See the little round white-paint 'fan blade' signs on the hull at the bow and the stern? That tells you the ship is equipped with a lateral thruster underwater below the sign. These are a transverse tube through the hull with a propeller in them that can shoot the water left or right to give very precise control at dead slow speeds in calm winds.

The gates are heated and partially insulated to keep them free of ice and there are air lines installed on the lock floor at the gate recesses and near their mitering point. The lock and dam operator is able to use compressed air and the current generated by moving the gates to shift ice out of critical areas.

Due to some winter work preparations with temporary overhead structures carrying lines, the crew had to wait to drop the lines down to the lock and dam operator after they had passed the final obstruction. What you saw right there around 19:30 was a crewmember on the deck of the ship dropping down the heaving line. The heaving line is a light rope attached to a steel cable. The cable is too heavy to carry as the ship makes its way into the chamber so they use the heaving line at that point. In an emergency, the cable can be quickly deployed and the operator and deck hand will quickly have control of it since it is just a matter of pulling in the heaving line they are already holding.

Actually, for crews at the Soo Locks the final ship passage marks the start of a very busy time. Lock operations and maintenance crews will have less than 10 weeks to conduct all necessary critical maintenance tasks on the 56 year old lock.

Just part of his job. It looks like fun to some of us!

There Two 1000 Foot Ship On Our Lakes

Some ice got between the wall and the gates which prevents them from being secured to the wall. Gate operations are an art and a science in the winter. The operator had to fan the gates and use compressed air to work the ice out from the recess. He made pretty quick work of it this time, but in really heavy ice conditions it can take hours.

I think the noise is the ice breaking!

Steam is used all over the Soo Locks Facility in the winter to keep things ice free. Operators also use air to keep ice moving away from the gates.

@@usacedetroit975 FYI, my father and uncle, while in college (early-to mid 50s), used steam lines to defrost the iron ore gennies staged between the mines and the docks in Duluth during winter. They would study between trains.

She was stuck for 2 hours. The tug Missouri was called in and broke her out just under the deadline. She had to make a run for the Soo Locks to get there before they were closed.

@@audreyjohnson4599 Yes, and it looks like she was three hours pat the midnight deadline, which is why I stated this.

We passed your question along to Ranger Scott who provided this explanation: "From my research (which only skimmed the surface) it only looked like the American Fur Trade Company owned the vessels… I’m not sure how they were managed or by whom. I’m guessing various Captains were hired as the managers for each vessel individually, but I haven’t done enough research to back that up. These vessels were mostly dedicated to moving American Fur Trade cargoes to and from their various posts across the lakes. The independent nature of the Captain and vessel came during and after the American Fur Trade Company was dominant as more cargoes, ports, and business was being done in the mid-19th century. The definition I’ve been working with a “fleet” is a group of vessels under common ownership, management or both. Fleets on the lakes were at first loosely related (A group of owners that coordinated their business efforts) and became more centralized with formal companies/corporations that dictated the movements of their vessels later on. The American Fur Trade company was a unique exception to this idea, which might have confused people. This fleet may have been one of the first examples of a more centralized organization that wasn’t seen again for several years." Scott went on to add that this question might be a good basis for a graduate school project!

Diving on wreck no longer permitted. Requires permission or $1,000,000 fine.

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