U.S. Coast Guard's Operation Deep Freeze: Ice Pilots
By Nick Ameen
February 24, 2018
Each year when the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star visits Antarctica, its crew faces a unique challenge. Creating a navigable channel through a frozen sea to the National Science’s Foundation’s (NSF) McMurdo Station, where the ice is up to 10 feet thick, requires a particular set of skills. This is why the Polar Star is one of only two Coast Guard cutters with qualified ice pilots aboard.
Ice pilots are responsible for navigating the ship through different types of ice. On their way to Antarctica, ice pilots will first negotiate pack ice—large pieces of floating ice—before reaching the fast ice, which extends out from the shore and is attached to it.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/02/24/us_coast_guards_operation_deep_freeze_ice_pilots_113105.html
