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The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw plows through Great Lakes ice to aid freighters. (PBS Photo)

SHIPS FIGHT ICE: Seaway Traffic Crunched by Floats, Inadequate Ice-breaking

April 11, 2015       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Shipping interests are battling to put another nasty winter behind them.

Lakes shipping watchers had a cornucopia of excitement just reading the harrowing tales of shipping on boatnerd.com, the website that tracks vessels and recalls historical events on the lakes.

On Saturday, April 11, ships had arrived at Marquette and Thunder Bay, Ontario, after struggling through the waters still choked with ice in places.

After an eight-day voyage including five days stuck in the ice in Whitefish Bay the first ore ship of the season made port in Marquette Thursday.

The Herbert C. Jackson, a 6,000 horsepower steamship, finished its trip from Detroit at about 5:30 p.m.

Marquette city officials were on hand to present Captain Paul Berger his first key to the city, a Marquette tradition.

The Kaye E. Barker, another ore ship, had a hole punched through her hull, that needed to be sealed off to contain the water.

Freighters are on the move again through ice-clogged eastern Lake Superior after the 18 vessels that had been hung up in 35 square miles of crushed ice up to 8 feet thick were freed Wednesday by the heavy Canadian icebreaker Pierre Radisson.

"Almost with the wave of a wand, the Radisson walks through and the ice parted," said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 322-foot Pierre Radisson is the biggest in the ice-breaking fleet that includes several U.S. Coast Guard vessels. Gill added that wind from the southeast aided in unclogging the Whitefish Bay area on Lake Superior before the Soo Locks leading to the lower Great Lakes.

Among the problems: not enough icebreakers, damage to ships by heavy ice still lurking and steel supplies squeezed by foreign firms.

Great Lakes shipping experts are calling for another Coast Guard icebreaker and for Canada to bolster its shrinking fleet to cope with ice floats that are hampering commercial traffic.

Steel imports from abroad are being reduced, hampering American mills, according to the Lake Carriers Association in Cleveland.

The USS Mackinaw, the lakes' most powerful icebreaker, is still at less than full power after battling heavy ice all winter. Meanwhile, the Canadian fleet of icebreakers is down from seven it formerly operated to two at present.

Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled an anemic 800,000 tons in March, the lowest level for the month since 2010. The March ore float was also nearly 60 percent below the month's five-year average.

"The lakes need, at a minimum, another heavy icebreaker to pair with the Mackinaw, and another 140-foot-long ice-breaking tug to cover for the one that has been sent to the Coast Guard yard in Baltimore for service life extension," said James H.I. Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers' Association.

Heavy ice and lack of ice-breaking resources on both sides of the border were the culprits.

"The winter of 2014/15 was again brutal," said Weakley of the Lake Carriers' Association. "The ice formations were so formidable that a number of LCA's members chose to delay getting underway rather than risk a repeat of last spring when ice caused more than $6 million in damage to the vessels.

"Compounding the problem is that both U.S. and Canadian icebreakers have experienced a number of mechanical issues. The Mackinaw, the U.S. Coast Guard's most powerful icebreaker, is operating at less than full power. Other icebreakers have suffered casualties that have taken them out of service for various periods of time," he said.

Weakley noted that with foreign steel imports again reducing operating rates at American mills to perilous levels, it is even more critical that raw materials move as efficiently as possible. "Right now American steel mills need every competitive advantage they can get. A slow start to resupplying the mills after the winter closure is a worry the industry could do without."

Weakley also called on Canada to review its ice-breaking resources dedicated to the Lakes. The country used to have seven icebreakers stationed on the lakes, but now just two are permanently assigned here.



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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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