🎅 Nuclear Icebreaker to North Pole: '50 Years of Victory'/50 Лет Победы

a video of awards to the North Pole on the Russian icebreaker named 50 years of victory from Helsinki we flew to Murmansk where we sailed on the icebreaker 50 years of victory to the North Pole we walked around the North Pole and then visited Franz Josef land before sailing back to Murmansk and flying back to Helsinki our journey to the North Pole started at 4 a.m. at the Helsinki Airport where we caught our Finnair charter flight to mermans on landing at the Murmansk Airport on our charter flight we were met by a number of border guards who checked our passports when exiting the plane before we walked to the small passport control area where our passports were examined in great detail our group filled the area and it took us over an hour to get through the formalities even though we had visas leaving the airport we drove straight to the Ross Adam flood site near Murmansk where our passports were checked against the ship's manifest before our bus could enter the secure site the icebreaker is named fitty sadly Panetti and russian which can be translated as fifty years of victory fifty years of victory is the largest most powerful icebreaker in the world she is an engineering marvel and is powered by two nuclear reactors that produce 75,000 horsepower giving her the ability to break through ice up to two point eight meters thick for nearly ten feet of ice 1995 was fifty years of victory or fitty sadly Budetti in russia after passing through the heavy security at the ross atom flat site we were allowed to board the huge 50 years of victory ice breaker and make our way to our assigned cabins my cabin was on bridge deck - which is conveniently located two decks down from the actual ship's bridge and two decks up from the dining room the twin cabin was comfortable with two large windows that opened when breaking heavy ice the rumbling noise was clearly audible in the cabin and strong vibrations were felt the vibrations were so strong that people with hard disk drives feared that their spinning disk would suffer a head crash and be damaged fortunately I had a solid-state drives this was not a concern after settling into the cabinet was time to go out on the deck and see the scene the other ships alongside included the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and the four other in-service nucular icebreakers painted in the typical nuclearized breaker colors consisting of a black Hall and a bright orange superstructure [Music] once the boards of victory we're soon off down the MER masse or towards Franz Josef land the only land that we'd seen between Moran scanned the North Pole a pilot bordered to guide the ship down the narrow mermans fjord until it opened up into the expanse of the Barents Sea due to the tight space of the dock the victory was pulled out by two tugs the ship's name fifty years of victory or fitty sad net poor daddy in Russian comes about since the icebreaker was to have been put in service in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the Russian victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War however the financial crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and a fire in the builders yard in 2004 delayed its maiden voyage until 2007 the home part of Ross Adams lot or the Russian atomic fleet has a fascinating collection of nuclear-powered ships including all the world's nuclear-powered icebreakers both in service and decommissioned ones and a nuclear-powered cargo ship [Music] the decommissioned nuclear-powered icebreakers are tied up along the shore until their ultimate fate is decided a huge hammer and sickle symbol of communism and Russia's found in a room on board victory a crew member told me that it came from the decommissioned nuclear-powered icebreaker Arctica and that it was a good symbol of the working people he then kindly snapped my photo in front of it as we neared the barren sea the pilot left us and we entered the sea with its large swells seagulls flock behind the victory to catch the food stirred up in the ship's weight [Music] [Music] the large swell caused the ship to pitch and waves crashed spectacularly over the bow the number of passengers on both the ship was reduced by seasickness we had a safety briefing and a welcome by Victory's captain Valentin de león's who has taken the victory to the North Pole multiple times Franz Joseph blan is an uninhabited Arctic Archipelago of 191 islands some 1450 kilometers or 900 miles northeast of Murmansk and some 1,000 kilometers or 620 miles from the North Pole the archipelago was found by the austro-hungarian North Pole expedition of 1872 that was seeking the Northeast Passage the archipelago belongs to Russia in France Joseph blan we met The Horizon to Horizon ice barrier but plowed forward at the impressive speed of 15 knots the v-notch at the stern is used during close-coupled towing operations when the ship being assisted is secured by a thick cable into the v-notch we made good progress until the ship was halted by pressure ridges once stopped the victory rapidly backed up and then move forward again at speed breaking through the pressure ridges and continuing northwards towards the North Pole [Music] the sound of breaking heavy ice was akin to that of beating on an empty 45 gallon barrel and the sound could be heard throughout much of the ship [Music] once finished sailing through the islands of Franz Josef land we headed straight north towards the North Pole [Music] we made excellent progress at a good clip through the ice-covered water due to victories enormous horsepower many of the passengers had huge lenses to capture the moment while others had but an iPad finally we sighted our first polar bear which turned out to be a nursing mother they were able to observe the bear for a good period of time as she crossed the moving ice and stopped to check out a seals breathing hole [Music] the ease with which the bear launched itself across the open lead was impressive finally the bear wandered off looking for seals and we resumed our progress northward as we sat down for a Russian supper night given the near 24 hours of sunlight and the variability of Arctic weather the call to prepare for flight seeing could occur at any time including during meal hours at which time one would have to return to the room and prepare for the flight scene the small mi2 helicopter would only take five passengers plus the pilots the two forward-facing seats in the front of the helicopter were preferable to the three rearward-facing ones in the back [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the flightseeing trips only lasted for 10 minutes so you'd have to be lucky to see a good scene of the victory powering through the ice [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] like many icebreakers victory has a bubbler system that forces compressed air through rows of holes on the hull under the waterline the air acts as a lubricant between the ship and the ice and helps push broken ice away from the ship it was always fascinating to watch the I seen broken up and pushed aside in fact it was much like the hypnotic fascination of watching logs burning in an open fire across the surprising number of bear tracks on the ice and were occasionally rewarded with a bear sighting in this case we saw mature bears interacting before one wandered off while the other stayed in sight [Music] when weather permitted flightseeing was conducted as the helicopter could only take five passengers at a goal and the weather changed rapidly so that flights were frequently scrub [Music] [Music] [Music] cloud forward through the ice towards the pole at times victory would encounter pressure ridges that stopped her forward progress pressure ridges are the thickest sea-ice features and form when ice floes are driven into each other by wind and currents these collisions result in the piling up of angular ice blocks both above and below the surface they can have a total thickness of over 30 meters once victory was stopped she rapidly backed up and then charged forward either at the same spot on the ridge or else at another spot judged to be weaker [Music] we were fortunate for no time during our voyage was victory held up for any significant period of time by pressure regime [Music] we were visited by the god of the sea Neptune and his court in exchange for gifts Neptune gave the captain the key to the Arctic on you fool me Neptune why relate a male rule of all seas lakes rivers and swimming pools and you've told what money ticket are not allotted apologies I'm the captain of nuclear icebreaker a desert led by their day we beg your permission to enter your church is so polluted our ticket to return and here is the key to the Arctic [Music] the occasionally passed polar bear tracks on the ice would serve to raise our hopes of actually seeing a bear [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the very easily clambered onto the ice floe ran across it and then dog back into the water and swam on [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] flightseeing started up whenever the conditions allowed [Music] during kharsa flight scene was possible to see the victory from both a high level and a low level point of view however the open stretch of waters meant that there was no guarantee that victory would be plowing through ice when airborne [Music] victory did not slow down when entering the ice and there was no noticeable feeling of impact at contact when ship boy [Music] [Music] when victory was plowing through the pack ice it was impressive to see the large pieces of ice casually raised up in the air and pushed aside by the ship passage flight scene was very iffy as the changing weather conditions could rapidly shut down a start-up helicopter operations in total we had two flights seeing flights and one short landing via helicopter if one was keen one could rent a helicopter for $2,000 a half-hour which could be split amongst five passengers [Music] the capability is a victory to reliably get to the north pole and back on a predictable basis allows trips to the pole to be firmly scheduled and passengers to confidently make travel arrangements this would not be possible with a less capable icebreaker we were taken on a good tour of the victory to see the impressive engineering that lies behind this awesome icebreaker [Music] the bridge is huge and open to passengers at most time [Music] the hounds Minh steers the ship using a small wheel whose movement is translated into a rudder movement by large Pistons in the steering gear [Music] it is impressive to see the import part of the giant rudder turn in response to the helmsman's direction the tour involved a lot of climbing up and down stairs to get to the various areas of the engine above deck are the twin reactor covers that afford access to the reactor room when heavy maintenance such as refueling is required the reactor control room was impressive with its team of five operators sitting at a bank of 16 monitor screens the world's largest icebreaker is equipped with a nuclear power propulsion system two nuclear reactors provide a power output a 75,000 horsepower that provides a maximum speed of 21 point 4 knots in open water and the ability to continuously break two point eight meter thick ice at speed the superheated steam heated by the reactors drives the turbines which in turn drive the electric generators that provide the electrical power to the electric motors that turn three propeller shafts each having a propeller with four fixed pitch blades fifty years of victory has an endurance of four to five years before she needs refueling with new uranium fuel in a process that takes about six months [Music] a large diameter of the prop shaft is evidenced by my foot in front of it the ship carries spare propeller blades that can be installed at sea by divers that are members of the crew [Music] the builders plaque from 2007 reminded us that victory is a new icebreaker despite its construction having been started in 1989 the ship had a mini gym and a saltwater pool that was emptied in heavy seas when breaking heavy ice was very noisy in the pool and you could easily feel the vibrations in the water during ice breaking the ship's movement turn the pool into a wave pool nearing the North Pole we had the chance to hold the ship's Olympic torch that it carried to the North Pole as part of the Olympic torch relay prior to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at 6 a.m. after three days of ice breaking we arrived at the exact North Pole 90 degrees north from our position at the North Pole every direction that we looked was south 6 tips to reach in every direction we look we look so there is nobody above us having put the ship exactly at 90 degrees north the captain then move the ship a short distance away to get better ice for the off vessel activity [Music] [Music] [Music] an impressive amount of equipment was offloaded for the on ice activity as well five well on polar bear guards were set out on the perimeter to keep watch for marauding bears a ceremonial north pole sign was planted while overhead a hot-air balloon floated tethered to the ship the passengers formed a circle around the North Pole sign [Music] [Applause] a well-equipped Japanese tourist brought a camera clipped helicopter drone that took some interesting video clips from above [Music] [Music] in a tent in the hot air balloon offered a different view of the ship at the North Pole but as it was tethered to the ship the balloon only went up and down and did not get very high [Music] Lebanon is the blood restless Wolverine it was harder than it looks to pull the ship [Music] it was interesting to walk up to the bowels of ship and examine the business and closer [Music] the stainless steel cladding on the hall was very evident the icebreakers ice knife is concave which is supposed to shatter the ice at contact [Music] [Music] I opted to make a Polar Plunge to experience the water that the polar bears swam into evil so say whoa watch it panting oh sure let's say it turns out that without the polar bears insulation the water is very cold but a more concern was that both my glasses and head mounted camera came off on entering the water I was lucky not to have lost at least you got a bit of sunshine for your stomach on the ship though you'll be on fire run the nickel the fuel my polar plunge from my head mounted camera was different [Applause] [Music] our arrival at the North Pole was only about the hundred and third time that a surface ship had made it to the North Pole to date only about 20,000 people have been to the pole by ship submarine plane or most impressively by foot leaving the North Pole we sailed south to Franz Josef land where we could put ashore to see some of the Arctic flora and fauna [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Franz Josef land is an uninhabited ARCIC archipelago of 191 islands some 1,450 kilometers or 900 miles northeast of Murmansk and some 1000 kilometers or 620 miles from the North Pole it's a walrus a that was a walrus two babies with that big mother [Music] in Franz Joseph blan which is part of the new Russian Arctic National Park we made several sightings of walruses both male and female adults are large with the males weighing a couple of tonnes the most prominent feature of the walrus are the long tusks that are on both male and female walruses these are elongated canine teeth eken reach a length of about one meter and weigh up to five kilograms apart from their use in fighting a display of dominance the tusks are also used to form and maintain breathing holes in the ice and also to aid the walrus in climbing out of the water onto the ice during the 19th and early 20th century walruses were widely hunted and killed for their blubber walrus ivory and meat as a result the population of walrus is rapidly dropped all around the Arctic region since then their population has somewhat rebounded [Music] [Music] the ease with which the victory grow through the thick ice was amazing we arrived off Cape Norway and headed ashore by zodiacs as there was little ice coverage [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] he landed a cape Norway at midnight but with 24 hours of sunlight the time of day was not an impediment either to operations or to seeing the case if nothing else the midnight landing added to the atmosphere of our visit to this historic site a walrus counter calf service just off our landing site at Cape Norway the cow was huge and her bloodshot eyes were intriguing as was the matter of sensitive whiskers that are used to locate food such as Mallis on the ocean floor females give birth at most every two years as the gestation period lasts from 15 to 16 months calves are born during the spring and weigh from 45 to 75 kilograms and are able to swim at birth the mothers nurse for over a year before weaning but the young can spend up to five years with their mothers in 1895 after heading back to Norway after failing to reach the North Pole Norwegian explores Nansen and Johansson spent the winter of 1895 96 and it makes us hut on Cape Norway [Music] the well-armed polar bear guards man the perimeter of our landing site on our way back to the ship we were able to investigate an iceberg just offshore from the landing site [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] leaving Cape Norway we headed south to hooker island where the abandoned Russian set-off station is situated the ice coverage was too heavy to permitted zodiac landing and the weather too foggy for safe helicopter passenger landing so the available helicopter time was dedicated to delivering supplies for the Russian scientist staying at set-off station for the summer the station is also visited by polar bears looking for food the supplies delivered from the victory for the scientists included an outboard motor and fresh food [Music] the set-off station is an abandoned Soviet meteorological and geological research facility that was established in 1929 and abandoned in 1963 [Music] the weather was very changeable with the fog becoming ticket times which made the helicopter flying challenging [Music] [Applause] while watching the resupply operation in progress something dark was seen on a nice floor the dark object turned out to be a seal and the hope was raised that perhaps there be a bear as well moving on these now he's moving around maybe he'll go in the water that he's wiggling around it's climbing up the little ice floes on surprisingly a polar bear that with diligently hunting seals appeared on the scene [Music] the bear ate snow along its way [Music] leaving septa station we made a short cruise to the large bird colony on roubini Ross [Music] the formations formed by the basalt columns were similar to those that we had seen in Iceland roubini Rock was named by your G set off in 1913 in honor of his favorite opera singer an Italian tenor named Giovanni roubini it is one of the largest rookeries in the Franz Josef land with Gauls and Guillemots stuck to its steep face [Music] you [Music] he partying hooker island we sailed Southwest to Cape flora on northbrook island near roubini Rock we came upon a large ice field dotted with seals at their breeding holes in the distance we could see a polar bear slowly making its way towards the closest seal however as he neared the seal it would slip down into its breathing hole to reach safety under the ice when that stele disappeared the bear would move on towards the next seal five times the bear tried stocking seals and five times the seals slipped under the ice to safety finally the bear ran out of seals and turned its attention to our boats long black hole which may have seen like something to eat the bear sauntered right up to the side of the ship and then lay down on the ice to study the ship after time the bear struggled to its feet and sauntered off into a big landscape [Music] [Applause] at Cape for the ice coverage was deemed too heavy for a zodiac landing so we use the ship's helicopter to ferry ashore in an operation that lasted for six hours [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] during our time at Cape for the helicopter was constantly ferrying passengers to and from the ship [Music] it was a cape for aware in 1896 Nansen and Johnson who had made their way south after wintering at Cape Norway had a chance encounter with the Jackson expedition and were rescued like most Arctic islands the land was barren and the few remaining traces of past expedition Hut's were now completely flattened by the snows [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] it was always interesting to land aboard the victory [Music] [Music] [Music] leaving Franz Joseph blan we sailed back across the calm barren sea towards Murmansk [Music] sailing down the Murmansk yard we had sunny weather unlike for our departure hence it was easier to see the interesting naval facilities along the fjord and we even saw snow on the hills near Marans during the Cold War Murmansk was the center of Soviet submarine activity and today it remains the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet [Music] the Admiral Kuznetsov was originally commissioned in the Soviet Navy so she is prominently decorated with the red star of the Soviet Union her sister ship is now serving as the first aircraft carrier in China's Navy [Music] the operation of fifty years of victory is green since rather than burning some 1000 tons of fuel oil to make the boards the ship used about a kilogram of uranium fuel and emitted no significant quantity of greenhouse gases back at the Ross atom flood dock we reluctantly disembarked from the 50 years of victory and headed downtown for a tour of mer maps Murmansk with a population of 300,000 is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle [Music] after lunch at an atmospheric nightclub we visited the Lenin the first nuclear-powered icebreaker which is ironically moored near a huge coal dock in front of the lenin is a small memorial to the Great Patriotic War when the icebreaker Lenin was launched in 1957 it was both the world's first nuclear-powered surface ship and the first nuclear-powered civilian vessel the Lenin was retired in 1989 in part because its Hall had worn thin from ice friction the interior finish of the Lenin is remarkable as its fine wood paneling and artwork recalls the look of the great classic passenger liners that once plied the North Atlantic using nuclear powers not without its challenges and the lenin had two nuclear accidents the first in 1965 and the second in 1967 both accidents were related to the loss of coolant in one of the reactors dominating the skyline of Murmansk atop a hill is the huge 1975 memorial to the defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War during World War 2 Murmansk was the terminus of the Arctic Convoys that brought weapons and other supplies to the Soviet Union from the Western Allies German forces and finished territories launched an offensive against the city in 1941 and Mirman suffered extensive destruction the magnitude of which was rivaled only by the destruction of Leningrad and Stalingrad however fierce Soviet resistance and harsh local weather conditions prevented the Germans from capturing the city and stopping the Allies Arctic Convoys at the Murmansk Airport there were some Russian military helicopters including the unique cam off with its counter rotating blades the voyage to the North Pole on 50 years of victory was an amazing experience as it was a rare opportunity to witness the impressive performance of the world's largest icebreaker in the polar seas as well as being able to step foot on the North Pole and dive into the Arctic Ocean there this was one of those trips for which it can truly be said the journey was more important than the destination take me somewhere nice to some tired island in your heart cause fair Thanks

Channel: tletter

Views: 2,703,821

Rating: 4.7739372 out of 5

Keywords: travel, North Pole, 50 Years of Victory, 50 лет Победы, 50 Let Pobedy, icebreaker, nuclear, Franz Josef Land, Murmansk, Arctic, polar bear, walrus, Nuclear-powered Icebreaker (Ship Class), Bear, Tourist Destination

Id: BRRy6t5K3R4

Length: 66min 33sec (3993 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 17 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/USOutpost31]

This is a really good travelogue.

I stumbled across it then ended up riveted the whole way through. The Russians really treat you right on their giant nuclear powered icebreaker.

[u/juicyhelm]

This guy makes KICK ASS travel videos.