…per day. That’s what it takes to run this ship on water. What about on ice? Make that 50 tons per day, with all engines running. The crew gave us a behind the scenes tour of the ship, and here’s a few more stats on our floating polar home. THE SHIP’S 4 ENGINES ADD UP TO 22,000 HORSEPOWER (I’M SHOUTING BECAUSE IT’S LOUD), and if you’re on open water, only 2 engines are used. But if you’re headed into ice, that’s when the 3rd and 4th engines can be fired up. The ship is capable of a max speed of 16 knots, but when it’s crushing through ice, it’s just 3 knots max. (Not to mention it can crush through 1 meter thick ice.)
Speaking of breaking ice, even though our ship can do that, it’s not technically an “icebreaker” ship. We are an “ice class” ship. What’s the difference? An icebreaker has a flat body to run on top of ice and crushing it. An ice class ship has a keel like a regular ship, but stronger –so we crush ice, the ice doesn’t crush us. Here are Marie, Alena, and Antoine on the top level (7th floor) of the ship (and the ship still towers over them), and Drew in front of the drive shaft of one of the electric motors (just behind that wall is the propeller).
