Waves? What Waves? Atlantic Huron Sets Out After a Troubled Layup скачать в хорошем качестве

Waves? What Waves? Atlantic Huron Sets Out After a Troubled Layup

I once asked why the Atlantic Huron was still around despite all the incidents and her old age (relatively speaking for a saltie/laker hybrid), and one of the biggest answers I got was: she can handle rough seas like no other laker. And it makes sense, in the 90s she survived the “Storm of the Century” out on the Atlantic while several oceangoing vessels of similar size sank, and the same storm went on to kill over 250 people on the US east coast, so she’s a tough ship. Never really clicked until I saw this though. Although it was a minor demonstration, this still would have been a pretty dramatic show for any other vessel, but that unique angular bulbous bow sliced through the waves in the Canal like butter. I was both highly impressed and disappointed at the same time lol. The ship had a bit of a rough winter layup, a couple weeks before it ended she started listing significantly to starboard in her dock, and while it was corrected, it took a couple days (granted they may or may not have even noticed it until calls were made) and is certainly cause for concern about the vessel. She departed here for Thunder Bay, and she still hasn’t left there over a week later which tells me they might be doing more work. It honestly isn’t too surprising, this ship has had quite a life with more noteworthy incidents than any other laker. Built in 1984 as the Prairie Harvest, she was one of the last vessels built before the long 35 year gap in Great Lakes ship construction. Unlike most lakers, she’s designed specifically to operate both on the open oceans and on the Lakes, and she did so for many years, alternating between common Lake grain routes and carrying various ores to offshore oil fields to Canada as well as salt from mines on islands in the Atlantic. She was initially built as a straightdecker, but was quickly converted to a self unloader in 1988. During her time on the Atlantic she survived the aforementioned storm. In 2000 she was retired from ocean duty, placed into dry dock and her sides and ballast tanks were replaced, widening the vessel by 3ft. Shortly after that, the ship rammed the 230ft long Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Griffon, sending several crewmen to the hospital and nearly sinking the smaller cutter. In 2020 the ship lost power while entering the Soo Locks, resulting in heavy damage to the vessel and nearly $2 million in damages to the Locks. The incident nearly got her scrapped but ultimately she reentered service after several months. Following that, an unclarified issue took the ship out of commission for 2 months in early 2023, then late that year she rammed another ship, some sources say a bulk freighter, others an empty tanker (it was weirdly not well reported) in Quebec City, denting in her bow (which still hasn’t been fixed). The next year in 2024 the ship hit the BNSF ore dock in Superior hard enough create a small breach in her hull, resulting in a week of downtime here in Duluth. After repairs she returned to the ore dock to continue loading and immediately ran aground. Following all that, her listing at the dock certainly seems part of a larger trend, hopefully she gets some attention, she’s a fantastic vessel. And yet despite all of that, she can still handle the seas beautifully. Hope you enjoy!