Ice Man

Capt. George Pellissier assumed command of the Coast Guard icebreakers Polar Sea and Polar Star in 2011. The Polar Sea was put on inactive status in 2010, leaving the Polar Star as the Coast Guard’s only active heavy-duty icebreaker. Pellissier led the Polar Star in Operation Deep Freeze 2014, the first time in six years a U.S. icebreaker was involved in resupply efforts of McMurdo Science Station, Antarctica. A graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, Pellissier retired in 2014 after 27 years in th

WorkBoat: The Coast Guard’s aging icebreaking fleet recently received a lot of attention from Congress and the White House. How valuable are the icebreakers and their missions? What do we stand to lose if we don’t build new ones? Capt. Pellissier: Down south we have to do the resupply of McMurdo (Science Station) every year – our largest supply station there. We might have to close the South Pole station, and that would set science back many years. The north is opening up more and more. You see more traffic trying to go through the Northwest Passage and more tourism. Another reason for us is strategic – all those resources all claimed by multiple countries. We have a tiny little presence up there compared to the other countries. We should make the investment. Just to start, you need a couple of heavy icebreakers. WB: The Polar Star and Polar Sea were built in the mid-1970s. The Polar Star was out of service for seven years and underwent a three-year $90 million overhaul before being reactivated in 2013. Congressional testimony earlier this year noted that to keep her going the Coast Guard has had to buy some parts online because they are no longer manufactured and has taken some parts off the Polar Sea. What condition is the Polar Star in? Pellissier: She needs some work. The refit overhauled her engines and did a fair bit of mechanical fixes. The biggest thing they need to deal with now is the electrical side. I felt safe on her. She’s a very capable ship, and she has multiple redundancies. If something went wrong, we could get the mission done. She was maintenance intensive, but she’s still a viable ship for years to come. She does need some TLC. The hull’s in great shape, but, yes, there’s more work that needs to be done. When we laid up the Polar Sea, we took some of those parts off – not a lot. It gets harder and harder to find parts. WB: The Russians have 40 icebreakers with another 11 planned or under construction. What advantages do they have over us, and what can they do that we can’t? Capt. Pellissier: Just the sheer quantity of icebreakers they have gives them a lot more flexibility and a lot more redundancy. The U.S. still has the most powerful non-nuclear icebreaker. We don’t have a lot of depth. You look at all of the resources underneath the Arctic Ocean, and the country that has the wherewithal to exploit them will be able to. WB: What were your most challenging missions as captain of the Polar Star? Capt. Pellissier: The most challenging was finishing up the overhaul and getting through sea trials and the trip to Antarctica. There were multiple different companies that had a piece of the pie. Everything had to fit together. Once in the midst of Puget Sound our fancy new propulsion system decided it no longer wanted to play. It was early morning and there was a fair bit of traffic all around. We were able to reset everything very quickly. New control systems had to work with 40-year-old systems. Some of the alarms would shut systems down. WB: Please tell us a bit more about Operation Deep Freeze. On the 108-day mission, you were prepared to help in the rescue effort of Russian and Chinese vessels stuck in 15' of ice near Antarctica. The ice shifted so they were freed. You then broke a 12-mile navigable channel in ice up to 10' thick in McMurdo Sound and helped deploy about one mile of fuel hose for Marble Point, an air station 20 miles west of McMurdo. Capt. Pellissier: You’re down there in summer. It was actually a fairly light ice year. We could go to Marble Pointthrough 8'-12' of ice. I’ve seen it up to 20'-24'. If the ice is thin enough (8'), you can go 6-8 knots and the pressure of the icebreaker cracks it out in front of you. When it gets thicker, you do backing and ramming. There are days you’re fighting for every foot. On paper, the Polar Star can break 21'. We’ve broken up to 23'-24'. When you do go outside, it’s not that bad. I was e-mailing my parents in Massachusetts, and it was colder there than Antarctica. On the trip to Marble Point, the propeller would take a little bit of a beating. Every now and then there’s a dent or two in the hull, but nothing to worry about. I’ve spent more than half my career in icebreakers – on the Great Lakes, too. The job is challenging. It always keeps you engaged. You get to see parts of the planet few get to see.