"While the U.S. put off funding new icebreakers year after year, Russia built a fleet of more than 40 now at the ready as a melting Arctic opens new frontiers."
"Coast Guard crews are known for keeping their cool in high-stress situations. But when Lt. Samuel Krakower stepped into the engine room of the Polar Star last Jan. 16—midsummer in Antarctica—the scene was frantic.
Icy water was pouring through the hull of the rugged ship, a 42-year-old workhorse on its annual mission to cut a channel through thick ice to the United States' scientific research hub at McMurdo Station.
Each minute, 20 gallons of water flooded in, rising toward the feet of the ship's engineers as they stood on a raised platform, working urgently to seal a leaking shaft between the ship's propellers that had been knocked loose by a chunk of ice."
Sabrina Shankman reports for InsideClimate News December 3, 2018.
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