Stuck in the North Pole: Life Inside US Largest Icebreaker Ever Built
Welcome back to the Fluctus Channel for a feature on some innovative cutters and helicopters the US Coast Guard uses to conduct scientific research, search, and rescue ships in distress in the Arctic Ocean.
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So glad I went Aviation in my career in the USCG. Air Sta Kodiak, St. Augustine, Clearwater, ATC Mobile, Corpus (6 months) and back to ATC Mobile. The last 7 years of my "military" career I lived in the house I grew up in and was able to care for my aging father. Loved being a Coastie.
Clearwater had to be beautiful. I remember on the 70s on vacation the cutters I'd see all the time.
I design airplane parts for a living. Ship building engineers absolutely blow my mind.
Proud to have served.
I got the opportunity to spend 60 days on the USCG Healy as a cinematographer. It was the trip of a lifetime!
Beautiful looking Cutter I Proudly served aboard a wind Class Ice Breaker Northwind 1978-79 as a FN in A-Gang Auxiliary Engineering we deployed for Artic West trip it was a trip and amazing. First billet out of boot camp at RTC Cape May NJ
I toured the Northwind when it returned to port in Wilmington, NC (‘78 or ‘79…maybe a few years earlier?). The captain’s 12 year old son had been aboard for at least part of the trip. I remember the awesome silver service given to the ship by Russia for the Northwind’s service protecting Russian ports during WW2…displayed in the captain’s stateroom…which I recall spanned the entire beam of the ship😜.
The best videos from the best team. Thanks all, from Viet Nam
I would love a video of the engine replacement. Thanks for producing this quality content!
I work at the coast guard yard in Maryland we’ve got to work on these plus other ice breakers it’s crazy seeing the bulkheads of the ship all wavy over time from use of breaking though and hitting the ice
Love that time lapse of the engine installation.
The US Coast Guard is made up of extremely brave women and men. I once found myself in a bit of a stormy "situation" in my Alden 18 Ocean Shell in Northern California. The crew aboard a Coast Guard cutter spotted my struggles and they placed themselves in danger trying to assist me. Conditions were so treacherous it took many attempts for them to pull up close enough to offer assistance. I actually waved them off as I still had full control of my 10' oars (I actually preferred continuing on to a "who knows what" type of rescue attempt) . The fact that I was able to ultimately bring myself ashore does not diminish the risks that crew willingly took on that memorable windswept day. . .
That was crazy on your part , You almost died for the thrill of it ?
@@strongsecurity7747 exactly! A waste of our tax dollars for someone who would be so ignorant. Then would want these men and women to risk their lives in even what would of a worse situation. Stop being self centered and then want someone to save you.
nice to see Ice in the north pole, unlike what they show us on google earth
18 crew members were evacuated, not evaluated.
It's still one of his better days.
@7:36 they are jumping in that freezing waters.. nope.. not me. I need a hot tub on the deck.. lol😅
... Cutter Healy calls at the Port of Baltimore before returning to its home port in Seattle...." (Time stamp 8:46). This was after Cutter Healy's work in Alaska. Did I hear that correctly?
At about 9:46 he says the speed In knots per hour!!!! Knot Means Nautical miles per hour. So he gave an acceleration not speed…..
I was surprised to see this vessel/captain was kind enough or even allowed to tow the 36’ sailboat to open waters. I’d thought that it was the law of the land , hehe , that rescues were never to include vessels as well as souls. Looked like a fairly valuable boat (must’ve been to have made it safely so far north, I guess) that the owner would’ve suffered it’s loss.
Typically the salvors get whatever the boat/ship is worth, be in scrap or insurance value. In the case of the CG because they're a taxpayer funded entity, they don't. That said, they're not going to just leave it to eventually sink, it would pose both an environmental hazard and a navigation hazard should it ever make it out of the ice. Plus they probably figured the guy had to have some knowledge and expertise to have made it that far. Usually they'll only pull people off and leave the boat if it's considered unsafe for said people to remain aboard.
A couple of errors in the narration. HEALY was specified to maintain 3.0 knots in 4.5 foot thick ice and be able to break 6.0 foot thick ice at no specified speed. She actually does better than spec and has, in fact, beaten through a 45 foot thick pressure ridge (took 4 hours, but she did it!) Her top open water speed is actually 20 knots.
4.5ft of ice at more like 3kts, not 20. Unless someone is slipping go juice in the tank, it's top speed is 17. But still a cool platform. Time to replace the Polar Rollers with a more capable breaker, which could run rings around Healy on a bad day.
The Russians have the best icebreaker's.
♥ 😘 from Pakistan 🇵🇰 ♥ 😘
Exterior wise, it looks like a generic regular ship. What exactly does it possess that helps break ice other than just the weight of the ship itself moving through ice ? That's what I want to know.
It is largely the weight of the vessel which breaks the ice. The wedge shaped bow rides up the ice flow then the weight just crushes it.
Reinforced double hulls.
It's not just the weight like that guy says.
Funny things boats ,not all terrain vehicles, once the ice become land they all struggle
I like how the last few minutes of this piece about an American Ice breaking ship is essentially an advertisement for airbus helicopters lmao
If the cutter would get stuck who would get it unstuck if they are in the arctic?
Russia
Sadly the Healy is an ice resistant science vessel, and not a very good icebreaker. She has a lot of HP, but sadly with fixed pitch propellers she cannot employ all of it from a standstill, such as when setting in ice. This and her stern design inhibit her ability to back up and ram at thick ice, a necessary ability for any true icebreaker
Correct, Healy is not a heavy icebreaker. Not sad, though. Sad is that we had only two heavy icebreakers, Polar Sea and Polar Star, which are quite old now. One is not in service at all. We fell far behind in icebreaker development.
THEY RAN OF GAS
Hai Coast Guard we are for you!👍🇺🇸 ASM3
awesome work
No word on how it got from the Artic to Vallejo Ca. I would have to assume an ocean-going tug, Or probably another icebreaker for the first part of the trip at least. I suppose it's not really important to the story, but you'd think that they'd at least have touched on the subject. That's a hell of a long way to tow a ship. Anyway, Vallejo Ca was the home to The Mare Island Ship Yard, a sub base in the San Francisco bay area. I was stationed there in the 80s
Let’s be real all this research is all to find Santa! Lol
I made 3 deployments on the Burton Island WAGB283
Healy is a medium icebreaker. It can only continuously break 4.5 feet of ice. The old Polar Class heavy icebreakers like Polar Star can break 21 feet of ice. The difference in ice breaking capabilities is enormous. The fact the USCG has only one operational heavy icebreaker and she's in dire need of retirement shows the USA is a waning power.
When the poor face hot and cold weather, the hot ones have no burden, and the cold ones make people poorer and poorer than buying heated clothes.
Congress has delayed the USCG New Icebreaker program at least another year !!!! 🤔
Perhaps these ships have more to do with North Pole ice sheet decay than man made CO2, as South Pole ice has grown… maybe sending ships through the little ice sheets de-fortifies the interior Ice and allows it to flow or break apart much faster and the tremor through the ice amplifies the natural fractures.
Just no
Scientific experiments is code for petroleum exploration
Try not to go to random topics 2/3 way through your videos.
amazing coas guard brows i like its,...
❤
TBH USA is not a serious Arktic player. This ship is like a dinghy vs Arktika class icebreakers.
evacuated is not evaluated. 13:50
Tail-rotor "finestering" ??????? Where does he find them?
Finestering = twisting, twirling.
Fenestron,is qhat the enclosed tailrotor is called
Seriously? A cutter? It's an icebreaker. It's classed as an icebreaker. It's not a bloody cutter.
When the taxed rescue someone do they pay us back? Do the scientists pay the taxed to use our ship or do the taxed pay grants to them?
Time stamp around 5:15, are there civilians on board?
Nothing is said about te ship's engines. What a diassoppointment !
Less than 3 years an engine needed replace. User error. Probably that female
Russia has the biggest ship
This is a sales promo, for helly
😊
and to think there are those who think we should cut defence money what are they thinking
how do they clean the bottom of icebreakers? because i feal like it would be diffrent then cruse ships.
Why isn’t she Nuclear powered.
I'm afraid I have to say, that both the editing of the footage and the narration together with its "mysterious" synth-pads DO NOT make any sense. At all.
Ahem ... A helicopter cannot operate in the Arctic Ocean (floating doesn't count -- for very long, anyway It CAN, however, operate in the Arctic ocean ENVIRONMENT. Please choose words carefully. Results can be chilling.
I worked on
Beg Russia to help you build an actual ice breaker
It’s electric? Motors are electric. Engines are gasoline or diesel typically…
Climate change, oh you mean weather.
🥰🥰🥰🇵🇭
How Much coal was used?..... Shut it down!
What kind of engine is it ? Why did the engine fail ?
I thought the polar ice cap had melted…
Russia has massive Nuclear Powered Icebreakers.. -just sayin
Russia has a lot more ice.
So much " R and D" since the world's countries signed an agreement to keep people out of the pole areas? Wouldn't a person wonder what they have found out in all of these years that might be of interest to the general populace? Just sayin.
The US is indeed lacking ice breaker ships but its just a matter of time until it's not needed but that's still a decades or more away.
I want to go there and do research
what a waste of money, no wonder the US is the most indebted nation in history!
❤️👍
The best we have is 23 years old??? WTF
That's nothing for a Class 1 ship.
@@rickcavtube I stand by my comment. With our trillion dollar + a year defense budget that is the best we can do?? LMAO
Go CG!
Chinooks are CH-47s, 46s are retired and were called sea knights
🥺🥺🙄🙄🥺😞😞
If the ice is melting, how come is the ice is 6 to 9 feet in your words.
Because it isn't melting. Have you seen all the ice and low temperatures plus all the polar bears on the Russian side of the Arctic Ocean.
Life inside? You didn't show us the racks, staterooms or mess.... 🥺
RUSSIAN ICEBREAKERS NO GET STUCK, BUCK!
A dam 50 cal can even get it free ~ Don't you have Cannons on that ship? Use those helicopter drop some bombs or rockets to make a path
the area of land in my country is so wide like other wide country around the globe Sir
If you don't use the metric system I'm off, I'm not going to convert feet into meters
The US has NO national sovereignty in the Polar Sea! 😑
What a waste of taxpayers’ money. The Poles should be ice-free in just a few years. 🤓
send GRETA asap
The Russian nuclear icebreakers make that thing look like a dingy
Ship needs to be under another service. Looks to be nothing like the other Coast Guard ships. Being located in the arctic for mostly research getting funded by universities has little to do with securing the coast. Tax payers funding research for universities, how is that beneficial to most hard working Americans ?
I’m sorry but Russias nuclear powered ice breaker punks this one out so much
How does a ship crushing ice while emitting pollution help use learn? Are they trying to speed up the warming more? Modern industrial humans are getting really lost and the USA is leading the pack. 😢
Lol. You really think we can fix the climate right at the beginning of ww3 and third world industrialization.
Get a Russian icebreaker they are way better, more powerful and atomic. They eviscerate meters worth of ice not puny feet. Run decades best investment for the money.
Mate no one Ceres about Russia
We’re doing just fine. We definitely don’t need or want anything made or from Russia.
The idea is to lessen risk to the environment, NOT increase it with unrequited nuclear complications! It is a serious enough risk to have necessary military nuclear submarines operating around the north under the ice, but to bring surface ships with nuclear power in contact with the surface ice is just tempting fate. Sooner or later there will be an accident, a sinking, a fire, collision or other catastrophe and we could conceivably contaminate the whole polar region. No, you can have your rooskie nuclear ice breaker.
As if anyone wants anything from russia.
World most advanced and best quality nuclear products are only made in Russia
I would listen to a little bit further but I declined to do so because you're lying and you're throwing in your hat in the arena of the climate change it's only speculation not the truth
If you like freezing your arse off and not really contributing much, this is your place to go.
I don't see black people in this ship am I missing something
Blacks don't like COLD!
@@georgesherman5345 lol I never knew that but at last not all of them
Watch it again! I saw 2 on board 🤓
I don't see f@cking LGBTQIA+++++++ on this "ship" 🤣🤣🤣
So, the Coast Guard is apparently not attractive to "black people."
id watch this whole video but when you mention climate change i start looking for democrats and realize everyone on board are democrats, and then I lose interest. 5 minutes in, i dont want to watch anymore. STOP SAYING CLIMATE CHANGE and you might get more viewers.
Russians icebreaker is the first in the World!.. Slava Russia!!