Thorbjørn, formerly HMDS Thorbjørn is a large deep sea

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

. The ship was originally built for the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

, along with two others, to serve in the Arctic and Antarctic. The ship was designed to break and navigate in

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less density, dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world' ...

and was typically in operation with the Navy between December and March during the northern ice season. The ship is in private ownership. The ship was a sister ship to

HDMS Danbjørn HDMS ''Danbjørn'' (sometimes referred to as ''Danbjoern'') was a Denmark, Danish icebreaker built for breaking and reporting ice in the sea for Danish Ice Service in 1965. Originally operated by the Ministry of Industrial Affairs, it was incorpor ...

and HDMS Isbjørn.

History

Construction of the ship began 12 November 1979 and the ship was launched 1 June 1980. The ship was commissioned with the Danish Navy on 1 January 1996. She was assigned to Division 15, 1st Naval Squadron at Frederikshavn. The icebreaker frequently worked in the waters around

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and sometimes cooperated with the

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; ) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and i ...

. In 2014, Adelaide Nautical College in Australia attempted to buy the ship but was unsuccessful. In September 2015, it was announced that Thorbjørn had been sold to Nordane Shipping in Svendborg for a two-digit million sum and the ship left Flådestation

Frederikshavn Frederikshavn () is a Danish town in Frederikshavn municipality, Region Nordjylland, on the northeast coast on the North Jutlandic Island in northern Denmark. Its name translates to "Frederik's harbor". It was originally named Fladstrand. The ...

the same day. In 2019, the ship featured on a postal stamp in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. Since 2020 it has been listed for sale.

Equipment

The ship is Diesel–electric. It also has a Wärtsilä air bubbling (air lubrication) system to prevent friction with ice.

References

{{Commons category, Thorbjørn (ship, 1980) 1980 ships Icebreakers of the Royal Danish Navy