Table 1. Selected important icebreaking voyages in recent years

Northern Sea Route Reconnaissance Study A Summary of Icebreaking Technology

Figure 1. The Russian icebreaker Yamal, the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent

SR95_17
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Table 1. Selected important icebreaking voyages in recent years (after Brigham 1992).

Lenin

World's first nuclear surface ship com-

USSR

mences icebreaking escort duties

Manhattan

Autumn 1969

Northwest Passage

Experimental voyages to test the feasi-

USA

bility of commercial tankers in the Arctic

Louis S. St.Laurent and

Aug 1976

Northwest Passage

Successful escort of a drill ship from the

Canmar Explorer II

Atlantic to the Canadian Beaufort Sea

Canada

Arktika

Aug 1977

Murmansk to the North

First surface ship to reach the geographic

USSR

Pole and return

North Pole (17 Aug)

Sibir' and Kapitan Myshevskiy

MayJun 1978

Northern Sea Route (north

First high-latitude "trans-Arctic" ice escort

USSR

of Novosibirskiy Islands)

Polar icebreakers and

Navigation season

Barents and Kara seas

First successful year-round navigation from

icebreaking carriers

197879

Murmansk to Dudinka on the Yenisey River

USSR

Polar Star and Polar Sea

197986

Bering, Chukchi, and

Arctic marine transportation ("traffic-

USA

Beaufort seas

ability") studies around Alaska

Polar Sea

JanMar 1981

Bering Sea to Beaufort Sea

First winter transit to Pt. Barrow, Alaska

USA

First high-latitude (above 60S) circum-

Polar Star

Dec 1982Mar 1983 Antarctica

USA

navigation of Antarctica in modern times

Leonid Brezhnev and

OctNov 1983

North coast of Chukotka,

Rescue of 50 cargo ships trapped in ice

12 other icebreakers

Siberia

USSR

Arctic

Aug 1985

Bent Horn, Cameron

First cargo of crude oil from the

Canada

Island

Canadian Arctic

Vladivostok and Somov

JunSep 1985?

Near Russkaya Station,

Rescue of Soviet Antarctic Expedition

USSR

Hobbs Coast, Antarctica

flagship drifting in heavy ice

Three SA-15 icebreaking

NovDec 1985

Northern Sea Route

Experimental navigation season ex-

carriers

tension with sailings from Vancouver

USSR

to Arkangel'sk

Icebird

Fall 1985

Australian Antarctic

Bipolar resupply operations to

FRG

Summer 1986

stations and Japan to

Antarctica and Prudhoe Bay

Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

Polarstern

JulAug 1986

Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Winter oceanographic operations

FRG

Sibir'

MayJun 1987

Central Arctic Basin

Evacuate drift station 27 and establish

USSR

drift station 29; second surface ship to

reach the geographic North Pole (25 May)

SA-15 icebreaking

Summer 1989

Europe to Japan via the

Soviet arctic carriers under charter to

carriers

Northern Sea Route

Western shippers for commmercial voy-

USSR

ages across the top of the Soviet Union

Rossiya

Aug 1990

Central Arctic Basin

Transit to the North Pole (8 Aug) with

USSR

Western tourists aboard

Arctic

Jun 1991

Northwest Passage to the

Earliest seasonal surface ship transit

Canada

Polaris Mine, Little

in eastern reaches of the Northwest

Cornwallis Island

Passages; mine reached 23 Jun

Sovetskiy Soyuz

JulSep 1991

Central Arctic Basin and

Transit to the North Pole and along the

USSR

Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route with Western tourists

Oden and Polarstern

Aug 1991

Central Arctic Basin

International Arctic Ocean Expedition;

Sweden and FRG

reached the North Pole on 7 Sep

Sovetskiy Soyuz

Jul and Aug 1992

Central Arctic Basin

Reached the North Pole on 13 Jul and

Russia

23 Aug

Yamal

Jul and Aug 1993

Central Arctic Basin

Reached the North Pole three times

Russia

on 13 Jul, 8 and 30 Aug

Yamal and Kapitan Branitsyn

Jul 1994

Central Arctic Basin

Reached the North Pole on 21 Jul

Russia

Yamal

Aug 1994

Central Arctic Basin

Reached the North Pole on 5 and 20 Aug

Russia

Louis S. St. Laurent and Polar Sea

Aug 1994

Trans-Arctic Ocean

Reached the North Pole on 22 Aug;

Canada and USA

Bering Strait to Svalbard

encountered Yamal at the North Pole

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