> An icebreaker is meant to go charging through and in some cases even over ice. There seems to be confusion in that sentence, an icebreaker "goes through ice"

> An icebreaker is meant to go charging through and in some cases even over ice. There seems to be confusion in that sentence, an icebreaker "goes through ice" meaning it works in a region with ice not literally plowing through the ice. Although if the ice is loose and floating yes but an icebreaker is designed with a sloped bow that rides up onto ice and then the ship's weight pushes down breaking the ice. No ship pushes through ice it would be like trying to push on two ends of an egg. My dad worked for the Canadian Coast Guard for 33 years. He said for really thick ice (several meters) they'd sometimes have to use the ship's crane with a large cement block and pound at the ice at the sides of the ship. The crane is normally used for buoys. Sea ice, pack ice is like concrete great in compression but fails when a multi 100 ton ship in sitting on top (to a limit). This was the ship my dad served on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCGS_Earl_Grey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCGS_Earl_Grey