Lake Superior ice-breaking 'physically exhausting' and 'violent'

Thunder Bay's shipping season is about to get underway thanks to a three-and-half-day ice-breaking operation near Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior.

Two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers, the Samuel Risley and the Pierre Raddison, teamed up with American vessels to free 18 freighters trapped in transit.

"Imagine your interstate highway blocked in both directions because a bridge is out," said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the U.S. Coast Guard. "Well the ice field was our bridge out and Risley the bridge repair on one side and the (U.S. Coast Guard vessel) Mackinaw and a couple of different other cutters ... they were working on the east side."

Warmer temperatures last week caused ice to break free from the shore, then strong weekend winds packed the ice up against Whitefish Bay, Gill explained.

Harder to break though than smooth ice

The packed ice was harder to break through than a smooth ice plate would be, he said, noting that it moved in ways that made it hard for the freighters to follow the icebreakers.

"Instead of meeting the ice head on, we were actually working side to side to sweep a path for these ships to come through, and that's really tedious," Gill added. "Normally these ships are moving 10, 12 miles an hour, and we were moving at two miles a day."

Gill called the process of ice-breaking physically and mentally exhausting for the crew of the icebreakers. 

"The vessels, literally they shake to the point where it's hard on your knees, it's hard on your joints," he said. "Nobody sleeps when you're breaking ice. It's loud. And it's violent because you're slamming into a hard surface."

Most of the ships freed from the ice were carrying iron ore and coal, he added. Many were bound for the Chicago area.