By Anne Kalosh.
Lindblad Expeditions’ first blue-water new build has a name: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE—in honor of Ernest Shackleton, the company’s most revered explorer, President and CEO Sven Lindblad said during keel-laying festivities at CRIST shipyard in Gdynia, Poland.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE will “incorporate technical advances and create opportunities for guests beyond the reach of any contemporary ship,” he added.
National Geographic Endurance rendering.
This 126-passenger ocean-going ship follows Lindblad Expeditions’ two new U.S.-flag coastal vessels, 2017’s NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC QUEST and upcoming sister ship NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VENTURE, as the line’s “Ultimate Expedition Platform.”
Sven Lindblad noted NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE’s Polar Class 5 rating gives the ability to operate “freely at any time of year in polar environments, vastly expanding our polar range. This means we can explore deeper into the pack ice, or further north to the unexplored reaches of the Arctic—for instance, northern Ellesmere Island, where only a relative handful of people have ever been, or some of the completely off-the-beaten-path Arctic islands that are remote, pristine and teeming with wildlife.”
The keel-laying ceremony included the maritime tradition of welding coins into the keel for good luck. One was a newly minted commemorative silver coin etched with the name of the ship, flanked by a polar bear and penguin, signifying the two poles NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE will be exploring, and etched with “To Explore and Understand the World.”
The other, representing the company’s expedition team and crew, was the lucky coin of Lindblad naturalist Tom Ritchie, a 1780 Austro-Hungarian thaler (silver dollar) with Marie Theresa on one side and a double-headed eagle on the other.
Tom Ritchie holding his lucky coin. * Photo: Lindblad Expeditions
According to Lindblad, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE has been designed as “the ultimate expedition platform,” with a focus on safety and comfort, as well as incorporating innovative sustainability solutions to reduce its environmental impact. A striking feature is the signature X-BOW (pronounced “crossbow”), a bow shaped to provide fuel efficiency while significantly improving comfort in rough seas.
The ship’s expanded fuel and water tanks provide for extended operations in remote areas, while the zero-speed stabilizers will ensure stability, at zero speed or full steam ahead.
The X-BOW was developed by Norway’s Ulstein Group, and after NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDURANCE’s hull is assembled in Poland, Ulstein Verft will complete the ship for hand-over in early 2020.
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