Nearly 20 freighters delayed following ice build-up at Soo Locks
SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – The American Integrity entered the Poe Lock around 7:30 a.m. Thursday pushing a good amount of ice ahead of it. As a result, the 1000′ x 105′ freighter was unable to proceed downbound due to the ice putting pressure on the gates.
Mark Aldrich, Lockmaster at the Soo Locks, told SooLeader the ice was pretty thick so it takes a long time for these thousand-footers to lock through, but they had a plan in place to get traffic moving once again.
“We use our point-source bubblers, air compressors, boil ice and swing the gates to get the ice moving so we can get the thousand-footer going again,” he said.
The longest period Aldrich has seen a freighter stuck in the Locks due to ice was around eight hours early in his career.
There were 11 freighters waiting to lock through upbound from Sault Ste. Marie to DeTour Village, and eight waiting in Whitefish Bay to lock through downbound. Strong winds blew ice from Whitefish Bay down into the area of the locks.
The American Integrity was cleared to exit the Poe Lock around 11:15 a.m.
As of Thursday the MacArthur Lock was open for traffic, with Herbert C. Jackson locking up in the early evening.
Soo Leader
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2025 “Know Your Ships” available now
The new shipping season is at hand, and so is the release of the 2025 edition of Know Your Ships, the popular annual field guide to boats and boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway, now in its 66th year.
New this year is the ability to preorder the midsummer EXTRA magazine, which will feature a 50th anniversary tribute to the Edmund Fitzgerald and her crew, when you preorder the book.
Order at this link: www.knowyourships.com
Exhibit “Steam and Steel: Propelling the Future of the
Great Lakes” Opens May 23 at Great Lakes Science Center
Cleveland, OH – Explore the history of Great Lakes shipping as Great Lakes Science Center celebrates the centennial of the Steamship William G. Mather with a special exhibit, Steam and Steel: Propelling the Future of the Great Lakes, from May 23 through September 1. Once the flagship of the Cleveland Cliffs, Inc., the Mather is now a museum allowing guests to explore the ship and see its huge cargo holds, brass and oak pilot house, elegant guest quarters, and four-story engine room.
Entering the Steam and Steel exhibit inside the museum, guests will first encounter a 14-by-10-foot replica of the front hull of the ship, providing the perfect place to snap a selfie before embarking on your journey into the history of the Mather and the world of Great Lakes shipping. Displays of artifacts from the Mather, and historic photos chronicling Cleveland’s shipping history, will showcase how Lake Erie and access to the other Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Atlantic Ocean helped shape the growth of Cleveland as a hub for commerce, industry and innovation.
Interactive exhibits will allow guests to experience what it was like to steer the mighty Mather, load and unload cargo, and raise and lower the drawbridges on a model canal lock. Other exhibits will allow guests to see how technological innovations in shipping, including the addition of radar, dual propeller bow thrusters, and the automated boiler system, contributed to the Mather’s long and successful run as a Great Lakes freighter and helped it become “the ship that built Cleveland.”
Great Lakes Science Center
