A new ship for future ‘glacionauts’ | Polarjournal
Cherbourg’s shipbuilding sector builds its first polar drifting station for the foundation Tara Océan. The shipyard’s CEO hopes it will convince other players in the polar world. Image: Camille Lin

Since October 4, the Tara Polar Station has been floating in the port of Cherbourg. Her design is based on the traditional architecture inherited from Arctic expeditions. Her originality makes her one of the few maritime resources capable of deploying long-term scientific missions operating under minimal conditions in this little-traveled ocean., and of meeting the objectives of energy efficiency while tackling the secrets of global warming and its effects.

A crowd wearing helmets and waistcoats strolls slowly along the quays, their eyes focused on a strange oval vessel topped by a geodesic dome. It has been floating in the industrial port of Cherbourg for a few minutes on October 4. Foremen and engineers, boilermakers and welders are watching the launch of the Tara Polar Station after more than a year’s construction at Chantiers Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN). “I was expecting something more spectacular,” says boilermaker Kevin Legendre to his colleagues leaning against a steel base.

Seventeen skills were involved in bringing the station’s plans to fruition, and today “mainly those working on the hull were allowed to witness the launch”, explains Frédéric Legrand, Production Manager at CMN. For most of them, it’s the first time they’ve been spectators during their working hours. That’s how unusual the project is. “You wouldn’t think so, but in fact, there’s plenty of room, everything’s optimized,” assures Kevin Legendre. Some applause breaks out in the middle of “it’s great to see her on the water”, “this is it” and a few “bravos guys”.

Smiles and bright faces, but few words. The interior finishing touches and the testing and preparation phase remain on the agenda before she heads north for a year and a half drifting in the Arctic sea ice. The oval shape of its hull reminds of that of the Fram, built in 1892, which was very wide and quite round. “When we were out on the ice the Fram looked quite picturesque as she lay there somewhat coquettishly on one side, while the ice-floes lovingly embraced her powerful hull, the masts pointing majestically towards the sky, and the rigging thick with hoar-frost”, described explorer Hjalmar Johansen in With Nansen in the North (1899), after embarking on the Fram in 1893 for the first successful drift in the Arctic ice through a current linking the Laptev Sea to Greenland.

Led by Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup, the crew survived the onslaught of cold thanks to a spirit of steel and a powerful wooden hull for three years. Architect Colin Archer had designed a sailing vessel that was seaworthy enough to cruise north of Russia, and rounded enough for the crew’s comfort and not to break up when the ice got to it. “It’s like having a bottle of French wine caught between two books, this one rises up and doesn’t take all the pressure,” Geir Kløver, director of the Fram museum in Oslo, told us over the phone. Inspired by this, Olivier Petit, the architect of the Tara Polar Station, took the idea a step further. While Fram measured 34 by 10 metres, the fully motorised station is 26 by 16 metres.

Fram is kept in the galleries of the museum that bears her name in Oslo. Image: T. Storm Halvorsen
Fitting the pieces of the hull was a real challenge for the builders. Image: Camille Lin

A few hours earlier, Chief Engineer Léo Boulon was watching the futuristic-looking unit being launched from a steel support and wooden wedges, the keel touching the water and the propeller still in the air. A total of 450 horsepower will push the 400-tonne loaded vessel, which “will make eight knots if sea conditions are optimal”, he assures us. On signal, the elevator lowers into the water as the dawn sun peeks through.

“Twenty flat irons”

“We’ll be able to test the watertightness of the vessel,” says the production manager. Some thirty through-hulls – openings that allow the boat to suck in and discharge water, or mount a sensor – are among the weak points to be checked. In fact, it was one of these that delayed the launch earlier this week. “These openings are used to produce fresh water or to cool the engines”, explains the manager. Their excess heat will be conserved for the interior and a sauna for relaxation and purification. “Onboard consumption will represent 15 to 20 kilowatts per day, the equivalent of 20 flat irons”, adds the chief engineer.

“The windmill turned in circles and reminded us that there was life in the midst of solitude,” describes the Norwegian explorer in his account of the Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup expedition. This old-fashioned wind turbine produced enough electricity to light up the living areas of the Fram in the middle of the polar night. “We’ll have two wind turbines and solar panels for the summer, but that won’t be enough to cover the ship’s needs,” explains the chief engineer in the present. For the instrumentation, the laboratories… the generators will run on diesel and recycled vegetable oil. One hundred and fifty litres per day. It’s a more sober formula than an icebreaker like the Polarstern. It houses ten times fewer scientists, but consumes a hundred times less fuel.

Caught in the vice

We observe the first moments of buoyancy of the platform, maneuvered by two small tugs in the basin. “Even though the geode is high, all the weight is at the bottom,” comments Philippe Lejaye, Performance Director at CMN. The sphere is the most voluminous shape, with minimal surface contact with the outside, to reduce heat loss and wind resistance in stormy weather. The facets are used to position the glass.

The incoming air is dried to prevent condensation on the metal. Image: Camille Lin

“They’ll probably look for a channel in the ice to wait for it to freeze and drift away,” explains Hervé Baudu, professor of nautical sciences at ENSM and member of the French Marine Academy, over the phone. Hjalmar Johansen recounts that in early October 1893, the crew “stopped shifting the ship, and found her final position for the winter. Fram was then with her bow to the south; she turned in that direction just as we got caught in the ice, and then drifted stern forward.” As they drifted, the pressure of the ice plates caused the wood to creak in spite of everything, so much so that the captain thought he was taking his last bath in a steaming tub. Fortunately, the stranglehold loosened before the ship yielded.

A physicist with ROV

“The project is inspired by that of the Framin the same spirit as that of the schooner Tara in 2007, the German Polarstern expedition, Mosaic, or the Russian Severny Polyus expeditions, the latest of which has just begun,” adds Hervé Baudu. “But now, they’re out of the ice in a year and a half, compared with three a century ago.” Roaming in the Arctic was slower. Global warming is reducing the thickness of the ice as well as the size of the floes – a collection of interlocking patches – which are now moving faster.

All the interior fittings, bulkheads and some of the machinery are being assembled on the quayside now that the station is in the water. Image: Camille Lin

In this dynamic landscape, scientists on the Tara Polar Station will be looking, for example, at the piles of ice floes that can plie up to the surface and down to a depth of 20 metres. They act as a barrier to winds, currents and accumulating snow. Underwater, life takes advantage of the interstices. From the moon pool – an open seawater well at the heart of the station – the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) of physicist Marcel Nicolaus, from the Alfred Wegener Institute, will inspect the ice within a 300 metre radius. “We want to launch programmes that are smaller than those of Polarstern, but more precise, with the idea that they will be repeated every drift for twenty years,” he explains. The Institute’s ROV will be capable of measuring ice and water properties and deploying copepod nets. Routine measurements will be recorded on the atmosphere, the reflection of the sun on the ice, snow cover and the thickening of the cryosphere in winter.

Mechanic wanted

“It will be an experience and an adventure, for sure. I’d love to be a part of it, but for such a long period and such an unpredictable drift, it will be difficult in my current position,” he adds, pointing out that this station is comparable to the Antarctic polar stations in terms of isolation. “Be happy ; and if you can’t be happy, take it easy ; and if you can’t be easy, be as easy as you can.” It’s an Irish proverb quoted by Nansen to encourage the crew before embarking on the final year of the expedition.

The ship has a capacity of 499 UMS (Universal Measurement System) and remains under 200 tonnes. It is therefore less demanding to operate in the polar zone than ships in a higher category. Image: Camille Lin

Jets of heaving lines, mooring line transfers, half-hitches on half- hitches… the ship receives the fenders of the floating pontoon on its starboard side. After a short sail from the boat elevator, the station makes contact. On the quay, chief mechanic Léo Boulon explains that the Foundation Tara Océan’s crew will have to expand from two on the schooner to four once the station is fully fitted out in Lorient in December. The foundation is looking for a 750KW mechanic: ” The idea is for the crews to meet in Lorient when the two vessels are reunited”, he points out. Like Nansen in the past, and like today’s scientific stations (polar or space), recruitment is crucial if these “glacionauts” are to enjoy their mission, despite the harshness of the undertaking.

Camille Lin, Polar Journal AG

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