MONTREAL, QC – Ships that have announced their Seaway transit during the first week are Federal Nagara to Detroit, Sakar to Johnstown, and Blacky to Toronto. More are likely to be added daily.

Three other new ships will transit between March 22 and 29, barring any delays due to ice. These include the Groupe Ocean tug Grande Baie, the chemical tanker Ek-River and the bulk carrier Theo G, formerly Thea G, and Trudy.

A new ship from Polsteam is enroute to Trois-Rivières, the Polsteam Wigry. Expected there around March 21, its next destination will most likely be the Great Lakes.

René Beauchamp

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SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – In accordance with 33 Code of Federal Regulations 162.117, the Coast Guard is set to reopen multiple regulated waterways in the northern Great Lakes beginning on March 19.

Vessel Traffic Service St. Marys River will open the Pipe Island Passage, East of Pipe Island Shoal and North of Pipe Island Twins from Watson Reef Light to Sweets Point, at 10 a.m. EST, March,19. The Pipe Island Course will become a two-way route.

In accordance with 33 Code of Federal Regulations 165.901, the Captain of the Port Northern Great Lakes is set to open the waters separating Mackinac Island and St. Ignace, Michigan, at 1 p.m. EST, March 19. COTP Great Lakes is set to open the waters between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island at the request of Mackinac Island community leaders.

In accordance with 33 CFR 162.117, Vessel Traffic Service St. Marys River will open the West Neebish Channel effective March 19 at 10 a.m. EST.

The Coast Guard encourages all recreational ice users to plan their activity carefully, use caution on the ice, and stay clear of shipping channels.

USCG

MANITOWOC, WI – As the S.S. Badger car and passenger ferry gears up for its 2026 season, one long-time employee is heading off into the sunset. Lake Michigan Carferry Inc., which owns the S.S. Badger, announced that long-time chief engineer Kevin Diedrich is retiring. Since joining the Badger’s crew in 2001, Diedrich has worked every position in the engine department, according to the company.

“Kevin, thank you for your 24 years of service, commitment and the many memories you helped create aboard the Badger,” the company said in a Facebook post. “We wish you a wonderful retirement filled with relaxations, adventure and plenty of time enjoying the things you love.”

Diedrich, who grew up in Manitowoc, told Wisconsin Life in 2017 he and his sister would ride their bikes to watch the ferry load and unload. “I never thought I’d sail in one,” he said.

He worked on a boat in Alaska for a while after graduating from high school, then at a factory for years. One day, he had the itch to sail again, was hired to work on the Badger as its first engineer — and said he never looked back.

“There’s a dedication this crew has to this ship that I’ve never found anywhere else,” he said. “These engines are unique and run just as good as they did when they were built in 1953.”

He lived on board for seven months of the year, crossing Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington, Michigan, more than 400 times each season.

This solid ship has not changed much in more than 60 years, when it was built by the Christy Corporation of Sturgeon Bay for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) to carry railroad freight cars across the waters, and also to provide superior passenger accommodations

The Badger was dubbed “Queen of Lakes” during the heyday of car ferries back in the late 1950s, with Manitowoc, Milwaukee and Kewaunee as her main ports of call. Car ferry popularity dwindled in the 1970s as railroad economics changed, and the ship docked for the last time in 1990.

Today, the ship, which still runs on coal and steam, carries thousands of passengers back and forth. The Badger also has carried semi-trucks, loads of classic cars for shows, parts for industrial machines and large windmills, Amish horse buggies, and even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

The S.S. Badger carries thousands of visitors between Manitowoc and Ludington from mid-May to mid-October. Many will travel from one side to the other to spend a vacation in the other state before returning home, while others buy a one-way ticket, seeing the trip as more fun, relaxing and faster than driving through heavy Chicago traffic to get around the lake.

The Badger’s 2026 season runs May 1-Oct. 11, according to the ssbadger.com.

Herald Times Reporter

McKeil’s newest addition, Ontario Venture, has passed through the Panama Canal and is in the Caribbean bound for Canada. First stop will be Port Cartier, QC, to unload petcoke, and then on to Picton Terminals to load grain. Ontario Venture is a conversion of the tanker Patrona I, built in 2004. The conversion was done in China.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The New York State DEC says recent inspections showed the USS Croaker submarine was intermittently leaking oil from a pinhole in one of its fuel tanks. USS The Sullivans is also taking on water.

“These create a separate, potentially hazardous threat to the environment,” said New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Amanda Lefton. On

Friday, Lefton said there are no reports of injury or impact to wildlife. The United States Coast Guard, State DEC, the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo and Erie

County Naval & Military Park are working together to address the leakage. On Monday, spill response vehicles were at the park, and crews were on both vessels.

The USS Croaker is estimated to hold 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel with potentially 115,000 gallons of oily water aboard. Lefton said clean-up efforts will mean pumping oil and water from the submarine’s fuel tanks. Oily water will also be offloaded from USS The Sullivans, which potentially has 30,000 gallons on board. This will allow crews to plug leaks in the ship’s hull. About 15 tons of water is jeopardizing the structural integrity of the ship’s hold, according to the State DEC. The water is expected to be offloaded daily.

Lefton said environmental remediation and stabilization are required before both vessels can be transported to Erie, Pennsylvania, for dry-dock repairs.

President and CEO of the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park Brian Luallen said there was a modest amount of oil in the water. “But even then, we already had absorbent materials around it,” said Luallen. “When you know that there’s petroleum product, you take sort of initial steps to try to diminish the risk that’s presented. But we knew we would have to remove all of this in order to take it four hours down the lake to Donjon, where they could do long-term repairs.

“So now we’re gonna be able to do that quicker and better than we were able to do it before because the state DEC does this sort of work quite frequently,” said Luallen. “They’re very capable. They have a lot of technical knowledge and expertise, and it’s now been brought to bear. The same thing is true of the Coast Guard, and they’re really stepping up to make sure that these important historic vessels are around for future generations.”

Luallen said it’s “incredibly common” for historic vessels to have petroleum on board. “That’s incredibly common in the industry of these museum ships, very frequently we see that,” Luallen explained. “In fact, one of our sister vessels, the USS Silversides, removed its petroleum just a few short weeks ago.”

“In fact, we brought in one of those individuals because it’s got the same hull profile as the Croaker as a subject matter expert having just done the exact same work on the exact same hull profile only a few short weeks ago,” Luallen continued.

When it comes to the timeline on dry docking the vessels, Luallen said there are some complexities from an environmental standpoint. “But we think we’re looking at two windows,” said Luallen. “One would happen late this summer, early fall. We have to dredge, and that would be the next major step. And there is a fish spawning season that we have to work around. On the other end of that dredging, we have a very narrow window between it, which would be completed in early to mid-August, and then when water levels start to go down on this part of the river in the lake due to weather conditions in early October. So if we can’t make that window, we’re looking at spring.”

The cleanup effort is being paid for through “commitments already included within the established public funding framework supporting the ships’ preservation,” according to a State DEC news release. “Using DEC contractors provides operational flexibility and allows the work to proceed on an accelerated timeline while maintaining local coordination. “

WIBV
https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/remediation-work-begins-at-buffalo-naval-park/

Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) advised stakeholders this week that icebreaking operations are expected to begin as soon as March 16 with the Martha L. Black entering at Montreal and breaking through Cape Vincent. US Seaway will be overseeing the conditions in and around the US locks in Massena.

Source: St. Lawrence Seaway Ship Watchers Network – Michael James Folsom

One sure sign of spring is the release of the annual Great Lakes boatwatching field guide Know Your Ships. Pre-orders are now being taken for the 2026 edition. Books that are pre-ordered will be shipped as soon as the books are received from the printer, about March 25 (Canadian orders in early April).The cover photo for the 2026 edition was taken by Sam Hankinson. It shows the 1,000’-long Paul R. Tregurtha and ties in with a story he wrote that appears in the book about the responsibility the PRT carries as Queen of the Lakes. Seriously – it’s not easy!

The book also contains complete listings of all vessels in service on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, including frequent saltwater visitors. The Passages section chronicles changes in the shipping scene since the previous year’s edition.

The book also includes meanings of whistle signals, seven pages of colorful stack markings of all Great Lakes & Seaway fleets, including stack markings of many of the saltwater fleets that regularly visit the Seaway system, a comprehensive guide to Great Lakes and Seaway locks and canals, maps of the Great Lakes and Seaway system, a guide to Great Lakes Marine Museums, an Extra Tonnage section that includes a look at cargoes carried by lakers and charts that show travel times and call-in points for the St. Marys, St. Clair and Detroit rivers so you can track the progress of your favorite freighter.

The book features nearly 200 superb pictures taken by photographers and fans from all over the Great Lakes region. Through their lenses, Know Your Ships tells the story of Great Lakes ships and the shipping industry. This includes the arrival of new vessels, unique cargoes and port calls, and the retirement of older ships.

This year’s book contains all-new Spotlight section feature stories, including a look at the long career of the veteran laker Cuyahoga. Recently scrapped, the story touches on the role she played in the formation of the upstart Lower Lakes Towing Co. The book also includes an interview with Algoma Capt. T.J. Per, who has cultivated a YouTube following with his videos about his life and how things work on the lakers. There are also stories about the Blair McKeil and her unique loading/unloading system, the old laker Ridgetown repurposed as a navigational aid and the discovery of the 1913 James Carruthers shipwreck.

It is worth noting that Know Your Ships has covered the waterfront for more almost 70 years. This year marks the books 67^th edition.

The 2026 Know Your Ships Extra magazine, that comes out in midsummer, can also be pre-ordered along with the book (U.S. customers only due the way it is mailed).

Order at www.knowyourships.com

PORT BURWELL, ON – The future of the oldest wooden lighthouse on the Great Lakes – and one of the oldest in Canada – may be in jeopardy as negotiations with neighboring landowners have slowed. Built in 1840, the municipally owned Port Burwell lighthouse – part of the Port Burwell Marine Museum and Historic Lighthouse tourist site – has been closed since 2023 because of structural stability issues.

“The municipality is looking at all options to ensure preservation of the lighthouse,” said Thomas Thayer, the top bureaucrat for the Municipality of Bayham, which includes the lakeside community located an hour’s drive southeast of London.

The $99,000 in temporary stabilization measures included affixing a steel collar to the lighthouse, which stands at the mouth of Otter Creek, at the third level, with eight guy wires attached to eight helical piles embedded in the ground. Thayer said the municipality has also been “in negotiations” with an unnamed organization about transferring ownership of the lighthouse. The municipality has also been seeking an extension of a licensing agreement that permits its stabilization apparatus to remain on land owned by villagers Ron and Bonnie Bradfield. “This licence was provided free of charge to help preserve the lighthouse,” Thayer said. “It expired at the end of 2025.”

In an interview, the Bradfields told The Free Press they had been “in negotiations” with Bayham about extending the agreement, but discussions have slowed because of “the principle of the whole thing. The Bradfields, now in their eighties, own the land surrounding the lighthouse, where they operated a company called Bradcranex for many years, Ron said. The land was once home to shiploads of coal transported by the Ashtabula railcar ferry between Ashtabula, Ohio, and Port Burwell beginning in 1903 until the service was discontinued in 1958.

The couple say they have no objections to the municipality continuing to use their land to stabilize the lighthouse, but they don’t want it taken out of municipal control. “They want to give it to Port Burwell Historical Society,” Bonnie said. “But no one has told us what the historical society will be able to do with it. If anything happened to the lighthouse, Ron would be “heartbroken,” Bonnie said. “We think the municipality should be looking after the lighthouse,” she said.

Ron, a past reeve of the village before it was amalgamated with Vienna, was once a member of the Port Burwell Historical Society and the village’s last light keeper. “I have no idea if the historical society has grants,” he said. “No one will tell me.”

Thayer said the municipality has not yet committed to transferring the lighthouse to the historical society. Bayham, Thayer said, “has not made a formal decision about whether or not to be responsible for the rehabilitation.” “The lighthouse is still included in the capital budget,” he said. “But there is interest from another group that wants to lead the rehabilitation. We are investigating that at this time.”

Whether the lighthouse is historically designated under the Ontario Heritage Act , which would protect it from demolition or inappropriate alterations, remains uncertain. “There is some debate about that,” Thayer said. “The bylaw to designate was passed in 1985 but it was not registered on title, which was a requirement.

Chris Wiebe, a spokesperson for the National Trust for Canada, a charity promoting the protection of Canadian heritage, said lighthouses “are touchstones for Canadian history and pride.” The only older wooden lighthouse in Canada, he said, is on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. “Seal Island in Nova Scotia is a bit older, 10 years,” he said.

Any discussions about demolishing the lighthouse would result in “a large public outcry in the province, and probably Canada-wide,” he said. Ontario does not have provincial grants for projects like this, he said, unlike provinces such as Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. “People care a lot about culture and heritage and yet there is a lot of disinvestment from various levels of government to support it,” he said.

But Port Burwell could use a combination of federal funding and local fundraising to secure the building. While the $1.5-million price tag for restoration may seem “quite daunting,” Wiebe said the work could be broken into “digestible chunks” until completion. “You could secure the integrity of the building as a first phase, for $250,000, then do another phase for another $250,000,” he said. Several organizations have been raising funds for the lighthouse, including the Port Burwell Historical Society, which has raised more than $43,000.

The lighthouse “was a beacon of hope” for ships caught in storms east of Long Point. “When storms struck, captains who were caught west of the point attempted to claw their way around to the relatively calm and safe waters of Long Point Bay,” it says. “If they didn’t make it, they were almost certainly doomed to go aground and break up on the shore.

A partial restoration of the lighthouse was completed in 1977 through a grant, with additional painting and work done in 1983, the year public tours began. The lighthouse underwent major restorations in 1986 by Mennonite craftspeople. In 2023, a preliminary report pegged the work and materials needed to restore the lighthouse at about $1.5 million. “The municipality has determined it will not have in-house funding available to begin this desperately needed work and will have to rely solely on grants from various levels of government,” the historical society said.

In 2015, Bayham was saddled with more than $6 million in debt after backing a loan to bring a Cold War-era submarine to the lakeside village as a tourist attraction. The HMCS Ojibwa submarine, in service between 1965 and 1998, helped track Soviet ballistic missile submarines in the Atlantic during the 1970s. The five-storey sub arrived on Port Burwell’s shore in November 2012 after a six-month voyage from Halifax harbour.

In 2012, the municipality agreed to guarantee debt from the Elgin Military Museum related to the HMCS Ojibwa project, which included bringing the Oberon-class submarine to Port Burwell and converting it into a museum. When the loan defaulted, Bayham became responsible for more than $6 million, which it paid off in 2025.

Some local residents have been critical of the municipality after it approved improvements to the Straffordville Community Centre in 2023 at a cost of $3.4 million. Bayham received a federal government grant covering about $1.47 million of that cost. Work recently began and includes demolition of a concession stand and excavation and foundation work.

Source: London Free Press
https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/built-in-1840-will-anyone-save-the-oldest-wooden-lighthouse-on-the-great-lakes