Aboard the Alder
The enormous lakers that carry cargo over Lake Superior's waters will soon emerge from winter layup. To reach Sault Ste. Marie from the west for the March 25 opening of the Soo Locks, they'll need a little help.
Lake Superior's ice cover reached nearly 96 percent this winter. Even with this week's above-average temperatures, the ice is holding at about 75 percent.
Enter the icebreakers, like the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder. The Duluth-based vessel is a 225-foot buoy tender that also breaks ice on Lake Superior near the beginning and end of the shipping season. The Alder was designed not to ram or cut through ice, but to ride up onto it and use the ship's weight to break the ice beneath the bow. The crew will add weight, craning enormous concrete blocks onto the deck, when battling thick ice.
We tagged along with members of the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association to see the Alder at work.
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
Bob King – friend of the magazine, Duluth News Tribune photographer and Astro Bob blogger – photographs the ice. The camera (and Bob) made it back to land safely.
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
The Alder crew will add heavy concrete blocks to the deck to help the vessel break through thick ice. The bow of the cutter rides atop the ice, which breaks beneath the weight of the ship.
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Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Aboard the USCGC Alder