or stuffed canard a vapeur in winter.  I never imagined shovels on a self-unloading bulk carrier, one that loaded 18,000 tons in the three hours at the flood side of a smaller bay off Fundy. But here’s the crew, shifting “overload” gypsum into the corners so that the hatches can shut. When a commodity gets loaded at 6,000 tons an hour, shovels hardly come to mind. So how do we use gypsum besides in drywall?

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Then across the wintry bay, through the tidal bore, into the ocean, some water freezing over the deck,

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Ice that needs to be chipped away before the hatches can open on this cold duck.

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So besides shovels, on board there must be ice picks, sledge hammers, and rock salt. Snow blowers? Scroll through these fotos from the Canadian Coast Guard.

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Thanks again to coyote des neiges (snow coyote) and her site, le canard a vapeur (steam duck).  Here are more vintage shots of the Gypsum Baron.

Chip off the ice:  we need the gypsum for tofu and beer making, chalk, cement, and fertilizer.

About the bore, bore surfing has caught on in some places, of course not with bulk carriers.