Driven by the relentless search for hydrocarbons and gas, there is now considerable maritime activity in that most inhospitable area, the Arctic Ocean. I was reminded of this when attending a recent two-day seminar organised by Lloyd’s Maritime Academy in London. There are two aspects that need to be applied to vessels entering such waters to enable them to safely achieve whatever their purpose may be. The first is not new and was originally tested by the tanker Manhattan as long ago as 1968, as it attempted to cross the top of Canada. This refers to the ability of a ship’s hull to be able to move through ice-infested waters and ice flows. The design and build of the ship must enable it to be "ice-classed" and that is a basic essential.
However, there is a second issue, which relates to the fact that not all of these northern waters are ice-encrusted. Many such areas are open seas for part, or even all of the year. This can result in bad seas and spray, which, in turn, leads to ice developing on the superstructure and anything on the deck.
From the many photographs shown during the seminar, this can be quite substantial and can prevent the crew having safe movement about the ship, as well as becoming a danger to the stability of the vessel. In fact, mention was made of one ship, a number of years ago, that capsized due to the weight of ice on its superstructure.
This second aspect has now achieved the status of having a word of its own – to combat it needs "winterisation" of a ship. That is just as important in its way as the hull being ice-classed and many classification societies have rules and notations regarding such matters. These include ways of designing-out the possibility of or reducing ice build-up, practical measures to prevent it and measures to take if it does happen. In fact, it is understood that the maritime laws of Canada and Russia require that ships operating in their northern waters must be both ice-classed and winterised.
The reason for mentioning it here is that, while there are many different types of vessel operating in these waters – some almost year-round – the opening-up of routes across the north of Canada and Russia is making it possible for cargo ships to transit as well.
In fact, on both days of the seminar, pictures were shown of what appeared to be fully loaded container ships with all the deck stows completely covered in layers of ice and snow.
This raises questions regarding not only the hull of the cargo ship, but also the deck structures, and, in the case of a container ship, the containers and their lashings, both made of metal. If such routes are going to be used by cargo vessels on a regular basis, these aspects will need to be clarified.
