In a desperate effort to deliver a power plant to a Russian project in the Arctic before winter arrives, two large Chinese ships, Ocean 28 and Nan Feng Zhi Xing, are slowly making their way through thickening sea ice on the Northern Sea Route. Recently, a fierce storm in the Bering Sea caused delays, allowing more ice to form in the Chukchi Sea, making their journey even harder.

These ships are traveling through broken ice that is about 10-30 cm thick. However, only one of them, Nan Feng...