![\".\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/012926_tugboat_ice_break-06.jpg\")
The Manhattan skyline illuminates over sheets of ice floating in Newtown Creek, Jan. 29, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n
That\u2019s left the Shoofly to embark on its first ice-breaking mission \u2014 at least since Captain N.D. Austin took the helm in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t that many boats in the harbor who can go out and break ice,\u201d Austin said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t a ton of icebreakers in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Shoofly is not a traditional working tugboat. As part of the Tideland Institute<\/a>, which was cofounded by a nonprofit that aims to make New York City\u2019s waterways and coastline more accessible, it is more regularly involved in waterfront art projects \u2014 occasionally with this reporter as a volunteer shiphand \u2014 than with fuel deliveries.<\/p>\n But an icebreaker is really just any tugboat with a sturdy steel hull to break through frozen sheets that might damage a weaker vessel. The method is simple: Break the ice by ramming through it.\u00a0<\/p>\n So as the creek\u2019s brackish water froze amid New York\u2019s long run of freezing temperatures, the Shoofly took on a new mission, slowly but methodically, humming along at a speed of around 4 knots, or 5 miles an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several times throughout the afternoon, the tugboat confronted large sheets of contiguous ice that halted it in its tracks. Even then, a simple reverse and pivot allowed the boat to take on a smaller slice.<\/p>\n For about two hours, the Shoofly chugged up and down the creek, carving off new hunks of ice with each swipe. As the sun set behind the industrial landscape, the blackish waters already glistened with a thin layer of fresh ice quickly beginning to refreeze in the boat\u2019s wake.<\/p>\n As of Friday, it\u2019s been seven consecutive days in New York City with the temperature continuously below freezing, according to the National Weather Service.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The New York City Ferry, whose vessels are made of lightweight aluminum <\/a>and designed for speed, has indefinitely suspended operations.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Coast Guard icebreakers have had to dislodge an NYPD vessel<\/a> on the Hudson River, and are helping trash and scrap metal barges coming and going from Red Hook, Petty Officer Logan Kaczmarek told THE CITY.\u00a0<\/p>\n The National Weather Service<\/a> began tracking temperatures in 1871, and since then the longest stretch of consecutive subzero temperatures was 16 days in the winter of 1961. As Hell Gate recently noted<\/a>, the East River froze repeatedly in the 19th century, even enabling citydwellers to cross between Brooklyn and Manhattan on foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"N.D.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/012926_tugboat_ice_break-07.jpg\")
N.D. Austin steers a tugboat up Newtown Creek to help break up ice, Jan. 29, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![\"Tugboat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/012926_tugboat_ice_break-09.jpg\")
Tugboat operators N.D. Austin and Jean Barberis use the barge to help break up ice in Newtown Creek, Jan. 29, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n