It is therefore the Master of the icebreaker who directs any ice escorting operation.
Icebreakers use air reconnaissance, when available, to locate leads and open water.
Some carry helicopters which are able to guide ships, by direct communication, along the best routes through the ice. After requesting icebreaker assistance, a ship must maintain continuous radio watch, and keep the icebreaker informed of any change in her ETA at the position where escorting is to commence. The channel When an icebreaker is breaking a channel through large heavy floes at slow speed, the channel will be about 30-40 per cent wider than the beam of the icebreaker. If, however, the ice is of a type which can be broken by the stern wave of the icebreaker proceeding at high speed, the width of the channel may be as much as three times the icebreaker's beam. In the channel there may be pieces of ice and small floes which the icebreaker has broken off the floes at the sides of the channel.