MONTREAL, QC – Three students who were completing internships on Desgagnés Group vessels currently stranded in the Persian Gulf due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have been repatriated to Quebec. The interns were aboard the Rosaire A. Desgagnés and Miena Desgagnés, which have been immobilized in the Persian Gulf since the outbreak of war in Iran on Feb. 28. The decision to repatriate them to Quebec was made “due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding the timeline for implementing security measures that would allow the two vessels to leave the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.”

The three trainees, who are studying at the Institut maritime du Québec, first took a flight from Saudi Arabia to Europe, from where they were able to continue their journey to Canada. “Desgagnés is delighted with the resolution of this situation and wishes the trainees a safe return home, thanking them for their resilience during this tumultuous period,” the company wrote in a statement released Friday morning. No details regarding the trainees’ identities have been disclosed. They and their families wish to remain anonymous “to protect their privacy.”

The Miena Desgagnés and the Rosaire A. Desgagnés were transporting various cargoes to ports in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. They were in the region before the conflict began. These ships typically serve Arctic communities during the summer navigation season but are deployed to other parts of the world in the winter, Desgagnés said earlier this week. The company told The Canadian Press that there were no Canadians among the 30 crew members on the ships, which fly the Barbadian flag, as their crews are all composed of foreign nationals.

The Canadian Press

DOOR COUNTY, WI – A Lake Michigan shipwreck off Door County that was missing for almost 140 years until found in June 2025 was named to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. The very intact remains of the wreck of the F.J. King, a three-masted canal schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off Door County in 1886 and remained missing for almost 140 years, were placed March 11, 2026, on the State Register of Historic Places by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The Wisconsin Historical Society announced March 11 that the wreck of the 144-foot-long, three-masted schooner F.J. King, which sank in 1886, is now listed on the state register, making it the 34th shipwreck in waters off Door County named to the register. It lies submerged in about 140 feet of water in Lake Michigan off Baileys Harbor and Liberty Grove.

The shipwreck is historically significant because the remains are a very intact example of a shipping vessel unique to the Great Lakes, a news release from the historical society said. The listing for the F.J. King on the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website says the wreck already has been a source of information on wooden schooner construction of the time and should continue to provide maritime archaeological information.

The F.J. King was constructed as a double-masted vessel in 1867 by master shipbuilder George R. Rogers in Toledo, Ohio, to service the coal and grain trade between Lake Michigan and the lower Great Lakes. It underwent several ownership changes during its service, homeporting in Chicago and then New York, and in 1885, the year before it sank, had a third mast added and was adapted for the lumber and iron ore trades.

It was what was called a “canal schooner” or “canallers,” a type of vessel unique to the Great Lakes because it was designed to transit the locks of the Welland Canal that bypassed Niagara Falls while carrying the maximum amount of cargo through the locks with only inches to spare. The canallers generally sailed from Lake Michigan ports with grain from the Midwest and brought it to eastern ports on Lakes Erie and Ontario, then returned to Lake Michigan with coal to heat cities and power factories.

The F.J. King sank Sept. 15, 1886, while carrying iron ore south from Escanaba, Michigan, to Chicago when it was hit by a southeastern gale that raised waves of 8 to 10 feet, according to an article on the Shipwreck World website. The hull split seams and started leaking, and the ship’s pumps could not keep up with the incoming water. Other efforts over several hours to keep it afloat failed. Capt. William Griffin and crew escaped in the ship’s yawl before the King sank bow-first at about 2 a.m. The crew later were picked up by the schooner La Petite.

The location of the wreck’s remains were unknown, though, and finding it became something of a Holy Grail for maritime archaeologists and shipwreck enthusiasts, the Shipwreck World site said in its story, with diving clubs offering rewards for its discovery.

After 139 years, the F.J. King was found in June 2025 when a citizen science class held on the water by Brendon Baillod, president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association, to learn remote sonar operation detected a sunken vessel that subsequently was determined to be the King. The site was documented by Wisconsin Historical Society maritime archaeologists and volunteers in August and October 2025. It has not been visited by divers outside of the initial surveys.

State and federal laws protect the wreck of the F.J. King. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. For more information on the King and other shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters, visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org.

Remains of F.J. King. [Wisconsin Historical Society]

TWO HARBORS, MN – Visitors trekking to the North Shore of Lake Superior expecting to see the iconic vista of Split Rock Lighthouse perched atop a cliff overlooking the lake will now soak in a slightly different vista. That’s when Minnesota Historical Society crews begin scaffolding around the iconic structure, part of a three-month restoration project to repair damaged bricks and mortar.

Split Rock Lighthouse construction work in 2008. [Minnesota Historical Society]

Work crews began site preparation on March 1. The scaffolding will go up starting on March 16. Hayes said construction will resemble work done in 2008-09, when bricks and the curved windows at the top of the lighthouse were replaced. “The lighthouse will definitely look a little bit different. But it’s all for the sake of progress and restoration,” said Scriven, who added that he hopes visitors “can give us a little grace.” In March and April, visitors can get an up-close look at the restoration work through special “Hard Hat Tours.” Regular site tours resume in May. Repair work is expected to be completed by late June.

The lighthouse has been a busy place in recent months. Archaeologists discovered remnants of a historic tram last summer while working on a trails and landscape restoration project that’s also expected to be completed this spring. And more than 2,000 visitors gathered at the base of the lighthouse in November to mark the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald with a ceremony honoring the 29 crewmembers who died when the ship sank in Lake Superior.

Minnesota Public Radio: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/03/16/crews-begin-work-on-split-rock-lighthouse-to-better-withstand-harsh-lake-superior-conditions

Boatnerd.com is celebrating 30 years online with a revamped website, including an upgraded AIS vessel map.

“Boatnerd was started in 1995 as a test of building a website,” recalls founder Neil Schultheiss. “I had the interest and it seemed like a good subject. At the time, the web was only accessible by academic institutes. In the early days there were text newsgroups that discussed boats and thought I would give this subject a try.”

“When the web opened up to the world in the mid-1990s, the site really took off,” he said.

Today, Boatnerd attracts a diverse following, from nautical enthusiasts to sailors and others involved in the Great Lakes shipping and maritime industry. We regularly have visitors from almost every country in the world.

Our mission is to enhance the general public’s knowledge of commercial maritime operations and the history thereof on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, which is why we’ve worked hard to create an updated website that makes it easier to share our mission.

“We’ve been working hard on creating a website that will load faster and be easier for visitors to navigate, especially on mobile devices, while also being much easier for our team to update and maintain on the back end,” according to Jason Bowler, who has been working on the redesign for more than a year.

The daily news page had been revamped to make it more user-friendly and easier to search. The Today in Great Lakes History feature will continue as before, as will the discussion forum and the winter layup list. Vessel histories are in the process of being revised with new information. Port reports will change to Noteworthy Passages, as the widespread availability of AIS has rendered the detailed reports outdated by the time they appear.

Our upgraded AIS vessel map includes several new features, including:

• U.S. and Canadian navigation charts
• My Fleet, allowing you to track individual boats or groups of vessels
• Trip plotting tools to estimate when a boat will reach various points along its route

We’ve also enhanced the Automated Vessel Passage feature. It records vessel passages and provides schedules for ports and key locations, making it easier to plan your next boat-watching outing.

You’ll also be able to enjoy all of these new AIS features directly on your phone, with dedicated mobile apps for both iPhone and Android coming out next month, including a fun bonus feature where you can play whistle signals from some of the most popular boats on the Great Lakes!

Our AIS system is completely free for all users. We have no association with MarineTraffic. Our AIS collects real-time data from privately-hosted AIS stations across the Great Lakes.

We hope you’re as excited for this new chapter as we are.

Boatnerd.com is operated by Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping On-LIne, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which is managed by a board of directors and derives much of its revenue from advertising sales, industry support, and private donations.

MASSENA, NY – The Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the St. Lawrence Seaway is scheduled to open at 8 a.m. Sunday, and ice-clearing activities will begin shortly, including in the area between the Eisenhower and Snell locks On Tuesday morning, the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Martha L. Black arrived in Montreal, awaiting her journey upriver. She will be the primary vessel to transit the distance of the Seaway and to create a path where needed.

“In Beauharnois area, the use of a Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft will work between that lock and the South Shore Canal,” said St. Lawrence Seaway shipping industry expert Michael Folsom, also founder of the St. Lawrence Seaway Ship Watchers Network Facebook page.

Beauharnois, in southwestern Quebec, is about 25 miles southwest of Montreal on the south shore of Lake Saint-Louis, which is a widening of the St. Lawrence River. It is situated on the east bank of the Beauharnois Canal, a key part of the Seaway.

“Things will be assessed ahead of Sunday to determine focus areas, as the South Shore Canal is a choke point as we saw in January,” Folsom said.

In January, several ships became trapped in ice on the river, including off Cape Vincent, which caused the latest closing date, Jan. 12, in Seaway history. Vessels had to wait at several points on the river, pushing back the final clearance schedule. “Our portion of the river seems to have broken up enough that navigating vessels most likely would not have issues pushing ahead,” Folsom said. “The U.S. Seaway team will do their thing around the Massena locks per usual.”

Martha L. Black. [René Beauchamp]

NNY 360

Desgagnes vessels in the war zone.

QUEBEC CITY – Crews of two ships of the Quebec-based shipping carrier Desgagnés are still aboard their vessels anchored in the Persian Gulf, at the heart of the crisis in Iran, but the approximately 30 sailors are in “relative security” and the strategy to alleviate instability is being constantly analyzed, according to the company, whose headquarters is in Quebec City.

Rosaire A. Desgagnés and Miena Desgagnés are the vessels that are in the Gulf, where sailing has been stopped for nearly three weeks following US and Israeli attacks. Three sailors are students of the Institut Maritime du Québec (IMQ), cadets who complete an internship at sea.

“You have to be careful at all times. Port facilities tend to be close to energy and transport centres that could be targeted. So, it’s preferable under the circumstances…to be on board a ship that is far from the shore. It’s certain that it’s relative security,” said Serge Le Guellec, Desgagnés president and general manager, on the radio program Premiere Hour. “The situation is moving and very fluid,” he added, “and can degenerate quickly, hence the juggling of a strategy that must not remain static. We need to stay on top of what’s happening.”

Could Iran possibly target ships anchored off the Strait of Hormuz? “No scenario is to be left out,” said Le Guellec. “That’s why you have to choose the [anchoring] areas well.” The ships are located on the western side of the Persian Gulf, “a little further from the action I think.”

the shipping carrier has no choice but to consider an extension of the conflict. “We thought we would have a conflict that would be resolved quickly. … We are obliged to tell ourselves, in the third week, that this scenario has fallen into the water. And we can see very well that it is very difficult to agree internationally on what needs to be implemented to be able to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in a reasonable time.”

An evacuation of the crew is not a viable or playable scenario at this stage, he said. Satellite communication has been compromised at times since the conflict erupted, but the situation has been short-term. “People are able to talk to their family, with their friends. In such circumstances, it is crucial.”

Radio-Canada via Shipspotting – Québec (Translated from French)

Vincent Massey in the MacArthur Lock Wednesday. [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]

The 274’ long, 59’ wide Massey started her career in 2000 as an icebreaking supply vessel in Sweden servicing off shore drilling operations. Purchased by Canada in 2018, she was refit at Davie Shipbuilding and dedicated to service as a Canadian Coast Guard Cutter in 2023.

The Poe Lock will open for the first commercial ship of the season at midnight March 25. For those wishing to welcome it in person, the park will open at 11:30 p.m. March 24. We will also hosting a livestream of the event on Facebook beginning at 11:55 p.m. March 24

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District