Trump Administration Considers Hiring Private Ship to Fill Arctic ‘Icebreaker Gap’

The Trump White House is racing to lease an icebreaker, and one of the candidates is a ship with a notorious Alaska past owned by a Republican mega-donor, according to Alaska Public Media. 

After a fire damaged the icebreaker U.S.S. Healy this summer, the U.S. is down to one working icebreaker. The Coast Guard has another being built, but it isn’t expected to be finished until 2024.

At a recent hearing, Coast Guard Admiral Charles Ray told Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan (Republican) that the Coast Guard is studying the concept, following a directive from President Trump.

One of the vessels previously considered for such service was the ‘Aiviq’. It was built specifically for Shell’s offshore Arctic drilling project and became famous when it towed a rig running aground near Kodiak in 2012. At a 2016 hearing, Alaska Congressman Don Young pushed for the Coast Guard to hire the Aiviq, whereas the Coast Guard’s second-in-command at the time insisted it would not work.