In honor of our cold snap, I thought I’d share some thoughts about icebreakers. They’re special ships designed to break through thick sea ice. They do this with reinforced double hull construction, and a very round heavy shape that makes them idea for smashing ice but not so seaworthy as a regular ship. So they tend to roll around a lot at sea when they are not breaking through ice. Icebreakers do their job by running up on top of the ice and pushing down through it with their tremendous weight. An example of an icebreaker is the USCGC Healy. There’s a photo of her on the Ship Report website at www.shipreport.net
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