We will just pull over at the next parts store.

The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, almost 400 feet of icebreaking steel and charged by engines capable of producing 20,000 horsepower, was steered through the ice laden waters of the Arctic Ocean by a seaman with a pair of vice grips.

It was 2 a.m. Saturday when the bridge officer noticed that the Polar Sea was steering a course nearly 26 degrees off from the ordered course. The engineer of the watch was immediately contacted and a broken differential gear was discovered upon inspection.

Rather than having to abort the Sea’s current mission, transporting groups of various scientists to the Arctic icepack, the engineering department worked together with the icebreaker’s sister ship, the Polar Star, moored in Seattle, and arranged to have an identical gear flown to the closest land point, Barrow, Alaska.

While the part was in transit, a pair of vice grips served as a temporary solution to the steering causality.

“The vice grips worked because they acted as a lever for the operator to control the hydraulic arm, which controlled the rudder,” said Ensign Andy Perodeau, a machinery officer aboard the cutter.

The vice grip operator received steering instructions from the bridge through headsets, which provided the communication link.

“If something breaks up here in the Arctic we have to figure out how to fix it, and some times have to be really imaginative,” said Capt. David Vaughan, commanding officer of the Polar Sea.

Once the part arrived, a helicopter was deployed from the ship to receive the gear in Barrow. The gear is on board, and the cutter and crew are working to carry out the scientific mission.