Icebreakers: How Do They Break Ice? 

They strike up a friendly conversation of course

Once the ice is broken, a relation-ship can pass through.

This video is to the point , but id like to know more, for eg how thick the iron is on an ice breaker ,designs , engine horse power ect , stuff like that ..

What's wrong with this guy?!!? No stretching to ten minutes, no "smashing"the like button, no begging to subscribe.. I feel lost now!!!

Wait... so they don't use giant underwater Chainsaws?

Honestly, I'm betting this channel is gonna blow up in a year or so. Don't give up till then and up the good work!

When I was a kid, I thought they had mechanical arms that would break the ice.

This video is way too simple, I wish there was more information

1:37 “Ice fields are vast areas covered in ice.” Hmmm yes. The floor here is made out of floor.

The Coast Guard ice breakers are super cool and go to some awesome places. They're prime picks for any Coastie.

Great video! I was on the icebreaker, the USCGC Northwind, back in the late 1970's. Broke ice in the Great Lakes one cold ass Winter. I really liked watching from her bow as she broke through the ice. The ice would split open and shoot up out to the side on top of the ice clearing a path ahead. Flat ice was easy to break through, but the "Windroves", or ice mountain ridges, could stop us cold. The ship would have to get unstuck and ram it again. And sometimes again and again.

I always thought that ice breaker acutely break the ice, like cleave through it with a sharp bow or something. This video was enlightening, thank you. P.s. Maybe they should catagories them as "Ice Crushers".

The ending was so sudden... no misc info, just; “it has a fancy bow”. Splendid

Well, the algorithm persisted I learn how Ice breaker works so here we go

Check Comercial icebraker "Sampo" in Kemi, Finland, where one can experience all the joys of icebraking, like swim in frozen sea. "How thick ica can an icebroker brake?" We thought like 3-4 metres, actually some 20 metres (sic!)!

I got a tour of the Healy a few weeks ago! The crew was pretty cool and very helpful in answering questions.

Two great videos, thanks. I love short videos that just explain a single topic concisely.

I love the short, concise content. RU-vid used to be full of videos like this that explained concepts simply before they started promoting videos for length. Keep on fighting the good fight!

The USCG Polar Star employs 3 giant electric motors to propel the ship during icebreaking to prevent mechanical damage if the propeller strikes ice. Also the ship carries over a million gallons of fuel that assists in added weight for crushing up to a maximum of 20 feet ice thickness! I had the pleasure of working aboard this beast of a ship.

Hello, Casual Navigation. Your video about the topic icebreaks truly made the understanding of how the icebreaker can work going threw the frozen state of water. From the explaining to simply showing really makes my mind tingle with joy, of happiness that we can live in a world where common knowledge is for everyone, unlike it was once not so long ago. Sincerely yours, Alfred.

The uscgc healy is a medium endurance ice breaker, it has what's called an "ice knife" that is uses to chip away at the ice. It doesn't ride up on the ice like heavy endurance ice breakers such as the polar star does.

They operate by finding common ground between the two parties, so that there’s an immediate sense of bonding. It doesn’t always have to be a “positive” subject; so long as it’s a subject that both parties can relate to, that should suffice.

Ice strengthened ships can have bulbous bows. I worked on bulk carriers and car carriers which were designed to break through first year ice. I took the bulk carriers through ice in the St Lawrence seaway and the car carriers through Ice in Finland. You aim for cracks in the ice using the radar. These ships had Controllable pitch propellers and a knife behind the rudder for piercing the ice when going astern. Being able to keep the propeller turning and just change the pitch made them easier for going ahead and astern to ram into ice.

10/10 no cringy intro or outro, no begging for likes, no stretched content. *thumbs up*

"So, you come here often?" - icebreaker

I was on WAGB-10 Polar Star and it was an awesome experience.

Wow! The way it’s done completely surprised me. Thank you for creating this video.

The US Coast Guard Bay Class icebreaking tugs have a bubbler system that injects air to the keel making the hull slippery to the ice. This allows the tug to break ice thicker than it would without the system installed.

Developers should look into changing RU-vid's algorithm. Why RU-vid didn't recommend this channel to me before. Subscribing right now

RU-vid is seriously suggesting your channel, and I'm not complaining!

It’s 4 am and really care about ships , but here I am , this was fascinating 😊

I wanted to like this video because I served on the USCGC Polar Star. Being part of the crew and actually watching and feeling it breaking the ice was impressive. Stats: Polar Star Can break ice around 20ft thick. 3 screws with diesel electric engines and 3 turbine engines for breaking heavy ice. The hull is significantly more rounded. She listed port and starboard about 45 degrees each, the crew was literally walking on the walls while navigating the southern ocean. Hull is about 1.75 inches bow and stern (44mm) for ice protection, and the keel is shallow so that the hull can smash ice with low risk of damage. 18 knots max speed under normal engines, over 20 knots for bursts of speed to plow heavy ice with turbine power. Thinner ice can be plowed at approximately 3 knots, but backing and ramming is required for thick ice. The ship would ram ice and about half of the hull was out of the water before it shifted about 3 degrees port or starboard before falling down on top of it. Personally experiencing that was like a roller coaster. It took about one month to break the fast ice around McMurdo in Antarctica. Healy is a medium icebreaker and is sent to the arctic to deal with parts of the ice for shipping through the northern passage. Polar Star is sent North to finish clearing the ice path, and then south to clear the ice for shipping vessels bringing resupplies to the science stations. Average deployment time is about 3 to 4 months, with two months of drydock repairs in-between. Deployed during the respective "summers" for each hemisphere, so they can operate during daylight hours.

I always thought it was just ships with reinforced hulls that ice can't break. Never realize there was a technique to it.

I was on the Healy during that Renda trip. You're thinking of the heavy icebreakers, they go up and down like your picture. The Healy is a medium, it just pushes through.

I really like the scale model demonstrating how it looks under water

I was a HH65 Dolphin Helicopter pilot in the USCGC Polar Sea out of Seattle, went to the Arctic and Antarctic twice. What a wonderful time and memories I have of that ship and crew.

oh I love this straighforward right to the point video like this one, you are just the best

Straight to the point. Thank u.

Digging the channel. Nice seeing a video that’s not 23 minutes when it should be two. Well done

My mum and dad explained this concept to me when I was about six years old! They weren’t sailors but knew about it when I asked the question. United States ships visited Wellington a lot on their way to the Antartica including ice breakers

Please do a video on how to unbreak hearts. Thank you.

*Reads title* Me: "Well you gotta start small, like 'it's a nice weather out isn't it?' Then you insert a little humor for your current situation, or humor slightly off topic."

I use the video as a good ice breaker for my next get together.

Excellent video, clear, concise and straight to the point. No time wasted, all gains!

Beautiful clear explanation!!! Thank you for good video

Huh, I always thought the captain stopped at the edge of the ice, then the entire crew got out with icepicks and went to town on said ice. After an hour, maybe 20 or so, the crew broke out a couple hundred bottles of fine bourbon or scotch and had a good time considering they were literally in Hell on Earth.

This is what all RU-vid videos should be like! Quick and to the point. Answer the question in the title and didn’t start with the history of ships traversing ice fields

Great informative video with good narration and no unnecessary small talk, thumbs up and keep them coming !!

hull thickness?? horsepower?? what makes them different from normal ships??? You started but did not finish this video.

I know this is very unlikely but what if the ship wasn’t heavy enough or the ice was too thick and it didn’t break when the ship slid on top. Would they get stuck or if not keep going or just reverse out?

lol, I actually learned ho ice breakers work from the anime 'A Place Farther Than the Universe' since the cast was on a icebreaker. The crew explained how it worked.

Renda: "Healy lemme smash." Healy: "No Ren. Your bow is small."

This video make me feel like we can break it by hammer. Its so easy.

That was very informative, cured my curiosity, nice short and sweet thank you.

Precise and concise. Thank you for clarifying the ice-breaking process. albertus

Saw a coast guard ice breaker going up the Hudson River a couple of years ago in February while I was eating at a river side barbeque joint. Thanks for the video explaining how they work!

Just realized I’m a nerd 🤣 I’d like to know more about how the ship is made.

Nice dude

always the channels that you want to hear more from are the ones that keep short and straight to the point

This video is perfect: short and objective. Question answered in no time.

why don't they just design oil tankers to break the ice? or is it just more economical to get another ship to do it

Icebreakers: *exist* Titanic: Impossible

2:23 Minutes of useful Information without ads. Thank you.

Wow he gave that information quick and direct

I thought this is gonna be a 10-minutes long video lol

aint that cool, on land every hates each other but on the water a u.s. branch of homeland security escorts a russian tanker just out of seamanship and safety for all aboard the vessels.

Thank you! Great and short video. Now of course I need to deep dive to find out more to sate my curiosity, but I still appreciate the quick answer.

I saw the Healy in port in SF about a month ago. We sailed close up to read the name on her transom and got some nice photos. Don't know why she was in SF but the crew was likely happy. I believe she is the second biggest Coast Guard vessel. She's still not that big. I was impressed. Interesting ship. Thanks for showing her in action.

Why not design all ships that way?

I wonder if there are any negative environmental impacts of ice-breakers making passage? Wouldn't broken pieces of ice sheets and bergs drift and melt away given global warming temperatures and further/faster raise sea levels?

Very short but answers the question very well

I learned about this while touring a retired USCG ice breaker in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Oh ships break ice and we put the plane to global warming

Don't worry ice breaker. We'll help you reduce your work. Guys, let's burn rubbish and make global warming!

Served on the USCG Polar Sea (WAGB 11) from 93-97. Went to the North Pole in 94. Awesome boat to be on.

I'm watching this because when I can't sleep I put my feet out of the bed covers, open the window, feel the draught on my bare feet and imagine my bed is on top of the ice breaker in the freezing cold Antarctic. I don't even know where this imaginary bed on a ship idea came from, but it helps me sleep

This was abysmally TOO SHORT. This is one of the, key, reasons I watch your content but don't subscribe.

Immidiately got the information i clicked for without bullshit, thank you sir!

Nice, cool, short and of course a good explanation of the topic!

Simple and easy to understand. Thanks for it

I worked at PWDD in Canadian. The yard built, while I was there, the M.V. Arctic and the C.C.G.S. Des Groseilliers. The yard also did refits on other coast guard ships, including put a bow thruster in the C.C.G.S. Griffon. Welding an icebreaker's bow is "interesting" to say the least.

Great info. I did wondered about this ice breaker. I did see the other video of the bow difference too. Good job

I thought it would be a lot more complicated than that... shorter video than I expected but definitely worth the watch

That's exactly how our local swans break the ice. The male goes ahead and smashes his chest onto the edge of the ice and it opens a channel for Mrs Swan who serenely glides through the now open path through the ice. It's really impressive and beautiful to see. 🦢🦢

"How do Ice Breakers break ice?" "Hey baby, What's a nice ship like you doing in the Arctic Circle?"

Thank you very informative non use of hard words for English beginners like me easily understood everything

Love your videos. You should make a video explaining how a wave can break a ship in half.

Ice fields are vast areas covered in ice. Good to know!

I’d love to see a more in-depth look at icebreakers. Thanks so much for this video!

Straight to the point, cheers!

they break ice with lots of humour and confident conversations

Thank you sir for the explanation. Finally ive learn something new not everybody knew bout this

Was shown a video of the annual convoy to Antarctica some time in the 90’s. Also has the VHF radio traffic between the ships and the POLAR class icebreaker. At one point, the captain of an Italian ship comes on the radio in a very thick accent “ Ice-a breaker, ice-a breaker, I’m-a stuck-a!”

It seems like everybody else but me seen this 3 years ago!! Well it was a great video! Ill see u guys 3 years from now!!🤙🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾

Back and Ram baby! Served on the CGC Northwind Ice breaker, The hulls are also thicker than most and the newer breakers use a special steel that keeps its strength in polar seas There is no keel either to keep the bottom smooth which makes the ship ride rough in any seas.

Wow never thought it could be so simple! I assumed some mechanical cutters were employed. Ingenious.

Well I actually expected this but never thought it was that simple

Short and direct. Thumbs up!

Video: “How do Icebreakers break ice” Me: “Carefully”

Thank you ..I was just curious..and you have quenched my curiosity. .very informative video