An excerpt from the chapter Growlers in Newfoundland.
The Panama Canal transit is a beautiful experience. The canal uses a rail-based system that uses electric locomotives called “mules” which are essentially rail-based tugs to move ships from higher sea levels to lower and vice versa while also guiding them through the chambers and keeping them centered as the water level changes. The locks raise the ships to eighty-five feet to the main elevation of the canal.
After transit through the Panama Canal, any movements across the Gulf of Mexico had to be undertaken with close monitoring of storm systems. The climate changed very quickly while sailing northward to Canada. A significant change was noticeable every week until we traversed from tropical to icy waters. It was in April near the end of the winter of 1992 when we arrived at entrance to Saint Lawrence Bay. We were surprised to find that the mouth of the bay, between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia was totally icebound.
We had not received any messages from the weather reports nor from the owners or charterers. We sent messages to them repeatedly seeking advice but we got no response. We assumed our messages were being ignored. I could only surmise this to be a tactic for the owners to shrug off any responsibility which could result in heavy financial losses if the ship was delayed here.
In other words, they were leaving the decision completely to the shipmaster and protecting themselves financially if the ship were stopped from making its way to Montreal.
I carried out extensive research to study the conditions and factors that would have to be heeded for the purposes of safe navigation through sheet ice. Furthermore, we were close to exhausting our food and water provisions. Fortunately, my third mate had had previous experience of icebound transit in this zone. His views aligned with the instructions in the manuals on the ship.
Icebreakers were not available. As long as there weren’t any large growlers, i.e. small icebergs, the sheet ice would give way, albeit noisily, to the ship’s forward movement. Previous cases of ships cutting through sheet ice were not uncommon. After waiting long enough to hear back from our principals, it seemed that we had to take a decision to either stay put or attempt to move through the ice. I went with the latter.
