The Cutter Mackinaw

The sun was rising high
and the air was cold and clear.
There must've been 500 of us standing on the pier.
We're standing on the pier,
and we're gazing up in awe
at the vessel we've all come to board:
The Cutter Mackinaw.
Icebreakers may come and icebreakers may go;
but the greatest of them all
is the one that we all know.
Lined up next to her,
they all seem kind of small...
There's no boat that's still afloat
that's like the Mackinaw!
The Great Lakes are her workplace;
in Cheboygan she remains.
Her job's to break the frozen lakes
and free the shipping lanes.
Free the shipping lanes from Duluth to Saginaw--
Many a freighter's been released
by the Cutter Mackinaw.
She was built in Toledo back in 1944.
They commissioned her in December,
then launched her from the shore.
They launched her from the shore
to Greats Lakes ports-of-call.
They stationed her in our hometown--
she's the Cutter Mackinaw.
In '48, off New York State,
near the City of Buffalo,
a dozen ships were locked in ice
and the Mackinaw let them go.
The Mackinaw let them go;
the Mackinaw freed them all.
After that, captains tipped their hats
to the Cutter Mackinaw.
She's got six main diesel engines
and propellers fore and aft.
That puts ten thousand horses
deep inside this sturdy craft.
She's two-ninety feet long
and shaped like a football.
She's tough as nails up to her rails--
She's the Cutter Mackinaw.
If she gets stuck in ice, well,
she can take care of that.
She'll shift her ballast back and forth
in ninety seconds flat.
So, don't you worry, boys,
if she starts to pitch and yaw.
That's just the rock-n-rollin'
of the Cutter Mackinaw
For more than fifty years,
the good ship's worked so hard.
Breakin' the way and flyin' the flag
of the United States Coast Guard.
The United States Coast Guard:
that's who owns her by law.
But we all feel we share a part
of the Cutter Mackinaw.
It was not that long ago
that they tore the Court House down.
Every year it seems we lose
another piece of our town.
A piece of history, that's what we all saw
the day the public crossed the straits
on the Cutter Mackinaw.

Mackinaw, will you stand the test of time?
Mackinaw, to decomission seems a crime.
Mackinaw, will you break through one more time
for us all?