c-span.org/cities tour. we continue now with our look at the history of port huron. by, energized. we have radar and gps. [horn blowing] built in 1942as and sailed for 70 something years. that was one of the best returns america got out of the money invested because the ship was

ideally designed for what it was supposed to do. it did that job and we did not exceed that. i'm not blowing smoke, that's a good military term. we had all these people who were qualified here who took care of this vessel and we are very proud. >> the ship itself is 180 feet long and was one of 39 that were built in a rush in world war ii. feet wide and ways approximately 1100 tons. it draws about third teen feet of water and is told to crush buoys. apply it's an icebreaker when you needed. tothis goes all the way back

1984. they planned them by the lighthouse service. when world war ii came around, they started holding them like crazy. it's good to understand what this particular ship did. it made the northwest passage and served the government for 71 years. very extreme deployments was at the end of world war ii in san diego and honolulu. 1946, end of the war in the government wanted to continue to test atomic weapons, deployed to set buoys at marshall islands and at the kenya told. function was to put

the german and japanese into bikini atoll. off in twoere blown different locations. waters 500 feet above the and was an aerial test. then they looked at the effects it had radiation wise and the ships in the atoll itself. there were 192 ships, so the .ramble was a busy ship that was 1946, july. second extraordinary things the bramble did was to 1957, they in circumnavigated and went to the

north pole. buoys sorote ice, set that we could get east coast and west coast instead of going through the panama canal, they could go through the north pole. they had to deal with 20 feet of ice, with very cold temperatures three steps that made the passage, the northwest they are no longer existing. bramble is the last of those three. >> i was commanding officer from 1978 to 1980. we were responsible for operations and navigation and we

worked all of the luis and we worked on some light houses from altoona, michigan, all the way down to almost alito, ohio. we were responsible for them. when the winter months came along, we would keep the shipping channels open as long as we could. what we did was we supported the navigation system that allowed commerce to work in the great lakes for as long as they possibly could. all of the commerce was depended on the navigation and the ability to navigate in those waters and in the summertime. it's a very demanding job. rake the day into 12 hour sections and a bad thing on the crew is as a ship is raking ice, it is very, very noisy.

you can imagination designed to on the ice and fall down and break it. that makes a lot of noise. the crew is not getting good rest were good sleep. them up and sam going to go into the ice and i will see you when the sun comes up will start breaking ice and get you into altoona. >> here we are where the ship is split into two main berthing areas. there's one half and one forward. which we hadcrew

in the 50's or 60's, we had up to 57 crew members and at that wise, you can see had did not want to sit up too fast if you were in these racks. as time went on, we wanted more comfort in the 70's and 80's. the stack was very tight and we went in and had to in the stack. wanted to getor up, you have to have room not to get a head knocker. was absolutely taken aback. we had a crew member that served on the bramble as a dock -- as a

doctor. he's a medic in charge of keeping everyone healthy and alive. . got absolutely alone away the doctor was from huntsville, alabama. he says we are going to put sick absolutely has it up to the point of a level for trauma center and he has everything that will keep you alive for at least two hours andl you can get transport go to level o or a level one center. one of the things that makes this ship so durable is that it is round and very curvy and it has a big, stainless steel propeller on it which doesn't break. we are down in the main engine

room of the bramble. we are looking at two main engines, big diesels, basically on the that will be trains. they parallel together and go into this power board. iss old technology technology that is going to be the most reliable and that is because we are breaking ice. loads. looking at shock is if you look up these engines directly with a propeller, you would snap the shaft. we've got an engine driving a andrator and the generator

that drives the propeller. is still inhnology use and is about as good as you are going to get. you are going to get reliability galore and as minimal amount of damage as you can get to the ships repulsion system because you have all of these electric motors and generators that are like shock absorbers. they are taking a jolt and putting a lot of power out there to push through the ice, rise up on the ice and let the bow drop down and break the ice away. officer company -- officer country, which is the aft end of the ship where the officers meet and have their morning and afternoon meetings.

, we have one of the most proud pieces of the ship, that we consider the heart and soul of the ship. was ont normally stood the four part of the helm. do is mary back the soul of the ship even though we are not any longer in service. we are a ship that is not registered, not property anymore of the u.s. government. we want to marry that government so theck to the ship curator was gracious to give us a contract so that we can keep thoseips bell and keep

crew members retired and present. current with the heart of the ship. seeits good for people to how they worked and what they did here. that's part of the fabric of the history of this country and that should not be lost. ist's why the museum important and should stay as long as it can. >> it is american history. under a war environment and it has its makings to do a big job and as part of history, it is a lesson and our hope is to get it where we can bring it to the youngsters behind us and have one that doesn't have a path choose a path to be a mechanic

or sailmaker, to learn about what happens when you pull together exactly what you can do. >> this weekend, we are featuring the history of port huron, michigan with our comcast partners. /citiesore at c-span.org tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. back discusses , igniting the american avenue of -- american revolution and the war before independent. talk,s hour-long