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JULY * AUGUST, 1982 Page 87 THE HENRY FORD II OPENS 1982 SEASON by JAMES D. CLARKSON The 1982 Great Lakes shipping season began on March 8 when the first ship out, the Henry Ford IIT commanded by Capt. Mike Gerasmos, sailed for the C&O dock in Toledo from her winter berth on the Rouge River. Facing ice estimated up to three feet thick, she was preceeded by the Gaelic Tugboat's icebreaker William A. Whitney and the Coast Guard icebreaker Bristol Bay. Normally a twenty-four hour round trip, this time it took fifteen hours to clear a path through the ice. With the Bristol Bay cutting the initial channel, the Whitney captained by Bruce Butler, broke a second, parallel channel about one hundred yards to the side. Their combined efforts provided enough width for the Ford to follow. At times, conditions proved too much for even the Whitney's 2000 hp. Fairfax- Morris oppossed piston engine (originally built in 1943 for the Coast Guard icebreaker Southwind) and her 88" propeller. During one backing maneuver, required to get enough forward momentum to break through, a two- foot thick block of ice jammed the rudder and caused the 7/8" port steel steering cable to snap. The Whitney's engineer and assistant engineer Walter White and Charlie Newell had replaced it within two hours and the battle with the ice continued. It was to require a battering nine hours between the Detroit River Light and the Toledo Light. O Two-foot thick ice is laboriously smashed and pushed aside by the WHITNEY as she follows the BRISTOL BAY's lead. Author's Photo