North Pole of Inaccessibility Reached by Cruise Ship
Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot became the first cruise ship to reach the North Pole of Inaccessibility on September 12.
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is the point on the Arctic Ocean that is furthest from land. First described in 1909 by the Russian polar explorer Alexander Koltchak, the exact geographic coordinates were established in 2013 by Jim McNeill with the help of NASA and satellites: 85°48’ North, 176°09’ East. It is located at 1,465km (910 miles) from Utqiasuk in Alaska, 1,390km (864 miles) from Franz Josef Land in Russia and 1,070km (665 miles) from Ellesmere Island in Canada.
Passengers on board included 20 international scientists collecting data on this unexplored area.
While taking the Transpolar route from Nome, Alaska, to Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, it also crossed the Magnetic North Pole on September 13 and the Geographic North Pole on September 15. (The Geographic North Pole is around 700km (435 miles) from land.)
The 31,283gt vessel was named in honor of French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot. It has capacity for 245 passengers and 215 crew and is specifically designed for expeditions in extreme environments.
On delivery from Fincantieri's subsidiary Vard in 2021, it was also the first-ever electric hybrid cruise vessel with ice-breaking technology and dual fuel propulsion featuring high-capacity batteries and LNG storage on board. It was also the first cruise ship to feature a Polar Class 2 (PC2) hull and is designed to function in temperatures of -25°C (-13F).