MS National Geographic Endeavour was a small expedition ship operated by Lindblad Expeditions for cruising in remote areas, particularly the polar regions.
MS Expedition is an expedition cruise ship owned and operated by the Canada-based G Adventures. She was built as a car/passenger ferry in 1972 by Helsingør Skibsværft og Maskinbyggeri A/S, Helsingør, Denmark as Kattegat for Jydsk Færgefart A/S. Subsequently, she sailed under the names nf Tiger for P&O Normandy Ferries, Tiger for Townsend Thoresen and Ålandsfärjan for Viking Line, prior to conversion into a cruise ship in 2008. The MS Expedition has the IMO number 7211074 and is ice-strengthened, having an ice class of 1B. There are two higher classes, being 1A Super and 1A.
Gauss was a ship built in Germany specially for polar exploration, named after the mathematician and physical scientist Carl Friedrich Gauss. Purchased by Canada in 1904, the vessel was renamed CGS Arctic. As Arctic, the vessel made annual trips to the Canadian Arctic until 1925. The ship's fate is disputed among the sources, but all claim that by the mid-1920s, the vessel was out of service.
Orion Expedition Cruises (OEC) is a former Australian-based luxury expedition cruise line that operated the German-built 103 m, 4000 gross tonne MV Orion in Australasian and Antarctic waters.
The MS Explorer or MV Explorer was a Liberian-registered cruise ship, the first vessel of that kind used specifically to sail the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean. She was the first cruise ship to sink there, after striking an iceberg on 23 November 2007. All passengers and crew were rescued.
Polar Class (PC) refers to the ice class assigned to a ship by a classification society based on the Unified Requirements for Polar Class Ships developed by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). Seven Polar Classes are defined in the rules, ranging from PC 1 for year-round operation in all polar waters to PC 7 for summer and autumn operation in thin first-year ice.
Heritage Adventurer is an ice-strengthened expedition cruise ship built in 1991 by Rauma shipyard in Finland. She was originally named Society Adventurer, but after Discoverer Reederei was unable to take delivery of the vessel due to financial troubles, the completed ship was laid up at the shipyard for almost two years. In 1993, she was acquired by Hanseatic Tours and renamed Hanseatic. In 2018, she was chartered to One Ocean Expeditions and renamed RCGS Resolute through a partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2021, she was acquired by Heritage Expeditions and, following an extensive refit, given her current name.
Tourism started in Antarctica by the sea in the 1960s. Air overflights started in the 1970s with sightseeing flights by airliners from Australia and New Zealand, and were resumed in the 1990s. The (summer) tour season lasts from November to March. Most of the estimated 14,762 visitors to Antarctica from 1999–2000 were on sea cruises. During the 2009 to 2010 tourist season, over 37,000 people visited Antarctica.
Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway, in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica from 1898 to 1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.
Students on Ice Foundation is a Canadian charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for international high school and university students. Its mandate is to provide youth, educators and scientists from around the world with learning and teaching opportunities in the polar regions, with the goal of fostering an understanding of, and commitment to building a more sustainable future.
Piloto Pardo was a Chilean Navy auxiliary ship from 1959 until 1997. After decommissioning she was converted to an Antarctic expedition cruise ship and operated as such until 2012 under the name MV Antarctic Dream.
National Geographic Explorer is a small passenger vessel in the Lindblad Expeditions fleet. She can accommodate 148 guests. The ship is equipped with extra hull plating to withstand higher ice breaking tolerances. She was previously operated by Hurtigruten.
Oceanwide Expeditions is a Dutch company specializing in expedition-style voyages to Antarctica and the Arctic. Deploying its own fleet of ice-strengthened vessels, Oceanwide emphasizes small-scale, flexible tours that provide passengers close contact with polar wildlife, landscapes, and historical sites. Tours usually take place in regions only accessible by sea, with little to no infrastructure. The locations visited are first reached by ship, after which expedition guides take small groups of passengers to landing sites by way of Zodiac Milpro RIBs, enabling safe cruising and maximum shore time.
Poseidon Expeditions is a provider of polar expeditions. The company was started in 1999 as a tour operator specializing in expedition cruises to the North Pole and the Russian High Arctic aboard icebreakers and ice-strengthened ships.
NOAAS Researcher, was an American oceanographic research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 1996. She had been delivered to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1970 as USC&GS Researcher, but did not enter commission until after her transfer to NOAA later that year. In 1988, Researcher was renamed NOAAS Malcolm Baldrige.
Le Commandant Charcot is an icebreaking cruise ship operated by the French shipping company Compagnie du Ponant. Named after the French polar scientist Jean-Baptiste Charcot, the vessel was built at Vard Tulcea shipyard in Romania, from where she was moved to Søviknes for final outfitting and delivery in 2021.
Silver Endeavour is a cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises. Originally built for Crystal Cruises by MV Werften in Stralsund, Germany, she was laid down in 2018 and completed in June 2021. She is the world's largest ice class expedition yacht, bearing a Polar Class rating of PC6.
Lindblad Expeditions is an expedition travel company headquartered in New York, NY. The company currently offers expedition cruises to destinations on all seven continents aboard 15 ships with capacities ranging from 28 to 150 guests.
Seabourn Venture is an ultra-luxury expedition cruise ship operated by Seabourn Cruise Line. The ship's hull was built built by the CIMAR Shipyard in San Giorgio di Nogaro and outfitted at T. Mariotti in Genoa. Its keel was laid in December 2019 and in March 2021 the hull was towed to Genoa to be completed. Sea trials began in April 2022 and the ship was delivered to Seabourn Cruise Line on 28 June 2022 in Genoa. It is Carnival Corporation's first expedition cruise ship.
Aurora Expeditions is an Australian company that runs cruises, expeditions and tours.
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