Readers of this post: Great Lakes Ice Cover 2015 almost 87%. Thousands of Record Cold Temps broken may have noticed I mentioned the Laker trapped in the ice of the Great LakesThe Arthur M Anderson
The freighter Arthur M. Anderson is caught in ice near Conneaut, Ohio, on Feb. 19. Icebreaking vessels from the U.S. and Canadian coast guards worked to free the Anderson
That ship made it safely to port- Very good news for the people on board- And their families.I have seen many of these ships in my life. And have found them fascinating, especially when I was a child. To watch them go through any of the locks on the Seaway is very awesome. Especially the flight locks- This blog has some great pics of the lock sytemThe flight Locks- locks 4,5 & 6
STURGEON BAY, WI -- The freighter Arthur M. Anderson finally made port this week after an end-of-the-season Indiana to Ohio run became a nearly month-long futile slog across three iced-over Great Lakes. The 63-year-old laker, entered winter lay-up in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. on Wednesday morning, March 4, with empty holds after Lake Erie ice kept the ship from loading cargo last month. On Feb. 22, despite the assistance of three U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard ice cutters over the course of several days, the 767-foot Anderson was unable to enter port in Conneaut, Ohio, due to ice build-up on the southern Lake Erie shoreline. Ship owner Great Lakes Fleet, a subsidiary of Keystone Shipping Co. of California, ordered the ship back to Wisconsin, said the Coast Guard. The empty ship left Gary, Ind. on Feb. 6 to pick up iron ore powder in Ohio. "They stopped three miles from shore," said Mark Gill, civilian director of vessel traffic services for the Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Marie. "The ice was too thick and the breakers couldn't get them through it." "The trip was for nothing." The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw maneuvers through ice on the St. Marys River near the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., March 20, 2014.USCGThe Anderson is the last ship to make port this shipping season, which has become a repeat of the 2013-2014 deep freeze
The Arthur Anderson became"famous for its role in the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking" The Edmund Fitzgerald
The 729-foot freighter left Superior, Wisconsin, on Nov. 9 with a full load of 26,000 tons of Minnesota-made taconite iron ore pellets just before a huge storm engulfed the region. The ore carrier was on its way to a steel mill at Zug Island near Detroit but sunk in waves that some call the largest they'd ever seen on Lake Superior. All 29 crew members on board perished.Late on the afternoon of the 10th, the captain of the Fitzgerald, Ernest M. McSorely, made radio contact with another ship, the Avafor, and reported that the Fitz was listing badly to one side, had lost both radars, and was taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the "worst seas" he had ever been in. Northwest winds were blowing near 60 mph with higher gusts.At about 4 p.m. an estimated 75-knot (86 mph) hurricane-force northwest wind gust struck the ore carrier Arthur M. Anderson. At 7 p.m. the Anderson, trailing the Fitzgerald by about 10 miles, was struck by two waves estimated at 25 feet or higher.The last radio contact from the Fitzgerald to the Anderson was: "We are holding our own," about 7:10 that night. But the Fitz's lights faded from sight in a snow squall and then disappeared from the Anderson's radar screen minutes later. No distress signal was sent.
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald- Gordon LightFoot
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