Wow! That's excellent mate.

Thanks for those Tom, Awesome!

They were great Tom, not like when I was on the Baltic Viking running to Riga, in the winter the pilot came out on a tractor then we had an ice breaking tug to take us in, sometimes we swung our cranes side to side to help break the ice, happy days. Ernie.

Quite spectacular Tom,thanks for the post,
BrianD

Hi Tom.
Great Post & Topic, Thanks ..Reg.

Shoreside people do not fully understand the power of ice. You may recall back in the 70's there was a trawler up north of Scotland that became iced up over night turned turtle with the loss of the crew.
Up in Lulea Sweden late 1964, on the last ship in before the sea froze over completely. In port a ship from the previous winter thta had not got out before the ice set in, She was crushed much in the manner you can now crush a beer can.

thank heavens that there is documented evidence of it's power. being able to see it like this is a great aid to understanding it.

Manchester Vanguard stuck in the ice shortly after leaving Montreal in Dec. 1958. We should have been home for Christmas but we had ice damage and had to go in dry dock for repairs. We eventually docked in Manchester in February 1959. I took this photo with an old Agfa bellows camera. Not as good as some of the previous videos shown but I did take the photo myself.

Alec.

Hi Ernie,

I joined the Baltic Viking 29/12/71 in Manchester on the Riga run and did the winter on her running up to the Baltic. A good little job, good crew, good feeder and plenty of overtime, the only trouble was the weather. I have got some photos of her in the ice which I will try and post.

Alec.

PS Tried to post photos but they are a bit too big.

Baltic Viking looking aft. Just resized photos

Bosun Albert Kenyon and Mate Ron Harvey clearing windlass of ice before arriving Riga, 1972. Wrong date on photo.

Baltic Viking.

Hi Alec,
I felt cold just looking at those pictures,thank you for sharing them with us,
BrianD

that looks damned cold. i hope you got your tot? no shorts and flipflops there

Fantastic photo's there Alec and Tom.
Dont fancy chipping off all the ice, Did the company supply you with any cold weather gear?
Geoff

Nice video of the icebreaker Tom, and yes we did get a big tot after chipping the ice off.

Geoff, no gear provided by the company at all except for the chipping hammers A good company though.

Here are a couple more photos, one of the Canadian icebreaker coming to our rescue on the Manchester Vanguard in 1958. and a couple of the Baltic Viking in 1972.

Alec.

BBbrrrrrrrrrrr! Iiit Lllooooks Ffffeckin C ccooooooolld!!!
BrianD