#85 What are Icebreaker ships?

And how will melting polar ice caps change global shipping routes?

Author

Dr. Dan Smith
July 17, 2024

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Dr. Daniel Smith

Last week, the U.S., Canada, and Finland announced that they were forming the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact.

The goal? Invest in the production of massive icebreaker ships that can “project power” in the world's polar regions as China and Russia seek to exercise influence in the Arctic.

This will be especially important as melting ice caps open up a shipping route through the Arctic that some experts call “the Polar Silk Road.”

Navigating these shipping routes will require icebreaker ships that can create paths through the icy waters of the Arctic.

Why did we start the ICE PACT? The U.S. and its allies have fallen behind on icebreaker production over the last several decades, leaving Russia (and China) with a major technological advantage in the region.

Polar icebreakers are ships that are designed to navigate through the icy waters of the world’s polar regions.

They are distinguished from normal ships by:

  • their strengthened hulls

  • the ice-clearing shape of their bows

  • powerful engines that allow them to push through ice

Most boats have a pointed bow (the front tip of the boat) to help them cut through water.

Icebreakers are designed with a rounded bow that helps them in two ways: it pushes the broken ice sideways instead of up against the hull and it allows the boat to slide on top of ice to break it. (see below)

By the Numbers:

  • Russia has the 36 icebreaker ships, the most of any nation

  • The U.S. only has two icebreakers

  • Finland has 12

  • Canada has 9

  • China has two icebreakers in operation and several more are currently being built

The U.S. has fallen behind in shipbuilding capabilities in the last 50 years, as the U.S. military has focused its spending and long-term investment on planes, high-tech armaments, and other newer technologies.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the largest American icebreaker ship, photographed ~100 miles north of Barrow, Alaska

The U.N. reported that North America has just 0.13% of the world's shipbuilding capacity, while China was responsible for “more than half of the world's commercial shipbuilding output” in 2023.

As the Arctic continues to thaw and more shipping routes open up, the region will become more important for global trade — and for global geopolitics.

The Russian government has long advocated for the development of a Northern Sea Route (NSR) that would provide shipping companies with an alternative to the Suez Canal.

Russia also has extensive oil and gas reserves off its northern coast in the Arctic Sea, and the continued thawing of polar ice caps in the region would enable Russia to tap into these energy reserves.

The main problem with the NSR is that some parts of the route are only free of ice for two months of the year.

The melting of the Arctic ice caps will almost certainly change that in the coming decades.

A study entitled Melting Ice Caps and the Economic Impact of Opening the Northern Sea Routepredicts that the melting of the ice caps will enable:

“remarkable shifts in trade flows between Asia and Europe, diversion of trade within Europe, heavy shipping traffic in the Arctic and a substantial drop in Suez traffic.

Projected shifts in trade also imply substantial pressure on an already threatened Arctic ecosystem.”

The U.S. seems to be making a wise decision by investing in icebreaker-building capacity, even if Russia and China already have a head start.

Let’s hope we aren’t too late to the party.

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Today’s Art of the Day is a painting of the Swedish ship SS Vega.

The Vega by Jacob Hägg

In 1879, the Vega became the first ship to pass through the Northeast Passage (alongside the northern part of the Eurasian continent) and the first ship to circumnavigate the entire Eurasian continent.

The Vega’s full route from its 1878-1880 trip around Eurasia.

Read more about the ship’s expedition here.

Thank you for reading. Please reply to this email if you have any thoughts or feedback.

Yours,
Dan