The ''Keiler'' is a river

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

commissioned in December 2011 to serve as the flagship of

Lauenburg Lauenburg (), or Lauenburg an der Elbe ( en, Lauenberg on the Elbe), is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein ...

's Water and Shipping Authority fleet of ten icebreakers, on the

Elbe River The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

. The vessel is long and wide. She has a crew of four, and has sleeping and dining accommodation for operations that take longer than a single shift. She is the first icebreaker built for the water authority in 24 years. In February 2012 the upper reaches of the Elbe were beset by the worst

ice jam Ice jams occur when a topographic feature of the river causes floating river ice to accumulate and impede further progress downstream with the river current. Ice jams can significantly reduce the flow of a river and cause upstream flooding—som ...

s since 1987. The jams were 20 kilometers long, and upstream communities faced flooding as water built up behind the ice dams. The ''Keiler'' and sister ships '' Büffel'', '' Widder'', and ''

Wisent The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

'' were dispatched from their normal stations to attack the ice jam. They had to be careful blocks of ice they freed did not form jams downstream. This crisis represents the first time the water authorities icebreakers were used at night.

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Further reading