Ponant · Polar Class 2 · 245 guests
Le Commandant Charcot
The first passenger ship built to break the ice to 90° North. Liquefied natural gas, a hull for two and a half metres of ice, and Alain Ducasse in the kitchen.
Ponant
Built for where others stop.
There are places in the Arctic no passenger ship had reached before 2021. Le Commandant Charcot was built for exactly those places: the Geographic North Pole, the Nares Strait, the sea ice north of Greenland in spring. A Polar Class 2 hull that breaks two and a half metres of ice. Liquefied natural gas and a five-megawatt-hour battery. A lounge below the waterline where you can hear the ice. Alain Ducasse in the kitchen. The world ends here. Come anyway.
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French design and refinement
Uncharted horizons
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Scientific odyssey
Polar Class 2
Charcot moments
Between the ice, the ship keeps her own rhythm. A steam in the sauna with the pack in full view. A slow lunch worth lingering over. A soak in the open-air Blue Lagoon on deck 9 while the cold watches from the rail. The quiet luxuries that turn a voyage into something you never quite leave behind.
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A sensory journey
Out here, the landscape does the talking. You take it in from a ship that stays warm and calm, refined without fuss, and quiet enough to let the ice keep your attention.
A sensory journey
Out here, the landscape does the talking. You take it in from a ship that stays warm and calm, refined without fuss, and quiet enough to let the ice keep your attention.
Life onboard
A day here has room for two lives. In the morning you are on the ice itself, walking where the ship has parked in the floe, or in a Zodiac along a glacier front. By afternoon you are closer to a guest at a very good French house: a lunch that runs long, a lecture if you want one, an evening that starts at the bar and ends in the theatre. Same day, both worlds, and the ship makes the switch feel effortless.
On board Le Commandant Charcot, exploration is synonymous with ritual and communion with the polar environment.
Elegance and intimacy
Staterooms and suites
From the stateroom to the Owner's Suite, every room aboard is built around one thing: the ice beyond the glass. These are not cabins you retreat to and forget. They face the sea, they hold the light, they turn the long polar hours into something you look forward to. Warm interiors against a white horizon. A private balcony to meet the cold on your own terms. Space to sit with a view that shifts by the minute and never repeats. Whichever you choose, the room is part of the journey, not just where it pauses.
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Balcony Stateroom
A 53 ft² glazed private balcony Panoramic sliding window One king-size bed (180 x 190 cm) or two single beds (90 x 190 cm) Bathroom with a shower
Balcony Stateroom
A 53 ft² glazed private balcony Panoramic sliding window One king-size bed (180 x 190 cm) or two single beds (90 x 190 cm) Bathroom with a shower
Le Commandant Charcot
The most powerful polar expedition ship afloat
Le Commandant Charcot was delivered by Vard in July 2021, the first passenger ship built to Polar Class 2 and the first polar expedition vessel to run on liquefied natural gas. She is 150 metres long and 31,283 tonnes, with 34 megawatts of power, a hull that breaks ice two and a half metres thick, and a five-megawatt-hour battery bank for silent running beside wildlife. She carries 245 guests in the Arctic in 123 staterooms and suites, every one with a balcony, and 215 crew. Sixteen Zodiacs, two helicopters, two laboratories, and 23 in the expedition team.
In the Arctic she does what no other ship can: the voyage to the Geographic North Pole from Longyearbyen, the ice edge between Svalbard and Greenland, the sea ice of northernmost Greenland in spring and the Nares Strait, where Greenland and Canada nearly meet. Ponant built her for these waters, and books them a season ahead.
- 245 guests · 215 crew
- Polar Class 2 · 150 m
- 16 Zodiacs · 2 helicopters
Ponant's commitments
Responsible exploration
PONANT brought together the latest available innovations and developed new ones to make Le Commandant Charcot the world's first hybrid electric polar exploration ship powered by liquefied natural gas, setting a new standard for responsible navigation and safety in polar waters. PONANT built this ship with one purpose: to reach the most fragile polar regions while treading as lightly as a vessel this size can. Every design choice serves that. This ship is a remarkable masterpiece in its own right. You are sailing the most modern vessel ever built for such an extraordinary expedition into unexplored waters that 99% of humanity has never seen.
Engineering Responsibility
How Le Commandant Charcot Redefines Polar Expedition
The preservation of polar ecosystems and coastal sea ice, vital habitat for marine fauna, is Ponant's priority. Expertise, innovation, humility in the face of nature, cooperation with local peoples, and minimal impact on the environment are essential keywords for a more responsible exploration.
Unique ship in the world to be able to rely on a 1.5-month autonomy on LNG thanks to two tanks of 4,500 m³.
Her Arctic season
Voyages aboard Le Commandant Charcot
The North Pole in summer, the ice edge between Svalbard and Greenland, the far north of Greenland in spring and the Nares Strait. Four voyages that exist because this ship does. Tell us the year you have in mind and we will tell you which sailing and which suite, and what we can do on the fare.
All expeditions
Good to know
Le Commandant Charcot, in practice
The questions we are asked most before guests choose this ship.
It is the second-highest ice class a ship can hold, and no other passenger vessel carries it. Charcot can break ice two and a half metres thick and work through pressure ridges, which is what allows her to reach 90° North and to sail the Nares Strait in spring.
245 guests in 123 staterooms and suites, every one with a balcony, served by 215 crew and an expedition team of 23. In Antarctica she sails with fewer.
All meals in the two restaurants, including the Alain Ducasse menus, an open bar, the expedition programme, Zodiac outings, ice landings and guided walks on the floe, a parka to keep, boots to borrow, Wi-Fi and gratuities. Helicopter flights, where offered, are part of the programme.
Yes. The five-megawatt-hour battery bank lets her hold position without the engines running, and the hull was designed to limit underwater noise. The Blue Eye lounge below the waterline carries the sound of the ice into the ship.
Via Paris, with the Ponant charter to Longyearbyen, Nuuk or Kangerlussuaq onward. We arrange the flights, the night in Paris and the nights either side of the charter so the whole journey sits in one booking.
Made to measure
Tell us your Arctic, we build the rest
Every guest sails differently. Tell us what you are hoping for and who you are travelling with, and we shape the voyage aboard Le Commandant Charcot around it: the sailing, the suite, the flights from Australia, the nights in Paris, and the offers we hold for Arctic Cruise guests. One specialist, from the first conversation until you are home.
The fleet
Other ships we sail
Each ship we work with has her own character and her own Arctic. Ponant’s sisters Le Lyrial, L’Austral and Le Boréal sail Spitsbergen, Greenland and the Northwest Passage in summer; SH Diana and SH Vega are the Scandinavian ships.
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