After one of the five coldest Decembers in recorded history, The Great Lakes Towing Company is finishing up one of its busiest seasons in recent history of icebreaking on the Great Lakes. While the U.S. Coast Guard's role in assisting ships through the ice of the Great Lakes is relatively well-known, few people outside the marine industry realize that U.S. Coast Guard assistance is provided mainly in the federally-maintained navigation channels, and that commercial tugboats with icebreaking capability, and their dedicated crews, assist as many, if not more, ships in harbors throughout the lakes each winter season. During the 2000-2001 winter to date, the tugboats of The Great Lakes Towing Company, an affiliate of The Great Lakes Group, have performed 290 vessels icebreaking assists.