LESS AN ICEBREAKER AS A WIDE ICEBREAKER BOW the breaking was done by the escorts, Manhattans bow just widened the clear path sufficient to protect the weak hull, the result of the experiment was that with US and CANADIAN icebreakersit was not a viable route, Russia with a fleet of super large Nuclear icebreakers still has problems and can not run a guaranteed time service,
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So I presume, one does not need to purchase purpose built vessels for the task.