Some of us will, by now, be absolutely aching for a holiday abroad. And of course, there is nothing stopping us, other than the dreaded quarantine upon our return. Now, however, there is an alternative. It’s nothing other than a cruise to the North Pole!
Between 26 and 28 October, the two polar-exploration cruise ships, “”Sylvia Earle” and “Ocean Odyssey”, were officially delivered and set sail in Haimen of Nantong City in our very own Jiangsu Province.
The two ships are classified as Ulstein CX103 polar-exploration cruise ships, with a displacement of 8,000 tons and a design length of 104.4 metres, and a beam of 18.4 metres.
Such combines the advantages of small exploration ships with the stability and comfort of large cruise ships. The type integrates entertainment, leisure and cuisine into ocean exploration. The two are also among the most environmentally-friendly cruise ships in the world, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
And they are, unsurprisingly a Norwegian invention. Thanks to its islands and fjords, the relatively-small country of Norway has the second-longest coastline in the world, at 103,000 kilometres, almost half of world beater, Canada (202,080 kilometres). That makes the country a leader in all things maritime, and given its northern climes, polar waters in particular.
As the accompanying photograph shows, the new ships sport an eye-catching bow, on account they initially appear to be the wrong way round. Ships did not used to be built this way. Turns out we had it a bit wrong all these years.
The shipbuilder responsible, Ulsteinvik-based Ulstein, came up with the design it names, “X-Bow”, to address the needs of working in the extremes of our planet’s poles.
As per an Ulstein press release, “The X-Bow is adapted to the tough conditions in the North Sea. The bow demonstrates the innovative capacity of Norwegian shipbuilding and is a strong contribution to the maritime history. As a result of the bow, the ship can tackle all kinds of weather conditions and it comes as a safe choice. The X-Bow is a great commercial success with more than 100 already in use all over the world”.
The design has certainly captured people’s imaginations. When Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten, ran a poll to name the most important Norwegian innovations throughout history, they voted the cheese slicer as number 3, the X-Bow design as number 2, and the Tripp Trapp high chair as number 1.
No wonder the primary motif on today’s Norwegian 100-krone note is the Gokstad ship, the country’s largest preserved Viking ship, behind which is an X-Bow subsea vessel. And soon they will also be sailing out of Nantong, with tourists aboard, to the North and South Poles.
