Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Most modern icebreakers were super-powerful ships. Li Du had heard of one that had a displacement of 37,000 tons, a power of 7.35×107 watts, a length of 194 meters and a width of 32.2 meters. It would take at least a few dozen crew members to operate a ship like this.
The Blodwen family icebreaker was not a huge ship. The family was rich and well-connected, but could not afford a vessel of such magnitude.
The Hammerhead Shark was just 20 meters long, and its bow shell was made of special steel plates at least 10 centimeters thick. Inside, it was supported by dense steel sections.
In addition to its steel shell, the ship had an extremely powerful engine. It broke the ice by impinging, pushing forward at full speed, and then pushing back to accelerate forward again.
There were crew members on board, but Li Du chose to use his people to sail the ship and let them take care of the maintenance.
With Brother Wolf in the captain’s cabin, the icebreaker left the pier toward the north to ride the wind and waves.
Li Du laughed, patting the side of the boat. “Nice ship. It’s like a steel arrow. This is the kind of ship we need in the Arctic Ocean.”
“I’m afraid the owner is cursing us now,” Sophie shook her head with a wry smile. “Isn’t it a little wrong that we’re doing this?”
Li Du said, “It’s really bad, but what does it have to do with us? It’s Steve who took over the ship.”
He could not help laughing at Bobby Blodwen’s reaction. The man must have regretted offending Steve and his company. Steve and the Ford brothers could take the law into their own hands as needed.
The weather was good and sunny. The arctic temperature was very low, the sea was very blue, and ice floes could be seen on the surface of the ocean from time to time.
Whenever it hit the ice, The Hammerhead Shark simply sped straight up into it, smashing it apart with the force of its propellers and prow.
However, this led to more fuel consumption. Although the ship was a powerful icebreaker, it was also a gas guzzler. After hitting the ice a few times, when they encountered an ice floe again, Brother Wolf turned the bow to avoid colliding with it.
When they reached deeper into the Arctic Circle, they entered the territory of constant polar daylight, with the sun never setting throughout the light season.
Li Du had experienced the polar day in the Antarctic, but it was different around the North Pole. Here, it was also bright from day to night, but at midnight, the sky was still darker.
After the novelty of the first few hours, the journey eventually became boring, and sailing in the Arctic Ocean was an eventless experience overall.
Even though there was a clock to keep track of time, people who were unused to the polar regions still had trouble sleeping with the constant light.
It was not until they got closer to the glacier that the view became interesting again.
Li Du had seen glaciers and icebergs in the Antarctic, where glaciers and icebergs were nothing more than ice. In the Arctic, however, glaciers and icebergs had black and gray topsoil with plants growing in it.
It was summer, and the Arctic was entering the warmest season of the year, full of exuberant life.
After entering the glacier belt, the icebreaker shuttled through the sea. The thick ice over the sea cracked, and water flowed in the cracks like a blue river.
Looking at the lines on the map, Li Du realized the veterans followed these crevasses.
The big icebreaker could not cross there. The ice gap was so narrow that only the small boat could pass. If they entered with force and got stuck, they would be in trouble.
As for breaking through the ice, The Hammerhead Shark was a relatively small vessel, but even a bigger icebreaker would have to fear.
The ice floes at the North Pole region were so thick that some of them were two or three meters above the water. Li Du thought they were icebergs at first.
“Change course or go down, boss?” Brother Wolf asked Li Du.
This deep in the Arctic, there were no steady references. Maps were unreliable because glaciers were melting and reuniting, and every year the maps would change a little bit.
If they change course, they were likely to get lost, despite satellite navigation.
Besides, the map showed that the old soldiers used to drive their boats through crevices in the ice. Once they changed course, they might not find a suitable route to the invisible cemetery.
Li Du pondered. At that moment, Ah Bai, who was squatting on the side of the boat eating peanuts, cried out and pointed forward.
The others, who were huddled together for warmth, ran over and looked, then cried out too.
Li Du looked up and saw a huge ice floe in front of the ship.
It made him wonder. It was just an ice flow, so what was so special about it? They had encountered much of the same along the way.
When he released the space-time bugs near the ice floe, he was suddenly enlightened: there were fish in the ice! Lots of fish were frozen inside.
They were mostly silver cod, haddock, and herring, the three most common Arctic fish. The space-time bugs traveled through the ice, and Li Du has found another big fish!
It was three or four meters long, but it wasn’t a whale or a shark. With its streamlined and scimitar-like tail, Li Du realized it was a rare blue-fin tuna!
During the journey, they ate mainly canned meat and dehydrated vegetables, which were the provisions of the ship, and nothing very fresh.
Deep-sea fish lived mostly in the Arctic Ocean, and icebreakers had no nets. They only had the occasional catch with a fishing rod, but it was very difficult, so they didn’t get much fresh fish.
It was hard to know how long these fish have been frozen in the ice, but they were probably still good. Li Du looked at them carefully closely, and they appeared quite fresh and lifelike.
When he was sure about what was in the ice, he got excited as well and said to Brother Wolf, “Hit the ice and have the others go down in a boat. There are fish in the ice, so let’s break it up and get some fresh fish for a change!”
The Hammerhead Shark rammed up, and as its propellers sped, its sturdy prow hit the huge ice floe.
Boom! With a dull thud, the front side of the ice was smashed, and ice chunks of various sizes fell into the water.
The icebreaker continued on its way, crushing the ice recklessly. As it progressed, pieces of ice kept dropping.
Li Du’s concern was the blue-fin tuna, which he had only heard of and never caught before.
Fortunately, the tuna was embedded deep in the ice. As a large block of ice fell to the surface of the sea, Li Du went down in a boat himself and took Godzilla along to find the fish.
