Business Insider brings us an interesting report that the Coast Guard had declined to undertake a suggested “Freedom of Navigation” transit of the Northern Sea Route because of fear the Polar Star would break down while in the ice near Russia and require Russian icebreaker assistance.

The fact that using the Polar Star in the Arctic would have probably made, making the McMurdo breakout problematic, probably also made such an exercise almost impossible. As we have seen in the last year, between dry docking and the trip South the crew spent very little time in homeport