Launched in 2021, Le Commandant Charcot is a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaker. It is a 245-passenger, 31,300-ton cruising vessel with high quality interiors. It is French, chic, the service is smooth, and passengers are well-heeled, experienced and predominantly elder travellers.

As of 2022, Le Commandant Charcot is the only PC2 rated ship in service. Note that the strongest Canadian Coastguard icebreakers to date, are PC3 rated. The vessel is capable of breaking up to 2.5m thick multi-year ice, reaching remote polar destinations. She features a 52,000hp hybrid power plant powered by LNG, and 5 MWh electric batteries. The ship carries 2 helicopters for reconnaissance and is amazingly quiet.

We choose Le Commandant Charcot for its off-the-beaten-track itinerary and most of all for the North West Passage. We called at Greenland’s South coast and at different islands of North Canada Nunavut. On the Beaufort Sea we landed on multiyear sea-ice. From Reykjavik to Nome we sailed 4,400 NM equivalent to 8,134 km. Read more