Notable events
After delivery on 29 July 2021,[12] Le Commandant Charcot sailed from mainland Norway to Svalbard and from there to the Geographic North Pole, where she arrived on 6 September 2021.[13]
In December 2021, the ship went on a 16-day exploration cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula, allowing passengers to experience a total solar eclipse from the Weddell Sea ice pack.[14][15]
In February 2022, Le Commandant Charcot collaborated with the British Antarctic Survey research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough in Antarctica. The cruise ship, capable of breaking much thicker ice, created a channel for the research vessel in second-year ice covered with thick layer of snow in Stange Sound.[16]
In late July 2022, Le Commandant Charcot accompanied the Norwegian polar research vessel Kronprins Haakon to the North Pole.[17]
In June 2024, Le Commandant Charcot participated in a multinational rescue and assistance exercise Operation Tugaalik together with the Royal Danish Navy frigate HDMS Triton, French Navy offshore support and assistance vessel Rhône, and Icelandic Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel ICGV Þór.[18]
On 12 September 2024, Le Commandant Charcot became the first ship to reach the northern pole of inaccessibility, the point within the Arctic Ocean farthest from any landmass, during a transarctic voyage from Alaska to Svalbard.[19] On the same voyage, the ship also passed through the north magnetic pole on 13 September and Geographic North Pole on 15 September.[20]
