Sometimes all it takes to break the ice is a 225-foot ship.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter “Alder” is a Juniper class seagoing buoy tender. It’s a bravo model, which means it has a reinforced hull designed for icebreaking.
“We can break through about 14 inches of ice continuously and three feet of ice by ramming,” Ensign Barton Nanney, the public relations officer on board the Alder, told the Budgeteer during a icebreaking trip in the harbor last week.
The Alder breaks ice by riding up on top of it and using the weight of the ship to crush it.
“A lot of people think we cut right through it, but that wouldn’t work very well. The areas that have thicker ice require backing and ramming. We’ve been doing that a lot this winter,” Nanney said.
On March 20, the Alder was travelling at about 4-5 knots through the already broken paths. It could move faster because they had gone out to break ice about a dozen times since the beginning of March. However the first time it went out this season didn’t go as smoothly.
“The first time we went out, we managed to go about three or four miles in 12 hours because the ice was just so thick,” Nanney said.
Although the Alder’s main mission is to maintain buoys and aids to navigation, it also acts as an ice cutter. And this year’s prolonged cold weather and amount of ice has made it necessary.
“If the weather changes and we start to get a north wind, then the water refreezes and makes it tough to get through again. The thawing and freezing will continue making the cutters necessary for a few more weeks,” said Adele Yorde of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
If it takes so much work to keep the ice paths clear, why not wait until the ice melts on its own?
“The steel mills and blast furnaces and utility companies on the lower Great Lakes are in dire need of iron ore pellets and low-sulfur coal handled through the Duluth Superior Port. We had a difficult January with the ice coming early, causing many cargo shipments to be cancelled at the end of the last season,” Yorde said. “Their stockpiles and inventory are really low. That’s why breaking up the harbor as soon as we can is so important, so we can get these laker ships across Lake Superior and through the
Soo Locks.”
The Great Lakes shipping season is open 42 weeks to deliver about 150 million tons of materials. Of those 42 weeks, 12 weeks require icebreaking services, though this year may require more.
“This has been an historic year. Where we would normally see one to two feet of ice, we now have three or four feet of ice. We need more horsepower to break the ice. The Alder has been working as hard as it can,” Yorde said.
“We will be convoying with several other vessels due to the bad ice,” Nanney said.
In fact, a convoy of U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers Mackinaw, Morro Bay and Katmai Bay arrived in Duluth on March 24 while cutting their way through the Lake Superior ice. The Mackinaw is the only U.S. heavy ice breaking resource assigned to the Great Lakes and is home-ported in Cheboygan, Mich. Katmai Bay, home-ported in Sault Ste Marie, Mich. and Morro Bay, home-ported in Cleveland, Ohio are 140 foot icebreaking tugs.
Sometimes the Alder allows members of the public onboard. On March 20, there were 30 guests in addition to the crew of 50. This included Lake Superior Maritime Museum Association members, Coast Guard auxiliary members, the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and a few crew family and friends.
“We don’t exactly advertise it. It depends on what we’re doing. We try to fit in requests if we’re able. If we’re doing buoy handling then we don’t have people on board. But with ice runs it’s easier because there’s not much going on on deck,” Nanney said.
Betty and Bob Breclaw were on board after receiving an invite from the LSMMA as part of their membership. The couple drove five hours from Escanaba, Mich. to catch a ride.
“I’ve seen the Mackinaw breaking up ice on Lake Michigan before, but I’ve never had the chance to learn how they break ice and go along. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Betty said.
