
The Coast Guard on Tuesday said a fire earlier this month aboard its sole medium polar icebreaker, the cutter Healy, put one of its propulsion motors out of service, forcing the ship to scrub its annual scientific mission to the Arctic and return to port. The fire broke out on Aug. 18, taking out the Healy’s starboard propulsion motor and shaft while the ship was 60 nautical miles off of Seward, Alaska, where it had embarked 11 scientists earlier that…