2015: A Historic “First” for Travel to the North Pole

September 5, 2015

The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) achieved a major transportation milestone when she became the first American surface vessel to reach the North Pole unaccompanied. Healy had been commissioned in 1999. She was named after Michael A. Healy (1839-1904), a career officer with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (a predecessor of the Coast Guard).

USCGC Healy is the Coast Guard’s largest vessel. This 420-foot (128-meter)-long ship also has the distinction of being the largest and most technologically advanced of any American icebreakers. Her capabilities include being able to break through more than 10 feet (3.1 meters) of ice.

Along with being equipped for major icebreaking duties, Healy has been deployed over the years for law enforcement operations and search-and-rescue missions. She is outfitted as well for oceanographic surveys and other maritime studies, with various laboratory spaces and also berthing for scientific researchers on board.  

The historic 2015 voyage of Healy to the North Pole began on August 9, when she departed from Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island in Alaska. There was a total of 145 people — including about 50 scientists– aboard for this expedition, which was part of a wide-ranging international scientific project to help document trace elements within every ocean on earth.

Healy arrived at the North Pole after 28 days at sea. Bill Schmoker, an earth science teacher at a middle school in Boulder, Colorado, and one of the researchers traveling on board Healy, highlighted this arrival in a blog post. “At 7:47 this morning (Alaska Daylight Time), we reached the North Pole!” he noted.  “The Healy was making speedy-enough progress to reach the goal sometime in the middle of the night, but as folks on the crew and science team were tired from the all-night ice sampling station the day before, the decision was made to stop for some ship maintenance and take it easy getting to the pole overnight so we could arrive at a civilized hour.”

Captain Jack Hamilton, the vessel’s commander, likewise described the arrival at the northernmost region of the world. “You literally feel like you’re on a different planet with 24-7 sun and ice all around you,” he commented. “It’s really a sense of accomplishment and pride.” (The attached photo of members of both Healy’s crew and the science team at the North Pole was taken a couple of days after they first set foot there.)

This record-setting expedition of Healy marked her third visit to the North Pole. The first of these trips took place in 2001 and the second one occurred in 2005. This icebreaker made her fourth voyage to the North Pole, and the second one in which she was not accompanied by any other vessels, in 2022.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on USCGC Healy (WAGB-20), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Healy

Additional information on this vessel’s pioneering visit to the North Pole in 2015 is available at https://alaskapublic.org/news/2015-09-11/coast-guard-cutter-healy-reaches-north-pole