The Largest Non-Thousand Footer on the Great Lakes Making an Uncommon Duluth Appearance скачать в хорошем качестве

The Largest Non-Thousand Footer on the Great Lakes Making an Uncommon Duluth Appearance

When people say that the new lakers are a lot smaller than ones built in the past, they’re definitely forgetting about this one! She’s a different looking one, but still a massive vessel!Entering service in late December, 2020, the 865ft long vessel dethroned the longtime 858ft non-thousand footer queen Roger Blough, which she sailed along side for just a couple of weeks before fire took the Blough out of service. The ships also have surprisingly similar carrying capacities despite the newer vessel being 20ft narrower. Michigan Trader with just under 40,000 ton capacity vs Blough’s 44,000 ton capacity. The ship may be odd looking, but she is a very significant vote of confidence in the future of the Great Lakes. She is however oddly slow, with a top speed of only 9.8 knots despite having 8,000hp engines, which is right about on par with other lakers compared to the size of the vessel. The tug, Dirk S VanEnkevort, has a very interesting backstory. In 1991 the aging WW2 veteran laker Joseph H Thomson started having major issues, and was laid up, partially scrapped and the cargo hull converted into a barge. The remnants of the scrapped sections were saved and reforged, building the 146ft tug Joseph H Thomson Jr, which was then rejoined with her old hull with new engines and a reinforced bow for ice breaking. They would continue operating as a laker for the next 18 years until 2019 when her owners started having financial issues, and the pair was purchased by the VanEnkevort company. An older tug, Laura L VanEnkevort was configured to push the aging Thomson, which unfortunately proved to be a short lived arrangement as massive issues with the 80+ year old barge were revealed in an inspection 4 years later. Meanwhile the more powerful Thomson Jr was dry docked in Erie, PA, and extensively rebuilt and modified specially to push the all new Michigan Trader, which was under construction in Sturgeon Bay, WI. Entering service at the very end of the 2020 season, she quickly established and made a name for herself in the Lakes. Her career has been without incident since. While she frequently visited Duluth in previous years, this year she’s mainly been going through the Superior entry and up to Silver Bay. She did come once in late July but I was out of town, so this was the first trip I’ve seen her this whole season. This video is sort of a part 2 of this Sunday’s video, which was taken from the hilltop. This video picks up where that leaves off, coming down the hill to catch the ship. Hope everyone enjoys!