Working behind the scenes

When the ice starts covering the Lakes, most people imagine that boats and ships are layed up for the winter period. While the majority of ships eventually go to berth to carryout needed repairs and maintenance before the start of the next season, many ships still ply the navigable waters carrying ore for the steel plants, coal for the generating plants, petroleum products for the refineries and salt for the icy roads in cities around the region.

A Laker turns at Light 30 into a snowy Lake St. Clair

The Coast Guard's icebreakers on both sides of the border help these ships make it safely through the ice-covered lakes and shipping channels when the ice becomes too difficult for them to move on their own. The commercial vessels are moving day and night, which calls for our icebreakers to do the same when conditions permit. In the below picture, a tanker is heading across the Western Basin of Lake Erie towards the Detroit River being escorted by a US breaker. Meanwhile we wait in the ice for a downbound ship to arrive around midnight for an escort that will last five hours till clear of the ice east of Pelee Island.

It is difficult working through the night as you fight fatigue from your natural body rhythm, but it is just as difficult on an icebreaker for the off-watch crew to try and sleep when the ship is smashing through the ice at full speed. Imagine trying to sleep on a train right behind the locomotive on the worst rail line ever built and you will have some idea of the noise and vibration on an icebreaker as it collides with thick pans of ice.