I’m obsessed with icebreaking: I was trained not to hit anything – now I drive my ship into ice 24/7 | Ice

I I have worked for the British Antarctic Survey since I was 19 years old. I started breaking the ice on my first trip to Antarctica and got hooked. I’m now captain of the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough and I find ice addicting.

It is unique in a naval career to have the ability, even as a junior officer, to do quite a complex act Ship handling Maneuvering at all stages. Ships are constantly breaking ice, 24/7 – so the entire bridge team gets to do it.

We break ice to get to British research stations in Antarctica, so we can re-supply the people there with all the food, fuel and scientific equipment they need. We then return all their waste to the UK, along with their scientific samples.

We also break the ice to carry out marine science at sea, in icy waters and on the ice itself. On my ship, we can take up to 55 scientists at a time; We are a floating laboratory, with 14 different facilities on board. We can send wires down to less than 10,000 meters below the ice to get water samples, and we can sweep them along the seafloor and drill into them to get clay samples and assess climate change.

Right now, Sir David Attenborough is strapped to the side of an ice shelf, collecting goods for a major science project about Glacier thwaites.

The bow looks a bit like an upside-down spoon with a sharp edge. The ship will ride over the ice and break it with its own weight.

One of the reasons I’m obsessed with the Ice Cup is because, during sea training, you learn how not to hit things. Therefore, having a ship designed to hit the ice is a great pleasure.

I remember being excited on the 19th by the noise – mostly banging and a little bit of cracking – as the ice is broken, and then the rush of water and the vibrations you feel.

It is possible to get stuck – or “Beedet” – in sea ice for long periods of time, although the longest you have been stuck in one place is about eight days.

Sometimes, they get stuck because the wind has changed and increased pressure in the ice. Then there is nothing you can do except sit and wait for conditions to improve. There is no ship very close that can come to our rescue, and it will take a long time.

Other times, you get stuck because you were pushed into the ice with too much momentum, and the ice has grounded you on either side. Then you can use the internal weight carried on the plane to try it Create a listwhich will hopefully break the friction with the ice.

So we are careful. We tend to hit the ice at about eight knots (about 9 mph or 14 km/h), so we have more power to pull ourselves out if we need to. From experience, I’ve learned how to look at ice and tell if it’s first-year ice, which is what the ship is designed to break, or ice that has withstood multiple summers and may cause damage to the ship. We have a tower that allows us further forward, and we even use drones for planning, to get an overview of the ice.

Although I always knew I wanted to work at sea, I never realized that icebreaking would become the focus of my career. But it is a very satisfying and fun job, in a very special place, where the scenery and wildlife are incredible. Every day, I wake up feeling excited to go to work — and I’m so lucky.