Topic summary
Ice breaking
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Icebreaker.
Earliest icebreakers
Ice breaking barges continued to see use during the colder winters of the Little Ice Age with growing use in the Low Country where significant amounts of trade and transport of people and goods took place. In the 15th century the use of ice breakers in Flanders (Oudenaarde, Kortrijk, Ieper, Veurne, Diksmuide and Hulst) was already well established. The use of the ice breaking barges expanded in the 17th century where every town of some importance in the Low Country used some form of icebreaker to keep their waterways clear.