Vard, one of the world’s major designers and builders of specialized vessels, is pleased to announce the successful handover of the seventh ship to the French cruise company Ponant, the polar exploration ship Le Commandant Charcot.

First of its kind, Le Commandant Charcot is a hybrid electric polar exploration ship with ice breaking technology powered by Liquefied Natural Gas. A Polar Class PC2 ship that includes all the latest ‘green’ technologies, such as 100% waste sorted on board and waste treatment. The ship will be fitted with facilities and equipment for research, providing the scientific world with a platform for observation, research and analysis to study water, air, ice, and biodiversity in extreme polar regions.

Le Commandant Charcot will be sailing in the world’s most remote regions: the Geographic North Pole, Northeast Greenland’s National Park, circumnavigation of the Svalbard archipelago, the Bellingshausen Sea, Charcot and Pierre I Islands, Weddell Sea and the Larsen Ice Shelf.