‘Once, the navigation started very early, and several ships got ice-locked. Back then I was working on the ‘Captain Dranitsyn’ and the old ‘Arctic’ icebreaker saved 5 or 6 ships. One was simply squashed’, recalls boatswain of new icebreaker ‘Arctic’. Back in the day the Northern sea route was dangerous even for icebreakers. For decades, only the Western part was used, but with new icebreakers of Project 22220 it can be finally open the whole year. Nuclear-powered icebreakers travel through 118 inches thick ice for 8 700 miles from Northern Europe to asian coast of the Pacific Ocean. Jump on board to see how it is done from the inside!
