The
Kapitan Khlebnikov, a conventionally powered ice breaker
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 The
Kapitan Khlebnikov is a Russian Soviet Era Icebreaker, typical of the type.
She was built for working in Arctic waters during winter around Siberia, in
particular to help keep shipping lanes open for other shipping.
She is one of four Kapitan Sorokin class diesel
electric ice-breakers built in Helsinki by the Wärtsilä company. She was launched
in 1980 and is designed to operate in temperatures down to -50°C.
Currently she is operated by a shipping company based in
Vladivostok. The collapse of the Soviet Union meant that such assets as ice
breakers could be chartered out for hard currency. In 1990 The Kapitan
Khlebnikov was refitted for use as a tour ship in the Arctic and Antarctic.
She now has the fittings and facilities that would be expected of a ship
fulfilling that role. She can berth 114 passengers looked after by 60 officers
and crew.
Being an ice breaker, the Kapitan Khlebnikov can visit
places that other tour ships dare not go. Most tour ships play it very safe
with ice around and will not approach or enter an area where the changing tide
and wind could entrap the ship. This ship however can go where ordinary tour
ships have previously feared to tread.
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Cold
mountain Thomas
Keneally travels on the Kapitan Khlebnikov to return a biscuit.
"I first went to Antarctica in 1968, for somewhat under a fortnight. In those
days one could visit the continent only as a member of an official group, and
the American ambassador in Canberra, Bill Crook, a noble soul who would later
give his life to a di..."
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