A Worthy House: Icebreaker Mackinaw

Last week my brother Brad visited from Virginia. Brad and wife Tish were at Camp Chickagami many years ago, but this was his first time at my home (Tish was ill and unable to make the trip). On Sunday we spent the morning at Grace Church, Long Rapids, and then went to an apple orchard near Rogers City.

On Monday, Sept. 22, we drove up to the Straits Area and took in two attractions I had not seen previously. The first was the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw, which was decommissioned on June 10, 2006, and is now permanently berthed at Mackinaw City, the ship's namesake. It has become the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum and is open to the public.

The Mackinaw is now permanently berthed at the
SS Chief Wawatam Dock at Mackinaw City.

USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83) was built at Toledo, Ohio, during World War II. Commissioned on Dec. 20, 1944, she was specifically designed for service on the Great Lakes, her hull being too wide for the original Welland Canal. During her nearly 62 years of service she was home ported at Cheboygan, just an hour north of Presque Isle.

Over the years the Mackinaw's main job was to keep the Great Lakes open for commercial shipping. For example, this past winter the Great Lakes were more than 90% ice-covered. That's good for lake levels, because it reduces evaporation. However, lake ice makes it difficult for freighters to operate and, in turn, that means industry is denied needed raw materials. Here's where the Coast Guard comes in. They break ice!

Think "six railroad engines in one room." The noise
is deafening, literally! Hearing protection is required.

A video shows visitors how the engines are fired up.

The Mackinaw was powered by six Fairbanks-Morse 10-cylinder diesel engines — the same motor you would find in a railroad engine. When cranked up these plants drove electric generators which, in turn, powered three screws, two aft and one at the bow. This system allowed the ship to plow through most ice, thereby clearing a path for commercial ships. If the ice cover was too thick to be pushed aside, the Mackinaw could run up on top of the ice, using its weight to break through. And if sheer weight didn't do the trick, the Mackinaw could "wallow" — rock back-and-forth and side-to-side — until the ice gave way.

A ship is also a floating community. Eight officers and 67 enlisted men and women called Mackinaw home. In a vessel built in the 1940s this meant eating, sleeping, relaxing, as well as working, in close proximity to your mates. A new icebreaker Mackinaw was commissioned on the same day this Mackinaw was taken out of service. The modern ship has two-person staterooms fitted out with every electronic convenience and high tech gizmo you can imagine, in order to support everything from email to gaming. That's a far cry from the "packed in like sardines" berthing and modest heads of the original Mackinaw.

This compact galley could feed 75 crew members a total
of four meals each day, since the ship worked 24/7.

The mess was functional, not fancy. Tables near the galley
(rear of photo) have been removed.

Holiday Inn Express it isn't.

The Chief Petty Officers' head, with its stainless steel sinks,
reminds me of bathrooms on Amtrak... and on submarines.

As we toured the ship my brother and I came across a letter dropbox. I haven't seen one of these U.S. Post Office classics in many years! Maybe they still make them. This one was manufactured by the Anderson Stove Co. of Anderson, IN. Up top, on the bridge, we saw where the captain commanded his ship. Over nearly seven decades the Mackinaw went from original "analog" controls to computers. But human beings still made the decisions.

The USPS is literally everywhere.

Brad on the bridge. A weather barrier reduced forward
visibility, so when necessary the ship could be driven
from conning towers located on each side of the bridge.

This computer needs to be debugged. (It's a toy. Really.)

The Mackinaw makes a great tourist stop when you are traveling through northern Michigan. It also reminds us that life in America is made possible by millions of people doing their special part in every corner of the country. Without the Coast Guard our Michigan auto plants would not have ready access to Canadian steel, and Canadian steel plants wouldn't have access to the limestone quarried here at Presque Isle. Without the USCG commercial shippers and pleasure boaters would be at much greater danger on the Great Lakes — the lakes are graveyards of ships! — and our ports would be at risk from those who might wish to do harm. Coasties are true American heros!