The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S St-Laurent is the queen of the fleet, the nation's largest and heaviest icebreaker. Refitted extensively with upgraded and advanced icebreaking equipment, the ship features a knife-like strengthened hull prow that allows it to slice through sea ice that would halt lesser icebreakers (and sink ordinary ships). We looked forward to seeing the Louis and her crew demonstrate the icebreaking action for which the ship is renowned... but found ourselves surrounded by blue water throughout nearly all of our voyage.

This vast stretch of blue water where there is ordinarily white ice showed up on satellite monitor scans in Summer 2007 and alerted the European Space Agency to the extreme melting that occurred in the Northwest Passage this year, triggering the concern that led to Phaeton Group's mission into the North.