WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (GLS) has awarded nine U.S. ports in the Great Lakes the Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award for shipping a record volume of international cargo last year. The award-winners collectively moved more than 4 million metric tons of international freight—27% of the international freight traveling through the Great Lakes in 2025.

“Congratulations to the nine Great Lakes ports being recognized as GLS Pacesetter Award recipients for their achievements during the 2025 Seaway navigation season,” said GLS Administrator Mike McCoshen. “The sustained level of high performance is a testament not only to the Seaway System’s importance as a maritime supply chain, but also to the hard work and resiliency of the dedicated men and women throughout the Great Lakes region port community.”

The Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award was established in 1992 to recognize the U.S. ports that have increased international tonnage shipped through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The nine U.S. ports earning the Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award for 2025 are:

Port of Buffalo (NY) – increased tonnage movement by 132% through the Seaway System

Conneaut Port Authority (OH) – increased tonnage movement by 11% through the Seaway System

Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority (PA) – increased tonnage movement by 1% through the Seaway System

Port Green Bay (WI) – increased tonnage movement by 145% through the Seaway System

Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor (IN) – increased tonnage movement by 5.83% through the Seaway System

Lorain Port and Finance Authority (OH) – increased tonnage movement by 15.37% through the Seaway System

Port Milwaukee (WI) – increased tonnage movement by 78% through the Seaway System

Port of Monroe (MI) – increased tonnage movement by 100% through the Seaway System

Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority (OH) – increased tonnage movement by 7.36% through the Seaway System

U.S. Department of Transportation

DULUTH-SUPERIOR – Stewart J. Cort returned to service Thursday evening, heading to fuel before moving to BNSF to load ore. The Cort had been tied up at the SMET coal dock the past few weeks undergoing propulsion repairs.

Stewart J. Cort waiting en route to the fuel dock to BNSF to load ore Tuesday evening. [David Schauer]

The Port of Cleveland and Milo Harbour Inc. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to initiate a new cross-lake truck ferry service between Northeast Ohio and Southern Ontario. But if you’re looking to catch a ride as a passenger, your ship has yet to come in. Expected to launch in early 2028, the cargo service will create a direct maritime connection across Lake Erie, providing manufacturers, shippers, trucking companies, and logistics partners with a reliable alternative to one of North America’s busiest and most congested border crossings while strengthening regional supply chain resilience and cross-border trade.

The proposed Cross-Lake Truck Ferry Project would establish a cargo terminal at Milo Harbour in Wheatley, Ontario, connecting directly with the Port of Cleveland and the USA. The service is expected to accommodate up to 300 round-trip truckloads per day, while offering a new maritime transportation corridor for cargo moving between Canada and the United States. With an estimated one-way transit time of approximately two to three hours for the 55-mile cross-lake trip, the project provides a competitive alternative to current over-the-road truck transit times.

Current travel time over the 210-mile land route from Cleveland to Wheatley is about three and a half hours, not including border crossing delays. Past proposals more than a decade ago for cross-lake ferry service included truck, car and passenger trip options. But those faded away because the primary revenue source was to be shipping auto parts between auto plants in Southern Ontario and Northern Ohio — auto plants that no longer exist.

The project is designed to improve supply-chain resilience by reducing dependence on increasingly congested highway and rail networks, particularly the Windsor-Detroit gateway, where approximately one-quarter of all Canada-U.S. merchandise trade crosses the border. The proposed service would complement existing truck and rail transportation networks by adding a new marine option for manufacturers, distributors, trucking companies and logistics providers.

Once cargo arrives in Cleveland, it would have immediate access to the Port’s established highway and rail connections, reaching approximately half of the U.S. population within a 500-mile radius. The project would also provide Canadian shippers access to the Port of Cleveland’s container service connecting to European markets. Conversely, Ohio based exporters would have quicker and more efficient access to the Canadian marketplace.

The proposed corridor would leverage existing infrastructure at both ports, limiting the need for major new development. Both the Port of Cleveland and Milo Harbour already offer industrial zoning, warehousing, cargo handling equipment and space for cargo operations, helping reduce project costs and accelerate implementation.

Additional future investments would focus on customs and border-processing facilities, cargo terminal improvements, a roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) ramp for trucks and trailers, and marine handling infrastructure to support barge operations.

The Port of Cleveland serves as one of only two current container ports on the Great Lakes with international container service and provides multimodal connections to rail, interstate highways and global markets. The proposed truck ferry would further strengthen the Port’s role as a strategic logistics hub connecting North American manufacturers with domestic and international supply chains.

Project planning and stakeholder engagement are ongoing as the partners continue evaluating infrastructure requirements, regulatory approvals, and operational planning for the proposed service

NeoTrans Blog
Read more here.

John D. Leitch arrived at Port Weller, Ontario Shipyards, Tuesday and tied up at the wall, assisted by Ocean tug Grande Baie from Hamilton. She’s there for her five-year inspection.

John D. Leitch will go on the drydock at Port Weller. [Janey Anderson]

A cargo ship has been freed after it was stuck for nearly four weeks in the St. Lawrence River north of Montreal. The Canadian Coast Guard said the Onego Otra was refloated on Sunday morning with the help of three tugboats. The Onego Otra had been stranded in the river between Île St-Ours and Contrecoeur since it ran aground June 30 due to a rudder issue that occurred shortly after it left Montreal. The ship sailed to Sorel on Sunday, escorted by two of the tugs, where it will be inspected by divers, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

The Onego Otra had been stranded in the river between Île St-Ours and Contrecoeur, since it ran aground June 30, 2026. [Montreal Gazette]

The general cargo ship, sailing under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, was en route to New Orleans.

Montréal Gazette

Verila in 2023. [Roger LeLievre]

ORIGINAL REPORT: On Sunday the Navbulgar vessel Verila hit the downstream ship arrestor arm at the Iroquois Lock. This was caused by the digital sign that tells them how much farther to advance giving them incorrect information. The broken arrestor has been removed, however there is issue with the winch that lifts the arrestor. All traffic is stopped until the problem is resolved.

The arrestor arm is a large mechanical structure that swings out or lowers across the width of the lock chamber, with the intention of bringing the ship to a complete stop (in an emergency situation like weather or mechanical failure) before it breaches the lock gates.

St. Lawrence Seaway Ship Watchers Network – Pat English

Capt. John Wellington (right) with Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III. [Becky Hull]

Voices at The Valley Camp, held at the Sault museum ship, featuring a panel of Great Lakes vessel captains, was a fundraising event for the International Ship Master’s Association (ISMA) Scholarship Fund. Nearly $10,000 was raised.

Wellington, 95, was born on Mackinac Island and served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 20 years including a stint aboard the USCG Tamarack, stationed in Sault Ste. Marie, before settling in the Sault.

He’s owned the Sugar Island ferry in the Sault, pilot boats on the St. Marys River and a small fleet of tugs. He’s towed lakers to begin new careers and others to end their lives at a scrapyard. He has been the go-to guy for tough salvage jobs and has often been called upon by the Great Lakes shipping industry for icebreaking advice.

As a marine surveyor, Wellington led the 2016 salvage job on the 858-foot-long Roger Blough, which hit hard on Gros Cap reef west of the Soo Locks. He is also credited with freeing the 1,000-foot Edgar B. Speer from ice in the Rock Cut in late January 2004 when even the coast guard said it couldn’t be done.

Many tug captains around the Great Lakes consider Wellington their mentor, including LaMarre.

“He always gets the job done,” LaMarre said of Wellington, “many times against incredible odds and serious situations that required bravery and stamina. He’s a highly-respected, talented professional with an immense amount of skill, experience and knowledge. … He is the epitome of the true first- class maritime professional. This sentiment is shared by all in our industry who know him.”

Wellington has also served as Sault Ste. Marie, MI, harbormaster and has been on the board of directors of Soo Historic Sites, which oversees the museum ship Valley Camp, since 1981. He was inaugurated in the Great Lakes Marine Hall of Fame in 1982, and the Hall of Fame, housed aboard the Valley Camp, is named in his honor. He has been an advisor to the Lake Carriers Association, has served as grand president of the International Shipmasters’ Association, organized ISMA’s Twin Sault Lodge 22 and was a founder and board member of the Great Lakes Captain’s Association.

He lives in Sault Ste. Marie with his wife Dolly.

CHICAGO, IL – Families gathered Friday on the Riverwalk between La Salle and Clark streets to commemorate the 844 people killed in Chicago’s deadliest single-day disaster when the steamship rolled onto its side while docked in the Chicago River.

Eastland capsized, with survivors walking to safety on the hull. [Marine Historical Society of Detroit]

Long, 62, took a photograph of the portrait of his great aunt, Mabel Deichmann, held against the backdrop of the river where she died on July 24, 1915. Deichmann was 21 when the Eastland, a passenger steamship, rolled onto its side while docked along the Chicago River, killing 844 people. It remains Chicago’s deadliest single-day disaster.

Long’s family has carried the story through generations. “My grandfather, my grandmother, her

Scott E. Long holds a photo of his great aunt Mabel Dichmann who was one of the 844 victims that perished 111 years ago during the SS Eastland disaster.

sister and my uncle were on the Eastland,” Long said.

More than 2,500 passengers, most of them Western Electric factory workers and their families, boarded the Eastland on an overcast Saturday morning for the company’s annual picnic.

Minutes after boarding, before the ship ever left the dock, the overloaded, top-heavy Eastland tipped over. Many passengers were trapped below the deck as the water flowed in, prompting a frantic rescue by first responders and bystanders.

Long’s grandfather helped his wife and young son off the ship then climbed back aboard, again and again, in search of Deichmann, who had boarded with a different group of Western Electric employees.

“Each time he went to look for her, he rescued someone,” Long said. “He rescued three or four women.” Later that day, Deichmann’s body was identified at the Second Regiment Armory, on the Washington Boulevard on the Near West Side, which was used as a temporary morgue.

A few years later, the women saved by Long’s grandfather presented him with a gold watch-chain in gratitude. The chain, now owned by Long, is on display at the Chicago Maritime Museum.

Long said the tragedy became part of his family’s identity. His uncle, who was 4 years old at the time, spent much of his career working in the Merchandise Mart across the river — “right in the shadow of where the tragedy took place.”

And Long’s stepfather, a news editor, recorded an interview with his grandfather recounting the tragedy. The interview is featured in the PBS documentary, “The Eastland Disaster.”

Other families gathered Friday and shared stories of survival instead of loss.

Barbara Decker Wachholz and her sister, Susan Wachholz, are descendants of a 14-year-old survivor who boarded the Eastland with her 9-year-old sister, their mother and a relative employed by Western Electric.

Dozens of family members of victims and survivors of the SS Eastland attend a ceremony commemorating those victims along the Chicago Riverwalk near the Clark Street Bridge, Friday, July 24, 2026.

Their grandmother had eagerly boarded what seemed like an enormous ship, but because the upper deck was crowded, the family found seats on the middle deck. When the Eastland rolled over, they were trapped for hours inside the vessel before rescuers pulled them through a porthole.

Wachholz’s grandmother treaded water for “many hours” and held onto “whatever debris” floated by. “She saw things that were not pleasant at all for a young girl,” Barbara Wachholz said. “But what she said gave her inspiration was the fact that when the ship rolled over, they, fortunately, were on the side that was facing up,” Wachholz said. “And she could look through the porthole and see the sky. And she just had such hope that she would be able to pull through.”

“If our 14-year-old grandmother had not survived, my sister, Susan, and I would not be here today. And that goes for so many other families,” Wachholz said.

Robert Conlon, an author who has studied the Eastland disaster, described the riverfront as “hallowed ground.” He told attendees to imagine the excitement that filled the dock that morning 111 years ago — families dressed in their Sunday best, children carrying picnic baskets, coworkers chatting and a ragtime band playing as they all boarded.

“The ship beneath their feet was a fragile illusion,” Conlon said, describing a “top heavy” vessel “plagued by stability issues” that were ignored by the ship company, crew members and inspectors. “Little did the happy passengers know that an incoherently large number of them would never touch land again,” Conlon said.

The Eastland Disaster fundamentally reshaped maritime safety, said Cmdr. T.J. Bigay, commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit Chicago. It helped shape stronger vessel safety standards and improved life saving and stability requirements.

Eastland underway. [Marine Histoiical Society of Detroit]

“It informs our daily missions,” she said. “Every vessel inspection, facility inspection, marine permit that we review, every coordinated response with state, local and federal partners, is driven by the shared conviction that no one should ever have to endure this level of grief again.”

Chicago Sun-Times – Kade Heather
See more images here.

UPPER PENINSULA, MI – A pre-scheduled joint training exercise involving U.S. military personnel, law enforcement agencies, and emergency response partners will take place July 27-30. Michigan State Police (MSP) personnel and resources will be participating alongside our local, state, and federal partners. Troopers and other local law enforcement will remain available to respond to routine calls for service, public safety needs, and 911 emergencies throughout the exercise.

The exercise will begin in Marquette and conclude in Sault Ste. Marie. Throughout the exercise, residents may notice an increased presence of military personnel, law enforcement, specialized vehicles, marine resources, and helicopters. This is only a training exercise, and there is no danger to the public. Local law enforcement including MSP is aware of these pre-planned activities.

On Monday, July 27, there will be activity downtown Marquette, including around the Mattson Lower Harbor Park area. On Tuesday, July 28, there will be activity downtown Marquette near the Northern Michigan University campus area and the Marquette Harbor area.

On Wednesday, July 29, participating personnel and equipment will travel from the Marquette area to Sault Ste. Marie as part of the exercise. Motorists may experience temporary traffic delays due to slower-moving military and emergency response vehicles. It is anticipated this travel will take place in the afternoon hours, however, could be subject to change. If possible, please allow extra travel time and use caution if encountering the convoy.

On Thursday, July 30, there will be activity downtown Sault Ste. Marie, including around the Soo Locks. Some downtown areas near the Soo Locks may be temporarily restricted. People can expect to see helicopters and specialized vehicles in the area during this portion of the exercise.

Michigan State Police

Sundew docked in the Soo on July 23. [Roger LeLievre]

Grand Haven, a small city on the coast of Lake Michigan between Holland and Muskegon, is home to a U.S. Great Lakes Coast Guard station located at the foot of the Grand River. The base is home to the nation’s largest Coast Guard festival, a massive 10-day event honoring past service members.

The festival began Thursday, July 23, with regular events scheduled until its finale on Aug. 1.

After more than 100 years, Grand Haven’s historic Coast Guard Festival brings new attractions for the public to enjoy on one of the Mitten’s finest lakeshores. Eventgoers enjoy a range of experiences around the town – including live music, a fireworks show and tours of current and retired USCG vessels, one of which has unexpected origins.

What originally began in 1924 as a personnel-only picnic, where the local Coast Guard station held a slew of rowing competitions for its service members, the festival has since grown to a draw of more than 350,000 people – including some of the Coast Guard’s highest dignitaries from Washington, DC.

The newest addition is brought to festivalgoers thanks to Rosie the Riveter and a Minnesota Trucking magnate: the restored U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sundew, an ice-breaking buoy tender built during World War II, will make the journey from its current home at Superior, WI, on Lake Superior, for visitors to tour.

First commissioned to Lake Superior in 1944, the ship was restored by current owner Jeff Foster, a former trucking executive. Foster, who took the keys to the ship in 2009, bought it at auction after some time as a floating museum following its retirement.

Foster suggested to that he thinks the vessel’s long life could be attributed to the craftsmanship of the women who worked in the Minnesota shipyards during World War II.

“My wife likes to say the Sundew is in such good shape because Rosie the Riveter worked on her,” he said.

Festivalgoers can expect a full lineup of family-friendly events including a 5k and 10k run, parades, fireworks, live music and more in honor of Coast Guard members and their service.

For tickets and more information, click here.

Northern News Now