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.
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".
"Delivery of Le Commandant Charcot is both a culmination and the beginning of a new kind of odyssey for the company," he added.
"We are welcoming into our fleet a ship that will offer so much more than just a voyage of exploration, but rather a truly inspiring and fascinating discovery of a still little-known polar world."
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