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Ponant takes delivery of first polar exploration ship

Cruise
Will Payne
2 August 2021

French luxury cruise line Ponant has taken delivery of what is thought to be the first hybrid electric polar exploration ship to be powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Le Commandant Charcot.

 Ponant's newest ship, Le Commandant Charcot, launched in September 2021

A flag exchange ceremony took place at VARD shipyard, a subsidiary of Fincantieri, in Norway on 29 July. 

The 245-guest vessel took six years to construct and is the 13th to join Ponant’s fleet.

Le Commandant Charcot will sail the North Pole, northeast Greenland’s national park, the Svalbard archipelago, the Bellingshausen Sea, Charcot and Pierre I Islands, Weddell Sea and the Larsen Ice Shelf. 

Hervé Gastinel, chief executive of Ponant, said the construction of the ship "demanded extremely high standards in terms of quality".