Talk:USCGC Polar Star

References Please
This well-written and informative article appears credible. However, references and citations are in great need.Fishdecoy 03:21, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I see that substantial amounts of copy for this article have been copied and pasted from the US Coast Guard site: http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/pstar/pstar.html. Just as one might copy a photograph from a U.S. gov't site, unless restricted, I assume one may copy text from such sites. However, my instinct is not to do so. Instead, as Wikipedia editors, I would like to see us add value to our research from published resources by writing original copy. Any thoughts and comments from other editors on this question? Fishdecoy 18:20, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * At the very least, this article needs to acknowledge where the text came from. Fishdecoy 14:43, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Need to add "the rest of the story" ...like the one about the blonde big breasted girl who was smuggled onboard in Australia and made the transit all the way back to Seattle. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.77.201.166 (talk) 12:59, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Design, mostly
Done: The reference “www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgcPolarStar/default.asp” is just a stumpy version of “www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgcPolarStar/History.asp”, the second was just pasted over first. -- The line “then the bow is levered through the ice like a giant sledgehammer” doesn’t really make sense, does it? Reworded. -- About the heeling tanks, “This system has since been removed due to maintenance issues.” is not supported by the ref “ ”. The ref was moved up one sentence.

Proposed: Polar Star's three shafts are turned by either a diesel-electric or gas turbine power plant. Not really mentioned, but is the third propeller forward? Wasn’t that discredited by the “Winds”? If it is a bow prop, that’s noteworthy, and should be mentioned, correct? -- The gas turbines also drive generators, correct? Not really clear from refs, but seems like “common sense”. Should they be “gas turbine-electric, like diesel-electric? Sort of awkward, though. -- “The portion of the hull design to ram ice is 1-3/4 inches (45 mm) thick in the bow and stern sections, and 1-1/4 inches (32 mm) thick amidships. The hull strength is produced almost entirely from the massive internal support structure.” Really, the 1-1/4 inches are just a covering, with little structural strength? Really???

The USCG page: http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Icebreakers.asp gives an interesting overview of all icebreaking, and some insight into hull and engine design. Not of much use to the “Polars”, but good background. Can and should it be used somehow? Sammy D III (talk) 19:58, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

"Polar Star and Polar Sea operate under the control of Pacific Area" - outdated?
Polar Sea seems to be decommissioned according to her article. 92.230.122.154 (talk) 14:26, 5 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Good catch. Polar Sea's future is unclear, but I've updated both articles to reflect current status.--agr (talk) 00:27, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Unique heeling?
The article states, "Polar Star has other unique engineering features designed to aid in icebreaking. At one point, an installed heeling system could rock the ship to prevent getting stuck in the ice." Heeling by pumping water ballast from one side to the other is by no means unique to the Polar Star and Polar Sea; similar systems are (still) in use at least in the Finnish-Swedish Atle class (5 ships) and the Finnish Otso class (2 ships).--Death Bredon (talk) 19:25, 25 February 2016 (UTC)


 * The 1914-built Suur Tõll had a similar system as well. Tupsumato (talk) 15:25, 26 February 2016 (UTC)