Robert S Pierson Towed to Duluth After Losing Her Rudder? Joins Michipicoten in Fraser Shipyard скачать в хорошем качестве

Robert S Pierson Towed to Duluth After Losing Her Rudder? Joins Michipicoten in Fraser Shipyard

While I’d absolutely love to support Lower Lakes Towing, this just does not look good on them. Half their fleet is currently out of commission in a single year, leaving only 3 operational ships now sailing. Fortunately it might not be for too long, work on the Pierson appears to have started in full swing as soon as she arrived. Flashes and sparks were clearly visible in the drydock as crews worked to get her back underway. I really hope they start doing better with ship maintenance. As for what happened? Well there’s been no official explanation from the notoriously tight lipped Lower Lakes Towing, but there are very credible reports that she lost her rudder in the vicinity of Gros Cap Reef at the entrance of the St Mary’s River from Lake Superior, near Sault Ste Marie. This is also shown pretty clearly in this video, sparks and welding flashes flying around her rudder. How exactly that happened is unknown. The Pierson spent several days in Goulias Bay just north of the river, before being towed across Lake Superior by the heavy tug Avenger IV. She arrived off the Superior Entry around 1 am last night, where Duluth tugs Missouri, North Carolina and Helen H took over, towing her down the front channel to Fraser shipyard. Usually ships go to the shipyard through the Canal, but with the challenges of towing through narrow spaces at night it was decided to take the longer but wider route, plus perhaps the benefit of the Superior Entry being closed to the public overnight, given Lower Lake’s recent publicity. Not sure when she’ll be back out but I don’t believe it will be a long term situation. Not sure how easy this would be to fix. Edit- Drone photos taken over the dry dock posted online clearly show her rudder is entirely missing, so that part is 100% confirmed. Since she’s also featured, a quick (sort of?) update on Michipicoten. Been working to find out as much information as I can, but nobody knows anything 100% for certain, although the story has been fairly consistent for the last month or so. Didn’t want to make an entire video based on rumors but since she’s here I might as well share. Sources are fairly reliable and include shipyard workers and sailors on several other vessels, but do take all this with a grain of salt. The story I’ve heard fairly consistently though is that Lower Lakes had drydock time booked and paid for her over winter prior to her incident. Her 13ft crack has been repaired and the emergency is over, however the opening of that crack shifted other parts of her hull around, and other smaller cracks opened as well. Because of this, she is not being allowed to sail, but since the emergency of her possibly sinking is fixed, the rest of the work needed can be done at the previously scheduled drydocking over winter. Unknown where this would take place. It does sound like she is intended to sail next season, but nobody knows what will be found during further repairs. Also sounds like Lower Lakes/ Rand is under a lot scrutiny from both the US and Canadian Coast Guards, and rightly so. Four major incidents in just over a year is crazy. We’ll see how much of this ends up being accurate. Hopefully one of the major parties involved puts out a statement but I’m not holding my breath. All I know for certain is her lights are still on and her flags still fly in the wind. As long as it stays that way, there’s hope for her return. Hopefully both these beautiful ladies get fixed up nice and sail soon!