Polar Star Expeditions

MV Polar Star was built at the Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard in Finland in 1969 and originally served in the Swedish Maritime Administration's fleet of icebreakers under the name of Njord (IMO 6905745).

On January 31, 2011, Polar Star hit an uncharted rock when anchoring just north of Detaille Island in the Antarctic, breaching her outer hull.

[7] There, an underwater survey discovered additional damage, and the company decided to transfer passengers to other ships rather than ferry them back to Argentina through the often-rough Drake Passage below Cape Horn.

Three ships that were in the vicinity evacuated her 80 passengers and part of her crew on February 3, 2011,[7] but she lost the rest of her 2010/11 Antarctic season, and had to go to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands for repairs.

[2] Polar Star Expeditions' parent company Karlsen Shipping Co. Ltd. was forced into receivership in Nova Scotia with eight million dollars in debt when TD Bank called in a $4.6-million loan.

[8] The receiver's September 27, 2011 report to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court stated there was little prospect of a significant return to creditors by pursuing a sale of the ship, which had $2.51 million in charges and liens against it by that time.

[8] The court-appointed receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), concluded that Polar Star should be abandoned to Astican Shipyard, which was expected to pursue a sale through the Spanish courts.