The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star holds an "ice liberty" in Antarctica, when crew members are able to step out on the frozen Ross Sea while the ship is cutting a path as part of Operation Deep Freeze in January 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard)
SEATTLE — The USCGC Polar Star, the only heavy icebreaker operated by the United States, is leaving this week from its homeport on Puget Sound for a four-month deployment to Antarctica, the ship’s captain said late last week.
“We’ll be down in Antarctica, in the Ross Sea, and if all goes well, we’ll celebrate the ship’s 50th birthday right off Cape Polar Star down there, which was named after the ship back in the early 1980s when it was doing a little scientific research support,” said Capt. Jeff Rasnake, the ship’s commander since July 2024.
Commissioned in 1976, the icebreaker remains the most powerful vessel in the Coast Guard. The 75,000 horsepower generated by its three gas turbines and six diesel engines can push the 13,500-ton ship through miles of ice up to 21 inches thick.
Two medium icebreakers, the Healy and the Storis, are currently homeported in Seattle. The Pentagon plans on adding three heavy and three medium icebreakers to the Coast Guard over the next decade, with some of the ships built under a partnership with Canadian and Finnish designers and shipbuilders.
The Polar Star’s annual trip to Antarctica is a key piece of Operation Deep Freeze, the effort to open ice-clogged supply routes to scientific stations in Antarctica. Each year, the ship deploys for the 16,000-mile round-trip to the tip of the frozen oceans in the Southern Hemisphere.
USCGC Polar Star, the service's only heavy icebreaker, at Coast Guard Base Seattle on Nov. 13, 2025. The ship is preparing to leave for Operation Deep Freeze, its annual deployment to open up access to scientific stations in Antarctica. (U.S. Coast Guard)
Seasons are the opposite of the Northern Hemisphere, and the Polar Star’s arrival is timed to when the ice on the outer edges of the Antarctic continent begins to thaw, enabling the ship to slice its way closer to research installations.
New this year, the Coast Guard is fielding a team of cold-water-trained divers who can work on ships and around installations on the itinerary. Previously, the diving was done partially with Coast Guard crews and equipment, aided by either U.S. Navy or commercial divers.
When not plowing through ice to make a path for other ships, the 399-foot Polar Star moves along at a top speed of 18 knots, with a cruising speed of 13 knots.
While the work in Antarctica is the main event of the deployment, the round-trip to McMurdo Station and back usually includes stops in Honolulu, Sydney, the South Pacific and South America.
Painted in the traditional Coast Guard colors of a red hull and white superstructure, the ship stands out amid the vast white of ice and dull blue of frigid waters at the south end of the globe.
Rasnake, the ship’s captain, said that while there are signs of age on the nearly half-century-old ship, it can keep doing its job if the 170-plus-member crew and researchers maintain it.
“When I showed up as the executive officer in 2017, they said, you know, ‘she’s an old ship, but she’s a good ship - we got to make her last 10 more years,’” Rasnake said.” I got here last summer and I asked, ‘how much longer do you think we can keep Polar Star going?’ They said, ‘she’s an old ship, but she’s a good ship, make her last another 10 years.’ I said, ‘I’ve heard that before.’ But I think the reality is she ship will be around as long as we need her around. And we need her around.”
The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking cutter Polar Star at McMurdo Station, a U.S. outpost in Antarctica. (U.S. Coast Guard)
