Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

After 24 days at sea and a journey spanning more than 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles), the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica has set a new record for the earliest transit of the fabled Northwest Passage.

Text and Photos David Goldman

It’s a special privilege for a photographer to get the chance to work in the soft light of a sun that never sets.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans | Video David Keyton

For much of the year, the Arctic appears as a crumpled white sheet of ice and snow before great chunks break off around the edges in spring, forming a sea of floes that gently dance across the frigid waters.

Photos by David Goldman

While it may be frigid and wet on deck, the crew of a modern icebreaker can expect creature comforts inside the ship.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

There’s ice, and then there’s ice.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

The MSV Nordica is as robust a ship as you can find, but striking out to sea —especially in the remote and icy Arctic— always carries a risk.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

They packed a full line-up of wide angle, fixed focal length, zoom and telephoto lenses to go with their Canon DSLR camera bodies; a Panasonic P2 video camera; and several GoPro action cams with external microphones.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

The ship hadn’t yet left Vancouver for the Arctic Circle’s Northwest Passage when the icebreaking began — with a round of “introduce yourself to the others.”

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

Learning to drive an icebreaker like the MSV Nordica is a bit like taking dance lessons.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

When ice floes stretch to the horizon in the Arctic Circle, threatening to strand normal ships, icebreakers are in their element.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

European explorers had long speculated about the existence of an Arctic route that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and would avoid the long journey around South America’s Cape Horn.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans

The international date line is an imaginary border that runs through the middle of the Pacific Ocean and marks the boundary between calendar dates, effectively making it the zero-line for the planet’s time zones.

Photos David Goldman | Text Frank Jordans | Video David Keyton

More than a century has passed since the first successful transit of the treacherous, ice-bound Northwest Passage by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1906.