List of icebreaker classes of the Navy of Burgundie

Icebreakers (Burg: arieglacies, from the Latin meaning ice ram) have been purpose built ships in Burgundie dating back to the 13th century. Their mission primarily falls under the Kilikas Sea and Omnium Ocean Commands of the Revenue Guard, but the Navy operates a number of vessels with icebreaking capabilities. The Revenue Guard maintains 12 icebreakers and the Navy has 4 ships with icebreaking capabilities.

History
In the mid-1200s some Bergendii merchants built clinker-built artic trading vessels for year round trade with the Finnic peoples of the islands of Wintergen, Meridia. These sailing ships were small and some were fixed with embolon, but these were phased out and the skin-planking was considered sufficient. Under the Faneriai protectorate, the trade routes tended to be more southerly and the production of artic trading vessels fell out of fashion.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the need for military icebreakers was explored and the Plectrophane class colonial aviso was ordered to act as an all-weather armed exploration/supply ship. The 3 ships of the class La Plectrophane, La Nivalis, and La Insulæ were built between 1898 and 1902 and followed the principles of the artic trading vessels of the 13th and 14th centuries. Their rounded lines below the waterlines allowed them to be pushed about closing icefloes. They also included some modern technology like hydraulic harpoons and steam winches to help portaging/dragging across the ice sheet in areas that it couldn’t break through. The Plectrophane class remained the only icebreakers in service in Burgundie until the outbreak of the Great War. The concept of a fleet that could hide in the icefloes north of Wintergen and then quickly steam to the defense of the Isle of Burgundie became a popular one in naval circles. A fleet of combat icebreakers was established in 1931. The combination of destroyers and cruisers remains the largest collection of icebreakers in Ixnayan history and was considered a flop as it was never used and each ship was over engineered and unfathomably expensive. The fleet of 15 ships: 2 avisos, 6 destroyers, 3 light cruisers, and 4 battlecrusiers cost two and a half times their contemporaries because of the hull redesigns and the adjustments to the interior compartments. The fleet, except for the avisos, were mothballed at the end of the war and eventually scrapped in 1962. The Fulmarus class, the Le Fulmarus and Le Audoboni, served the Australis Research Facility and the Borealis Research Facility from 1955 through 1967 when both of the ships were replaced by the Lenin (1957 icebreaker)}Grebe class nuclear icebreakers: Le Grebe, Le Cornu, and Le Oreillard. Despite a number of setbacks and accidents in the early project development phase the Grebe class icebreakers were some of the most fabled icebreakers in the service of Burgundie. When the last of the fleet, Le Oreillard, was retired in 1992, the Grebes had become the symbol of the will of Burgundie to reach every corner of the world with its economic and technological prowess.

In 1986, Le Grebe’s reactor suffered a leak that contaminated the ship beyond salvagability and a new class of nuclear icebreakers, the Crecerelle class, was commissioned. Le Crecerelle had three sister ships, Le Malgache, Le Renard, and Le Alopex. These shallow draft ships were for use in both the high Arctic, the Antarctic, as well as rivers in the extremes poles of Punth. Many cited this as a plan for future invasion plans, but these were dismissed as conspiracies by the government and no invasion occurred. Le Renard suffered a minor radiation leak in the summer of 2011 and was towed back to Nauta Normand where O’Shea has its HAZMAT shipyard repair facilities for the northern hemisphere and was reconstituted in early 2012.