At the Arctic Circle aboard the icebreaker ‘Sampo’

The sun struggles up over the forest-fringed horizon—and sticks there. Its strength in the polar night is not enough to climb any higher. All the more reason for the heavily bundled figures to gather around the blazing campfire. Sámi in their traditional, brightly colored clothing serve hot cloudberry tea. After all, the freezing polar explorers need to be prepared for an icy adventure—one they will search for in vain in the southern Baltic this winter.

A very special “fragrance” hangs over the harbor of Kemi, a city in northern Finland: paper, to be precise. It is what keeps people here on the Gulf of Bothnia in business. Eighty-five percent is exported by sea, with state-of-the-art icebreakers indispensable to the process. From November to May, they clear a path for the freighters. After thirty years breaking ice, our 8,800-horsepower “Sampo” has become obsolete: underpowered, technologically outdated, and too narrow for the ever-wider paper carriers.

Winter attraction
The paper town of Kemi, with its 20,000 residents, has few outstanding winter attractions in Lapland—apart from Europe’s largest continuous ice field on its doorstep and an ice-sculpture park. The city fathers came up with something else remarkable: they simply bought the veteran icebreaker “Sampo” from the Finnish Maritime Administration, saving it from the scrapyard and converting the technical monument into Scandinavia’s only passenger icebreaker. And that’s not all. “Sampo” is a popular name for Finnish men, but it is also the machine that produces wealth in the national epic “Kalevala.” A climatic drawback has become a tourist attraction. Ever since, the black-and-yellow steel giant has drawn icebreaker fans from all over the world to Kemi each winter—and relieved them of their money.
The experience is certainly an exclusive one. Even self-confessed “cold-fish” are thrilled when the 8,800 horsepower of this handsome 3,450-ton vessel begins to vibrate beneath their feet.

Chills down your spine
With a roar, a crack, a crunch and a crackle, the burly powerhouse fights its way out of the harbor through ice up to a meter thick. Its sharply angled bow cuts through the rock-hard element. Along the “Sampo’s” sides, shattered floes scrape past, rearing upright for seconds as if in protest before slipping helplessly back into the freshly ploughed channel with a slap.
The bridge is packed. Everyone wants to watch the ice pilot navigate over his shoulder. On the forecastle, apparently cold- and windproof onlookers crane their necks down to get a close-up view of the icebreaking spectacle. “That gives me real, delightful chills down my spine!” my neighbor beams. Even normally “cool” bankers are beside themselves with excitement: “This ice show is unbelievably fascinating!” The “crazy ones” have sharp ice crystals reddening their faces, intensified by the dazzling path of light from the sun, which sets in the early afternoon.

The “tender-hearted bruiser with the rough exterior” (as one brochure puts it) takes the commotion in stride in his old age. After all, Finland has been building “battleships against the Nordic winter” since 1877, the most powerful of which bring 33,000 diesel-electric horsepower to bear on the ice. Sixty percent of the world’s icebreakers come from Finnish shipyards, especially the Wärtsilä-Masa Yards in Helsinki (which also produces top-of-the-line cruise ships). We pass the “Nordica,” one of Finland’s most modern large icebreakers, waiting for a convoy of freighters. Its lines look downright futuristic—nothing like the museum-piece “Sampo,” though she is a cozy old ship.

Polar swimmers
The highlight of this icy day trip comes when Captain Janni Lamila invites us to take a dip—yes, you read that right—in nature’s frosty embrace. There’s no need to worry: the brave polar swimmers first squeeze into bright red rubber suits that guarantee six hours of survival in icy water, even for non-swimmers (without this protection, they would have only a few agonizing minutes). Waddling like ungainly penguins, the volunteers make their way down the gangway onto the slippery ice. Screeching with delight, they tumble into the broken wake, watched and photographed from above by the less daring. There they are, kicking their legs like inflated frogs as they float on their backs and enjoy the icy bathing spectacle, eagerly insisting how “warm” they feel.
In the ship’s elegant wood-and-brass salon, delicious salmon and dill soup is already steaming, ready to warm us up.
As we say goodbye, the “Sampo’s” captain personally presses a “diploma” into our hands. Proof positive: we have witnessed the ice show at the Arctic Circle.
 
Text and photos: Peer Schmidt-Walther

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