Icebreakers - Russia Leading the Pack

When the first Arctic explorers starting venturing north, some five hundred years ago, in search of the supposed riches beyond the ice, they encountering numerous problems. Not the least of them being that their flimsy wooden ships kept sinking when they ran into the inevitable ice pack.

The pursuit of the fabled North West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific brought numerous sailors undone as they pushed deeper into the frozen wilderness above what is now Canada. In fact, the most celebrated failure, that of Sir John Franklin in 1845, saw two ships and the entire complement of 129 men disappear.

Navigating the treacherous and capricious ice pack was an immensely arduous task even for the most skilled seamen. When the ice closed in around their ship, men would go out onto the ice and physically cut it away with huge saws while another party dragged the ship through the tiny passage like mules. Any progress was painfully slow and if the currents were unfavourable, the ice would carry them backwards despite their best efforts. The other great, ever-present danger was for a ship to be completely trapped by a rapidly freezing icepack. Probably the best known example is Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-16 expedition, where his ship, the Endurance, was beset for 281 days in the ice before finally being crushed by the enormous lateral pressure of the frozen ocean. Despite the use of special, ice-strengthened designs, the force of nature prevailed over man's insignificant craft. Shackleton's Endurance, perhaps the strongest wooden ship ever built, was only powered by a tiny 350hp steam engine - nowhere near enough power to force her 350 tonne hull through the thick Antarctic ice - ultimately dooming her to an icy grave.