MV ''Arctic'' was an

icebreaking An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

cargo ship built in 1978 at the

Port Weller Dry Docks Port Weller Dry Docks was a shipbuilder on the Welland Canal at the Lake Ontario entrance. The shipbuilder was founded in 1946 and the site was initially owned by the Government of Canada for storage purchases. The shipyard expanded to include ship ...

St. Catharines, Ontario St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

, Canada. The ship was owned and operated by the Fednav Group. ''Arctic'' was sold for recycling in

Aliağa Aliağa () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 379 km2, and its population is 104,828 (2022). The town is situated at about north of İzmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its e ...

, Turkey in April 2021. Designed to carry both

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

, the vessel is not only ice strengthened with a

Finnish-Swedish ice class Finnish-Swedish ice class is an ice class assigned to a vessel operating in first-year ice in the Baltic Sea and calling at Finland, Finnish or Sweden, Swedish ports. Ships are divided into six ice classes based on requirements for hull structura ...

1A Super, but has a CASPPR Class 3 or CAC 4 rating. This means it is powerful enough to navigate through many ice-covered waters without escort. ''Arctic'' previously serviced

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

s in the high

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...

such as

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris (Latinisation of names, Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an ...

and

Nanisivik Mine Nanisivik Mine was a zinc-lead mine in the company town of Nanisivik, Nunavut, north of the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island. It was Canada's first mine in the Arctic. The mine first opened on 15 October 1976 and permanently closed in September ...

. Once those mines closed she was shifted to service the

Raglan mine Raglan Mine is a large nickel mining complex in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, Canada. It is located approximately south of Deception Bay. Discovery of the deposits is credited to Murray Edmund Watts in 1931 or 1932. It is owned and ope ...

in northern Quebec and the

Voisey's Bay Voisey's Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in Labrador, Canada. The bay is located south of the community of Nain. The bay is heavily indented with numerous inlets and islands and is extremely rocky. It is the site of the Voisey's Bay Mine. ...

mine in

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

. In addition in 1985 she became the first ship to export crude oil from the Canadian Arctic, from Panarctic Oils Bent Horn terminal. As part of the repairs following a grounding off of Little Cornwallis Island the ice strengthening in the sides and bottom was increased at Thunder Bay shipyard in 1984. In 1985-1986 in anticipation of the export of crude oil from Bent Horn Island in the high Arctic the ship received a new icebreaker bow and was converted to an OBO at Port Weller Drydock. This improved her icebreaking capability such that the ice class could be upgraded from CAC 2 to CAC 4.

References

www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/canadayards/portarthur.htm C17 348357 Arctic Fednav Ltd. Bulk Carrier 19,420 Jul-85 Conversion to OBO Carrier Icebreakers of Canada Transport in the Arctic Merchant ships of Canada {{arctic-stub