triton, French Navy offshore support and assistance vessel Rhône, and Icelandic Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel ICGV Þór.
On 12 September 2024, Le Commandant Charcot became the first ship to reach the northern pole of inaccessibility, the point within the Arctic Ocean farthest from any landmass, during a transarctic voyage from Alaska to Svalbard. On the same voyage, the ship also passed through the north magnetic pole on 13 September and Geographic North Pole on 15 September.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Le Commandant Charcot”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Le Commandant Charcot during Operation Tugaalik in June 23, 2024 (1).jpg by U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Cmdr. Krystyn Pecora, Public domain
- Le Commandant Charcot Stockholm.jpg by Skrällinge, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Le Commandant Charcot during Operation Tugaalik in June 23, 2024 (3).jpg by U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Cmdr. Krystyn Pecora, Public domain
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