I started this series yesterday to complement the Clyde S VanEnkvort article. Without the crewman below, you might have difficulty identifying what this shows.
It’s the bow of Erie Trader after a night on Lake Superior.
The photo below shows the location from which I shot the photo above. Note how calm the cold waters of Superior are.
Here’s a side view of that same crow’s nest, with wind-down icicles.
In addition to the reason I gave yesterday for clearing ice, there’s another; hatch covers must be cleared to open when we get to the dock.
Sledge hammers and crowbars work, so do propane torches.
When we tied up at the dock, I went ashore to photograph ice buildup elsewhere on the ATB.
The reddish coating of everything on the dock is ore, taconite, semi-processed iron ore.
Seven hundred miles away and several days away we docked to Detroit to discharge about 35,000 tons of ore at the fiery steel plant.
Air temperature was in the single digits, and not far from the steel plant fires, ice floating past in the Detroit River
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
I’m still looking for someone who might get a photo of that exotic ship coming into the sixth boro early this month. But I also still don’t have a firm ETA for that vessel, Decisive. She’s still out at sea but never in this voyage has she been laying cable; as I understand it, she’s a cable “de-layer.”
tugster: a waterblog 
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February 5, 2020 at 12:35 pm
Roger Johnson
Most excellent article – worth waiting a year to read! Today’s pictures has one wondering how much weight that ice adds to the unit – is it meaningful?
February 5, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Les Sonnenmark
It certainly can be meaningful, in two significant ways. Just looking at the loadline, each ton of ice carried reduces the allowable cargo by one ton; the ship makes a profit on the amount of cargo it can carry, so carrying ice around is costly. When the ship is returning empty (“deadheading”), the added topside weight of the ice can seriously reduce stability, so the ship’s ballast must compensate for that.
Note that this applies to paint as well as ice. That’s one reason old paint is stripped off before new paint is applied.
February 5, 2020 at 3:11 pm
Roger
Thanks! Can you put some numbers to this? A range or guess helpful!
-R
February 5, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Robert Parker
Wow. I never wanted to work in a steel mill, but being around the furnaces looks pretty good after all that ice.
February 5, 2020 at 4:50 pm
tugster
Thx all, for the Qs, As, and comments. Since this ice travel relates to steel, here’s what the mining company thinks about in winter when the Soo is closed: https://www.wdio.com/mining-news/mining-in-winter-arcelormittal-range-weather-cold-shipping/5633513/
February 5, 2020 at 5:23 pm
Les Sonnenmark
First let’s look at the effect of the ice on cargo capacity. Let’s use some very rough numbers. The exposed deck area of the barge is about 64,000 sq ft. So an ice layer 1 inch thick would total about 5300 cu ft, which weighs about 334,000 lb, or about 150 lt (long tons). From Will’s photos it’s hard to tell the average thickness of the ice, but let’s say it’s 6 inches. That’s 900 lt. The barge’s design deadweight (cargo weight +hydraulic oil + generator fuel, etc.) is about 37,000 lt. So carrying the 6 in of ice might reduce the cargo capacity by about 2.5 %. That may not seem like much, but profit margins for shipping are very slim, and may be just a few percent. So, yes, the ice is meaningful.
Regarding the effect of the ice on stability, that’s much harder to calculate quantitatively without specific naval architectural data. So let’s talk about the qualitative effect. Consider a metronome: When you raise the weight on the arm, it oscillates more slowly, but with a greater excursion. Similarly, if you add weight to this barge’s topside, it’s roll period will increase, but the maximum roll angle will increase. If the roll is enough, at some point the cargo of taconite pellets will shift to one side, exacerbating the heel to one side during a roll. If a wave hits the beam on the opposite side, the barge may capsize. (Something like that may have happened to GOLDEN RAY, the car carrier that overturned in Georgia waters recently, possibly due to cargo vehicles shifting during a turn.) So, yes, the accumulation of ice can be disastrous.