Le Commandant Charcot is an icebreaking cruise ship operated by the French shipping company Compagnie du Ponant. Named after the French polar scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot, the vessel was built at Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania upon VARD 6 17 design.
Le Commandant Charcot is a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaking vessel capable of reaching remote polar destinations such as the Geographic North Pole. She features a hybrid power plant powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electric batteries. The ship was launched in March 2020 and left the yard in Romania on 29 March, heading for Norway. She arrived at VARD shipyard in Søvik, Haram, Norway on 28 April 2020. In June 2021, she was in the Arctic for the first time during a test drive and, after delivery on 29 July 2021, Le Commandant Charcot sailed from mainland Norway to Svalbard and from there to the Geographic North Pole, where she arrived on 6 September 2021. In December 2021, the ship will undertake a 16-day exploration cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula, allowing passengers to experience a total solar eclipse from the Weddell Sea ice pack.
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