SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – What’s it like steering a huge Great Lakes freighter across nothing but open water on an inland sea? And does it take nerves of steel to guide that boat into the Soo Locks on a stormy day?

Freighter fans will get their chance to ask these questions and mingle with some Great Lakes ship captains and maritime professionals this weekend, all while raising money for a good cause.

The Voices at The Valley Camp event will be held this Saturday, July 18, from 7 to 10 p.m. aboard the Museum Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie. The gathering is designed to be a fun and informative event for ship enthusiasts, and a way to raise money for the International Ship Master’s Association (ISMA) Scholarship Fund.

Tickets are $40 per person. You can buy them at the link online here, or get them from event organizer Andrea Guerriero, an ISMA member and owner of Dre Designs Great Lakes Marine Products. Email andrea@dredesignsGLMP.com, or call or text 705.971.4076.

The event will feature a door prize drawing, a silent auction, and the chance to talk to Great Lakes ship captains.

“It’s your chance to meet Great Lakes Shipping professionals and ask them the questions you’ve always wanted to ask,“ Guerriero said. “Take pics, get autographs, eat some amazing food from the Sault Ste. Marie Country Club, and maybe even win a door prize.”

The funds raised go toward four ISMA scholarships of $1,500 each that are given annually to maritime cadets and working mariners from both the U.S. and Canada. Because Guerriero lined up 18 sponsors for the event, all money raised by the ticket sales and auction items will go to fund the scholarships.

The panel of captains featured at the Saturday event will include:

Capt. Bob Thibaudeau, retired from the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest freighter on the Great Lakes.

Capt. Joe Ruch, retired from the Hon. James L. Oberstar
Capt. Mark Mather, retired from the Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader articulated tug/barge
Capt. Sam Buchanan, senior captain of the JW Wescott mail boat
Capt. TJ Pryor, from the Algoma Buffalo
Capt. Joe Walters of the U.S. Geological Survey Research Vessel Kiyi
Capt. Paul C LaMarre III of the tug America, and director of the Port of Monroe, and president of the American Great Lakes Ports Association

For more information, check the events page here

 

MONTREAL — A Canadian shipping firm has repeatedly had to postpone plans to exit the Strait of Hormuz after nearly five months trapped in the Persian Gulf, where a battle for control of the key transit route has flared up anew. Quebec-based Desgagnés’s two freighters are the only known Canadian commercial vessels that were stuck in the Gulf when the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.

Desgagnés vice-president Pascal Larose says U.S. Navy officials in Bahrain have provided him with a route to steer clear of mines and pledged a measure of protection come departure day, but the “danger zone” will take 12 hours to sail through. With the resumption of tit-for-tat hostilities, the timing is now anyone’s guess. “It’s a moving target,” Larose said in a phone interview, stating that the exit hinges on American military authorities. “We’re going through their recommendation.”

Early last week, the company had aimed to have at least one of its freighters leave the region within seven days. That never came to pass. Even as the Middle East conflict ramped up, Desgagnés held out hope for an imminent voyage. None has been scheduled so far. “It’s kind of changing every day,” Larose said.

A fresh round of fighting between America and Iran has put any plans for departure on hold.

Over the past week, U.S. forces said they hit more than 300 targets in Iran, including military speedboats near the strait. More attacks followed on Tuesday. A day earlier, Iran’s military said it had launched another barrage of strikes aimed at U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait as well as sites in Oman and Jordan.

With his path out of the conflict unclear, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday he was reimposing a naval blockade of Iranian ports and demanding a 20 per cent tariff for all cargo shipped through the critical waterway, which typically carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

The would-be toll echoed previous threats that have failed to materialize and contradicted the administration’s earlier line that no state should charge fees for passage through open seas, a pillar of international maritime law. Trump reversed course on the tolls Tuesday morning, saying that Gulf states will instead make investment and trade deals with the U.S.

Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)

For Desgagnés, the prolonged shutdown of the passage has been “very costly,” Larose said. The company had to lease a pair of freighters to replace the trapped vessels and plug the hole in its 24-boat fleet. “When you charter a ship like that, your margin is very minimal, if not negative.” The two sidelined ships — the

and the Rosaire A. Desgagnés — had been transporting general cargo from Europe to ports in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates when they passed through the strait in the week leading up to the outbreak of war in late February, Larose said.

Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said the government has “remained in regular contact with an affected Canadian company” that has ships stuck in the Gulf. Officials are providing it with updates periodically, she said in an email.

From March through May, the ships sat “frozen,” bobbing side by side in the Persian Gulf northeast of the Saudi Arabian port city of Jubail. Larose described the ordeal as “stressful” for the 34 crew members — 17 per ship, plus three trainees from Quebec’s maritime institute who were pulled out in March. None of the remaining sailors were Canadian.

“We didn’t experience any immediate threat. There was no drone attack or missiles towards us,” he said. “We were really careful in choosing where to anchor.”

In May, the mariners briefly docked in Dubai to take on more food, water and fuel, leaving them self-sufficient for two more months. They had expected from the outset to be on board until mid-June. Nonetheless, by early last month “they were tired,” Larose said.

Most of the original crew members went home to the Philippines and Ukraine several weeks ago, with replacement crews now anxious to leave the area.

The dangers of braving passage through the strait are real. Since the U.S. and Iran signed an interim deal on June 17 and Trump told the “Ships of the World” to “start your engines,” Iran has attacked at least five vessels along Oman’s coast, with the U.S. launching retaliatory strikes as the corridor proves an ongoing point of contention. The dispute lies largely in whether vessels have the right to pass through shipping channels closer to Oman rather than only the lanes near Iranian shores.

Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation, said the recent escalation represents a “micro version” of the conflict at its peak in March. “This is an eerie sense of déjà vu, which in many ways demonstrates that tenuous peace arrangement was always very fragile,” he said in a phone interview from London.

The on-again, off-again hostilities that followed the now-shattered ceasefire also undermine any sense of consistency, crucial to smooth trade.

“That is the primary concern that these vessels have. They can travel on a Monday completely unhindered. But that doesn’t mean that the same thing can happen on a Tuesday,” Gohel said.

Since late May, the U.S. has quietly guided some commercial vessels through the strait, providing air cover along a route that hugs the Omani coast. With their transponders turned off to avoid detection, most ships that sail through the strait do so only after a high-stakes decision-making process involving ship owners, charterers, insurance companies, crews and the U.S. Navy.

Traffic through the waterway has fallen off in recent days after climbing in late June. When Iran declared the strait closed on July 12, transits that day dropped to just 11, the lowest number since June 14, according to S&P Global’s Commodities at Sea, which provides data on trade flows.

As for the two Desgagnés ships, once they finally depart the region, they may not return. “There’s a good chance we’ll say no. We’ll go elsewhere,” Larose said. “The hurt is big enough.”

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

UPDATE: The Silversides tow arrived at Sturgeon Bay Tuesday morning.

ORIGINAL REPORT: MUSKEGON, MI — A flotilla of dozens of boats sent off the USS Silversides on a muggy Monday afternoon as the World War II submarine departed Muskegon for the first time since arriving in 1987. The historic submarine disappeared into the Lake Michigan summer haze shortly after 6 p.m. and is now on its way to Wisconsin for restorative work.

Basic Towing, Inc., based in Escanaba, used two 100-foot-plus tugboats — the Nickelena and Erika Kobasic — to guide the 312-foot vessel through the Muskegon Channel and onto Lake Michigan at 5:30 p.m. as onlookers gathered along the waterfront to watch the departure.

The USS Silversides SS-236, one of the most decorated submarines from World War II, has served as a floating museum in Muskegon since 1987, offering visitors a glimpse into naval warfare history. The 312-foot submarine departed Monday afternoon. It will cross Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, marking its first journey in nearly 40 years as it undergoes a $3.5 million preservation project.

The USS Silversides is being towed across Lake Michigan to a Wisconsin shipyard for a $3.5 million preservation project that museum officials say is critically overdue.

“The submarine hasn’t been in dry dock for over 50 years, so that’s about twice longer than it actually should be,” said Veronica Campbell, executive director of the USS Silversides Museum.

Read the story at MLive here

A group of marine archaeology enthusiasts will take to a southwestern Ontario beach this summer to learn more about a fatal shipwreck that happened more than a century ago. The SS Erie Belle was a steam tug that violently exploded in 1883 on Lake Huron, just south of Kincardine, according to conservation and wildlife biologist David Galbraith. It instantly killed four people on board, and another two people who were injured in the weeks after.

Archaeology experts know a faulty boiler caused the wreck, but Galbraith is now leading an underwater survey to find out more details. n“My family has a cottage along the shore of Lake Huron, so for many years, I was growing up visiting the boiler that sits on the beach,” Galbraith told CBC’s Afternoon Drive. “It has always been in my imagination and consciousness … and it got to a point this year where in speaking with friends, they said, ‘Let’s see if we can actually document it.’”

David Galbraith, a conservation and wildlife biologist and a member of the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee, shares what enthusiasts like him are hoping to learn about the wreck of the 19th-century steamship, the SS Erie Belle.

The province issued a formal marine archaeology license for Galbraith and his team of volunteers to do the survey starting this summer. The group will not remove any artifacts, Galbraith said, adding that they only plan to measure, record and take photos of the site.

The Ontario Heritage Act forbids anyone without a proper license from altering or recovering artifacts from known marine archaeological sites.

Galbraith, who is a member of the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee (OMHC), will spend time at the aptly-named Boiler Beach throughout the summer.

Retired marine archaeologist and fellow OMHC member Scarlett Janusus said the survey will be a notable step in understanding more about the region’s history. “Every piece of marine heritage is so important. The written records are not always accurate, they’re not always complete, and we don’t know a lot of the history of exactly why this steamship blew up,” she said. “I think it’s important in the whole scheme of marine heritage, specifically for the Kincardine area.”

Janusus said she’s been supportive of Galbraith’s project as there is an overall need for more marine archaeology in the province. “This out of sight, out of mind concept has been around for a very long time for underwater research,” she said.

Galbraith’s fieldwork is expected to continue into August, but said he expects this will be just one part of a longer learning process.  “I’m a trained scientist. The more you ask questions, the more questions you ask,” he said.

CBC

See more images here

 

Here’s a look at the water temperatures across the Great Lakes. The hot weather last week has pretty well taken care of the colder-than-normal water coming out of the long winter. The exception is Lake Superior, which is still quite cold and colder than average. The southern tip of Lake Michigan has warmed to around 77 degrees. Saginaw Bay is nearing 80 degrees, and western Lake Erie is at 80 degrees. Some of Lake Superior’s areas still have 37 degree water. Lake Superior only has an average surface water temperature of 44.8 degrees. Lake Superior has been running colder than normal since mid-January. Lake Michigan’s temperatures jumped over the past week, with the hot weather. Lake Michigan now averages 69.1 degrees. This week’s hot weather will push the water temperatures even farther from normal temperatures.

MLive – Mark Torregrossa
Read the story here

Viking has just placed an order for two brand-new, ultra-luxury expedition vessels scheduled to set sail in 2030 and 2031. Built by the expert shipbuilders at Fincantieri, these ships will be identical sister ships to the award-winning Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris. mViking’s CEO, Torstein Hagen, has officially confirmed that they are keeping everything exactly the same, no new design features and no new routes. Instead, these new vessels are being built to meet the incredible demand for the current, highly successful itineraries along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.

The current 77-foot-wide hull design is meticulously engineered to fit perfectly through the narrow locks of the Welland Canal, a tight squeeze that most standard cruise ships simply cannot manage. By keeping the design unchanged, Viking ensures these new ships can seamlessly navigate from the rugged North Shore of Lake Superior all the way through the Soo Locks.

Future guests can look forward to the exact same cutting-edge amenities that made the original fleet famous, including the enclosed “Hangar” marina for easy boat boarding, dual yellow submarines for underwater exploration, a working scientific research lab, and those stunning open-air Nordic Balconies.

Names have not been announced yet for these new vessels. Viking Octantis (South) and Viking Polaris (North) are named after the two pole stars.

Viking

SUPERIOR, WI – Sometime over the next few months, the University of Wisconsin-Superior is set to debut a new classroom that is unlike any other: it has two levels, its own hybrid energy power source, and expansive windows with unparalleled views. That’s because they look out from and within Lake Superior.

It’s the Sadie Ann — a 65-foot vessel described as a floating classroom that will be used for both research and instruction. The vessel is expected to begin its delivery trip soon from the New Orleans area to Superior.

In 2019, an anonymous grant to the Lake Superior Research Institute initiated planning for a new research and education vessel that could carry forward the legacy of the L. L. Smith. Consultation with researchers, educators and naval architects culminated in a proposal for a 65-foot, catamaran-style vessel.

The proposal was supported enthusiastically by the Swenson Family Foundation, which funded construction of the vessel, and by anonymous donors who established an endowment to help support vessel operations.

Designed by InCat Crowther and built by Midship Marine in Harvey, Louisiana, Sadie Ann features an innovative parallel, hybrid-drive propulsion system that is powered by two John Deere diesel engines, two Esco Power electric motors and an 86 kWh battery pack.

“Its goal is to get folks out onto the water,” said Matthew TenEyck, director of the Lake Superior Research Institute, which will oversee the operation of the craft.  “We were very thoughtful about the mission of the Sadie Ann to make sure that we were not duplicating other vessels on the lake.

One of those others is the Blue Heron, the University of Minnesota Duluth’s research vessel that also conducts experiments for UWS and federal marine centers around the Great Lakes. TenEyck and the Blue Heron’s captain, Rual Lee, spoke with WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” about the incoming vessel undergoing final checks at the shipbuilder in Louisiana.

The entire interview can be read here:  Wisconsin Public Radio – Sadie Ann

Wisconsin Public Radio and the University of Wisconsin – Superior

TORONTO, ON – Lady of the Quays, one of two new ferries commissioned by the City of Toronto, was launched in Galati, Romania, on May 27. It will be delivered to Toronto possibly late this fall, if not early spring 2027. A second, Toronto Islander, is expected to launch this month for 2027 delivery.

Lady of the Quays, designed for year-round use, has ice-breaking capabilities and triple the passenger capacity. It is expected to accommodate up to 650 passengers and 14 vehicles (or two large trucks), or up to 1,300 passengers without vehicles. This ferry will replace the Ongiara, currently the only vehicle-carrying vessel in the city’s fleet that is certified for operation in icy waters. Toronto Islander is a passenger-only ferry with an anticipated capacity of 1,300 passengers, more than triple the capacity of the William Inglis, which it will replace and currently accommodates up to 395 passengers.

 

Refloating operations have begun on the Onego Otra, a cargo vessel aground on the St. Lawrence River Île Saint-Ours in Contrecoeur, QC. An exclusion zone is in place around the ship. Drone flights are prohibited within 2-mile radius of nautical miles and up to 2,000 feet in altitude. The Canadian Coast Guard confirmed the situation is stable with no injuries or pollution, and the main shipping channel remained open to normal maritime traffic.

Canadian Coast Guard

BROOKLYN, NY – The schooner Highlander Sea recently sank at a dock in Brooklyn, NY. Launched in 1924, the 154-foot vessel was acquired by Acheson Ventures of Port Huron, MI. in 2002 as part of its Desmond Landing/Vantage Point waterfront redevelopment project.

From 2002 to 2011, the gaff-rigged ship served as Port Huron’s official flagship at maritime and tall ship events throughout the Great Lakes region. It also served as a floating classroom teaching sailing and maritime skills to young people.

The schooner has been used as a floating bar and restaurant in Brooklyn since 2017. Earlier this year, it was moved to a nearby dock for repairs. According to the company that owns the vessel, the cause of the sinking is still under investigation. No one was onboard at the time.

Maritime Museum News