Sorry this is a day delayed, but wanted to try and see if anyone could send me some photos from up in the Thunder Bay area as she arrived after her incident to add to this video, which was taken the last time I’ve seen her depart, a few days before the incident. Eventually someone came through! A huge thank you there!
Early Saturday morning (6/8/24) Michipicoten was sailing out from Two Harbors on a standard lake run when she collided with an unknown object in the water. It’s a bit of a mystery what that object could be, as she was sailing in open, deep water at the time. That would seem to rule out hitting a rock, the most common reason on the Lakes for this sort of incident. There were no storms or large waves in the area. We’ll see what the reports say she hit, my money is on a very large submerged log that hit in just the perfect location. If it was a log though, it does raise some serious questions about the strength of the ship’s hull.
After starting to take on water, the ship issues a distress call, which was answered by the Edwin H Gott, the Canadian Coast Guard and a park service boat. The ship quickly turned north towards Thunder Bay. Joined by the Gott, she evacuated much of her crew to the park service boat and successfully made it after a rather tense journey. Her pumps kept up with flooding, but by the look of things any further complications could have easily sent her to the bottom. She arrived in Thunder Bay, shown here, with a severe list to starboard, 15 degrees at its highest point (similar to a steep hill and the steepest angle most cars can drive up and down) reducing to about 5 degrees by the time she got into port. Had the iron ore within her hold starting shifting because of the angle, she could have very easily rolled over and gone down, potentially very quickly. Fortunately that did not happen! The incident has made news headlines across both the US and Canada.
Fortunately everyone is safe and sound, the ship is safely at dock! It will likely be awhile before she sails again.
Built in 1952, the Michipicoten is Canada’s oldest active laker following a severe fire on the 1943 laker Cuyahoga earlier this year (It’s been a bad year for the Lower Lakes company). Measuring 697ft long, the ship has been an extremely regular sight in Duluth the last two years, making twice weekly trips between the iron ore docks in Minnesota and Wisconsin to the steel mill at Sault Ste Marie. She was lengthened in the late 50s and converted to a self unloader in the 70s. Hopefully this issue is repairable and she returns to service quickly and properly!
I’ll keep looking for updates on this situation and edit the description appropriately! Feel free to comment with any new information and sources you find!
Update 1: Divers have surveyed the ship, finding a 13ft long crack in the hull. Here’s the news article with all the details- www.tbnewswatc...
25 окт 2024
