A Canadian freighter with 17 people on board remains in the ice on Lake Erie near Buffalo, N.Y., according to Omar Faba with the U.S. Coast Guard. It's been frozen in the water since Wednesday.

Efforts to break it free saw "progress" on Thursday, said Faba. However, work was called off in the evening, he told CBC News. He said the plan is to resume work on Friday and hopefully free it.

The 202-metre Manitoulin had dropped off a load of wheat and was heading back to Sarnia, Ont., when it became stuck in ice that was rapidly forming in sub-zero temperatures off the Buffalo shoreline. 

And that's where it remains, creating a striking sight on the lake, surrounded on all sides by ice and snow.

"We just haven't had a bad winter in quite a while. So now that we've had one and people haven't seen this for a bit, they're like 'what's going on?'" said Paul Angelillo, a search and rescue specialist with the Coast Guard in Buffalo.

Great Lakes freighters typically are able to navigate surface ice in the winter, but occasionally encounter ice that's too hard or thick to break through, he said.

The Manitoulin wasn't damaged and the captain and crew were safe, the Coast Guard said.