U.S.-flag Great Lake carriers praise new Coast Guard icebreaker

U.S.-flag Great Lake carriers praise new Coast Guard icebreaker The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned its new Great Lakes icebreaker “Mackinaw” in Marinette, Wis., on April 2.
   The vessel is expected to enter full service this fall and help with the movement of raw materials when ice begins to form on the Great Lakes in December.
   U.S.-flag Great Lakes vessel operators praised the arrival of the new icebreaker.
   “Our members routinely move 15 million net tons of cargo between mid-December and mid-April,” said James H.I. Weakley, president of the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers’ Association. “Without these deliveries, Great Lakes basin industries would have to bear the burden of stockpiling more iron ore, coal, limestone and other raw materials to maintain production and employment during the winter months.”
   The “Mackinaw” replaces a Coast Guard icebreaker of the same name launched in 1944. The former “Mackinaw” will be decommissioned in 2006. Congress authorized the construction of the new “Mackinaw” icebreaker in 1999.
   The ice that forms on the Great Lakes can be three-to-four feet thick. “Windrows” (slabs of broken ice piled atop each other by the wind) can reach heights of 10-to-12 feet.