Largest Ship on Great Lakes Runs Aground
DULUTH – The Paul R. Tregurtha, the largest ship on the Great Lakes ran aground in Duluth Harbor just off Bayfront Festival Park around 3:20 in the afternoon on Saturday.
The Paul R. Tregurtha was pulled off the shore and is now undergoing inspection by the United States Coast Guard.
The MV Paul R. Tregurtha is a Great Lakes-based bulk carrier freighter. She is the current “Queen of the Lakes“.
The Paul R. Tregurtha was initially launched as the William J. De Lancey.
The ship was the last of the 13 “thousand footers” that entered service on the Great Lakes. The Paul R. Tregurtha was also the last Great Lakes vessel built at the American Ship Building Company yard in Lorain, Ohio.
This is not the first time the Paul R. Tregurtha has run aground.
At around 3:00AM on August 15, 2012, as the Paul R. Tregurtha was proceeding downbound with 62,000 tons of coal, the bow of the ship became grounded in the outbound channel of the St. Marys River, just North of the Neebish Island Ferry crossing, near Sault Ste. Marie.
Her stern then pivoted and grounded on the opposite side of the channel, completely blocking the approach to the Rock Cut in the Lower St. Marys River, with assistance from the United States Coast Guard, at 5:30AM on August 19, two tugs with a combined 4,000 horsepower, moved the stern of the ship into the middle of the channel.
This enabled salvage experts to successfully raise the ship’s bow by filling stern voids which reduced the amount of forward weight on the rocks, and hence refloat the vessel.
