This is a first for a French building.
The
Commandant Charcot
, first cruise ship "high polar exploration, powered hybrid electric liquefied natural gas", reached Monday morning the North Pole has been learned from the Ponant company specializing in cruises luxury and in unusual destinations.
“It is the first French ship to reach the North Pole (90.00,000 °)”, according to her and “the first ship sailing on liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reach this destination”.
However, this expedition was made without customers.
Commandant Charcot's
tourist season
will begin on October 31 in Antarctica and in summer 2022 for the Arctic.
This Monday, September 6, 2021 at 10:38 am, Le Commandant Charcot has reached the geographic North Pole!
A strong moment that embodies the unique adventure of this exceptional ship.
A first for a French ship, powered by Liquefied Natural Gas.
© Alexiane Eymard, Etienne Garcia pic.twitter.com/P5DH69kDeM
- PONANT (@Cie_ponant) September 6, 2021
"Smoke and dust free navigation"
This luxury vessel 150 meters long and 28 meters wide is equipped with two tanks totaling 4,500 m3 of LNG as well as electric batteries allowing hybrid operation and "navigation without smoke or dust", according to the group's documentation. Polar class PC2, it is equipped with a reinforced hull (icebreaker) hitherto reserved for transport ships or scientific expeditions.
It also has an advanced wastewater treatment system and the energy used on board is optimized with LED lamps or even braziers and heating benches operating by recovering energy from the ship's exhaust gases.
Drinking water is produced from sea water and no waste is thrown away during the journey thanks to a large storage capacity.
Finally, spaces are provided to be made available to the scientific community, for example to install measuring instruments in the hull.
Scientists will also be able to retrieve data from fish sonar and the instrument that continuously measures and displays the thickness of the ice, according to the company.
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