Boatnerd Discussion Forum

For every attempt to free her ice is broken up around her. Every time this is done it drives big pieces of ice down deeper carrying with it extreme cold to the depths.
Every failed attempt makes the situation worse!
They will soon have it frozen to the bottom.

In January of 2004 they tried extending the Soo Locks closing by two weeks. Then the heavy cold and ice set in. That was the year the M/V Edgar B. Speer was stuck in Rock Cut. They pulled the big, big tug out of the notch in the barge of maybe the Joe Thompson, or another big tug, and tried to drag The Speer out of The Cut with the help of two other tugs and the Old Mighty Mac Icebreaker. There were nine ore boats downbound behind her in the St. Marys River. I was on one of them. Getting INTO the Poe Lock on that trip took nine hours. Getting out didn't seem to be a problem. We were held up in the ice waiting on the Speer for 3 1/2 days, till we lightered about 5000 tons of taconite into one of the AAAs and then went down the Upbound Channel. I thought they might be able to winch the Federal Biscay out of the lock, but that might crack the hell. The ice must be near the bow if she entered it easily.

Denny:

Where will the icebreaker come from? And which ones have proper towing setups? (Probably none.)

Griffon is on the Lake Erie side of the partially dewatered Welland Canal. Other breakers are down from Montreal. Can't get a breaker to the upside of Snell.

Steve

I know this sounds crazy but, I've been thinking about this and is it possible to bring in an icebreaker to try and tow them out of that lock? Yeah I know there are tugs on scene and hopefully they got the horsepower for the job however, wouldn't an icebreaker be up to the task as well with a little bit more horsepower and they might be able to tow it through? Don't fault me here folks just trying to add my two cents and comments here is all just a suggestion also.

Too bad she ain't a steamer. Four hot water hoses over the side and he'd slip out of there faster than you could say Jack Robinson. (I cleaned up my metaphor so I won't be banned this early in the year!)

Too bad the Snell Lock has no public viewing areas, that means we probably won't get to see videos of three tugs pulling for all they're worth.