[War Zone] The U.S. Coast Guard’s only operational heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, is still providing critical services to various U.S. government agencies in Antarctica despite suffering an engine failure and flooding. The incident is a worrying reminder of both how vital these types of ships are and the stark limitations of America’s capabilities in this regard, all as the service is struggling to move ahead with plans to buy all-new vessels.According to a press release the Coast Guard published on Feb. 6, 2018, Polar Star departed her homeport in Seattle on Nov. 30, 2017 for a cruise that is still scheduled to wrap up in March 2018. The ship’s main mission during the trip has been to cut a path from the open ocean through the ice, which can be 10 feet thick or more, to an improvised ice pier that serves the U.S. Antarctic Program’s McMurdo Station. She has subsequently kept this channel clear of potentially dangerous ice so that other ships, including those under contract to the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, can safely bring supplies to and from the frigid base.
"We had less ice this year than last year," U.S. Coast Guard Captain Michael Davanzo, said in the press release. But "we had several engineering challenges to overcome to get to the point where we could position ourselves to moor in McMurdo."
"Engineering challenges" is a euphemism that doesn’t do justice to the problems Polar Star had to deal with just getting to McMurdo and the work that the ship’s crew did to make sure the ship could continue its mission. The first issue cropped up on Jan. 11, 2018 when one of the icebreakers three main gas turbines failed.
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