In 2006, goodbye to the Mighty Mac — and hello to a new Great Lakes icebreaker
The Mackinaw, the U.S. Coast Guard's venerable Great Lakes icebreaker, paid an unusual summer visit this year to the Port of Duluth-Superior to meet with two of her champions — U.S. Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.)
The congressmen, who have spent two decades making sure that the Mackinaw, now 55 years old, makes it to her own retirement party, held a July 29 press conference at Superior's Midwest Energy Terminal to announce a $110 million congressional appropriation for a new Great Lakes icebreaker to be in service by 2006.
Mr. Obey led the effort to secure the appropriation while Mr. Oberstar was primarily responsible for congressional authorization.
A multi-use replacement for the Mackinaw is expected to be in service
by 2006. Photo by Kenneth Newhams, Duluth Shipping News
Admiral James M. Loy, U.S. Coast Guard commandant, was also on hand to recognize the end of the long struggle to secure the funds. Icebreaking is essential on the Great Lakes — where "raft" can mean a five-foot-thick ice mass instead of a summertime swimming platform — and vital to a nation that is dependent on the commodities moving through the Lakes. As the largest tonnage port on the Great Lakes, the Port of Duluth-Superior alone acts as a conduit for some 40 million metric tons yearly of iron ore, coal, grain and other products.
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Port Director Davis Helberg presented Rep. Dave Obey with a plaque thanking him for his assistance in securing funding for a Mackinaw replacement. |
But the Mackinaw, a single-mission heavy icebreaker which upon its commissioning in 1944 was the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world, was becoming "increasingly costly and challenging to support," according to Coast Guard officials. Congress had already invested heavily in studying how to best continue icebreaking operations, appropriating $7 million in 1997 and 1998 to study operations and $13 million in 1999 for design work on the mighty vessel's replacement.
"A multi-purpose vessel is planned to replace the Mackinaw, one that will use the latest icebreaking technology from Scandinavian and Arctic waters," said Capt. Richard Goodchild, Coast Guard design consultant for the new icebreaker. "It will have twin propellers, but rather than having them at the end of fixed shafts and relying on rudders to turn the ship, each propeller will be on pods beneath the hull that can rotate, making the ship extremely maneuverable."
The new vessel will allow the Coast Guard to meet the heavy icebreaking requirements of the Great Lakes and perform buoy tending at other times of the year.
Further information regarding the new vessel is available at the Coast Guard's website:
