Cutter Mackinaw News

It's that time of year.The US Coast Guard announced it has commenced icebreaking operations in response to expanded ice growth in the commercial ports of western Lake Superior.Operation Taconite, launched by Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie on Wednesday, is one of two icebreaking operations that support the Great Lakes. It encompasses Lake Superior, St. Marys River, Straits of Mackinac, Georgian Bay, Green Bay, northern Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan.The authority for Coast Guard domestic icebreaking was created in 1936, by Executive Order 7521 signed by President Franklin D.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw returned to Chicago on December 3, 2016 as this year’s “Christmas Ship” loaded with 1,200 Christmas trees. Each year, the Coast Guard partners with the Chicago Christmas Ship Committee to participate in the two-day event depicting the annual Chicago tradition from the early 1900s, combining the trip with the cutter's annual aids-to-navigation mission as part of Operation Fall Retrieve. This annual operation affects 1,233 lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons throughout the Great Lakes.

Plans for a second heavy icebreaker for service on the Great Lakes have taken another step toward reality with Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) including $2 million for initial survey and design work for a vessel that is at least as capable as the current icebreaker Mackinaw in the committee report on the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 had previously authorized a new heavy icebreaker for Lakes service. Senator Baldwin’s…

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste Marie on Wednesday commenced Operation Taconite, an icebreaking mission launched in response to expanded ice growth in the commercial ports of western Lake Superior, Green Bay and the lower St. Marys River. Before ice impeded commercial navigation, several icebreakers were assigned to each region. Recently, Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw was dispatched to assist two vessels into the Port of Green Bay. Coast Guard Cutter Alder was assigned to manage the ice breaking needs of western Lake Superior, specifically the twin ports of Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wisc.

Chicago’s Christmas Ship Committee, Coast Guard set for 15th anniversary of re-enactment, delivery of 1,200 Christmas trees for deserving families. The Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, serving once again as this year’s “Christmas Ship” and loaded with more than 1,200 Christmas trees, is returning to Chicago for a two-day event re-enacting what was an annual Chicago tradition in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A welcoming for the Mackinaw, by the Chicago Christmas Ship Committee, is scheduled for Friday at 8 a.m.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) crews concluded the nation’s largest domestic ice operation known as Taconite, Thursday, after more than five months of icebreaking operations in the Northern Great Lakes. Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, plans and runs Operation Taconite, which includes all of Lakes Superior and Michigan, the northern half of Lake Huron, the St. Marys River and the Straits of Mackinac. During the 160 days of the operation, nine U.S. Coast Guard and three Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers spent more than 5…

The US Coast Guard says that its nine Great Lakes icebreakers put in nearly four times as many icebreaking hours the first quarter of this fiscal year as compared to previous years, due to harsh winter weather. Pictured to the right: the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw and the crew of tug Joyce L. Van Enkevort cut through the ice as they escort motor vessel Algoway through the southeast bend in the lower St. Clair River near Harsens Island, Feb. 2, 2014. The crew of Mackinaw is assisting in Operation Coal Shovel one of two ice-breaking operations conducted in the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Coast Guard has contained all spilled diesel fuel from the Tuesday discharge that occurred while Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw was taking on fuel in the vicinity of the Ambassador Bridge in the Detroit River. The deployed sorbent boom recovered all but a residual amount of diesel before the boom became frozen in the ice. Coast Guard Sector Detroit and Marine Pollution Control contracted personnel are continuing to monitor the situation and plan to recover the boom, along with the residual fuel that remains in the ice, as soon as weather permits and it is safe to do so.

The Coast Guard reported a diesel fuel discharge Tuesday afternoon from the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw while the ship was taking on fuel in the Detroit River in the vicinity of the Ambassador Bridge. The crew immediately secured the source of fuel and conducted initial clean-up operations onboard. Crewmembers also deployed boom around the fuel to prevent further spread. Coast Guard Sector Detroit pollution responders currently on scene estimate that 200-300 gallons entered the water.

Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw has taken on board more than 1,300 Christmas trees in preparation for the annual transit to Chicago where the trees will be given to nonprofit organizations, pre-determined by the Chicago maritime community, and then to needy families. The Mackinaw, which has served as the Christmas Ship since 2000, reenacting a tradition dating back to the late 1890s, makes the annual trip in conjunction with annual fall buoy retrieval operations. The journey and ceremony honors the traditions of the Rouse Simmons…

Although much of the country is welcoming spring and the warm weather that comes with it, many of the Great Lakes waterways are still laden with ice. Coast Guard icebreaking tugs continue to work on the lakes to keep critical shipping lanes clear for merchant vessels, remove hazardous obstructions to navigation and free ships stuck in ice. Their mission sustains a bi-national economy and keeps maritime crews safe. This year’s icebreaking season has been a busy one filled with successful missions and a few unexpected challenges.

Three icebreaking cutters worked together to keep traffic moving through the St. Mary’s River. The  U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, a 240-foot icebreaker homeported in Cheboygan, Mich., along with Coast Guard Cutter Alder, a 225-foot buoy tender with ice-breaking capabilities homeported in Duluth, Minn., and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley assisted vessels in the ice-bound river. The Mackinaw, CCGS Samuel Risley along with the Coast Guard Cutter Alder, freed the motor vessel Manitowoc from an ice plug in the vicinity of Whitefish Bay.

The Coast Guard Cutter 'Mackinaw' breaks ice in Western Lake Superior in preparation for the upcoming shipping season. The Mackinaw (WLBB-30) is the only U.S. heavy ice breaking resource assigned to the Great Lakes and in addition to heavy icebreaking other missions of the crew include servicing buoys, search and rescue, law enforcement, and the ability to deploy an oil skimming system to respond to oil spill situations. In the photo the Mackinaw is seen passing through the Poe Lock…

On Saturday, February 7 the Marinette Marine Corp. (MMC) will launch the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Alder. Alder is part of the plan to replace the Coast Guard’s World War II era 180-foot cutters. Alder is a 225-foot Juniper Class seagoing buoy tender with icebreaking capabilities. It is the 16th cutter of a planned fleet of sixteen to be built by MMC in Marinette. MMC also built fourteen 175-foot Keeper Class coastal buoy tenders for the Coast Guard. In October 2001 MMC was award the contract to build an icebreaker to replace the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, ‘the Great Lakes Icebreaker’. Mrs. Judy Hull, wife of Vice Admiral James Hull, is the cutter’s sponsor. Vice Admiral Hull, the Atlantic Area commander, will be the keynote speaker. Alder will be homeported in Duluth, Minn.

The 2000 Great Lakes shipping season ended on Feb. 8, when the Canadian Transport loaded 29,000 tons of coal at the Pittsburgh & Conneaut dock in Conneaut, Ohio. The cargo was then delivered to Ontario Hydro's power plant in Naticoke, Ontario. "Ice conditions were horrendous from early December on," said George J.Ryan, president of Lake Carriers' Association, the trade association representing the major U.S.-Flag Lakes lines. "At times, the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers and western Lake Erie basin were clogged with brash ice going down 15 ft. Even the high-powered, ice strengthened lakers that operate at the beginning and end of the season could not have proceeded without the icebreaking assistance provided by the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards.

The cutter Mackinaw is one of 31 vessels Marinette Marine Corp. has produced for the U.S. Coast Guard. The company is also building 180 high-speed interdiction boats for the Coast Guard over the next decade, said Bob Herre, president of the Manitowoc Marine Group. The first six of the 45-ft. response boats are expected to be delivered late this year and in early 2008. Defense contacts make up about half of the work done by The Manitowoc Co.'s marine group, said Steve Khail, director of investor relations and corporate communications for The Manitowoc Co. Inc. Manitowoc owns both Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette and Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. Bay Shipbuilding focuses on much of the commercial work done by the company. In recent years Marinette Marine Corp.