Museum Ship Schoonmaker, Tug Ohio Now Open for Season

TOLEDO, OH – The National Museum of the Great Lakes is thrilled to announce the reopening of the Col. James M. Schoonmaker Museum Ship and Museum Tug Ohio for the 2025 season today, Thursday, May 1st. We are excited to share once again the rich history and maritime heritage that thrives aboard our iconic boats.

“Our team and community always look forward to the seasonal opening of our Museum Boats,” said Ellen Kennedy, Director of Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Great Lakes. “Our visitors eagerly anticipate this time of year, and we can’t wait to immerse them in the living history that our vessels embody.”

The boats, which undergo seasonal closure over the winter months, will be open for public tours between May 1st and October 31st. Visitors can explore the 617-foot cargo ship built in 1911 and the historic tug built in 1903, gaining insight into life on the lakes through the 20^th century.

In addition to time aboard the vessels, guests are encouraged to explore our exhibit galleries, which showcase captivating stories through stunning photography, over 300 remarkable artifacts, immersive audiovisual displays, and interactive exhibits, offering a truly unforgettable experience.

In addition to the boats’ opening, the museum will be open for summer hours Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Also, save the date for the public grand opening of our Second Wave expansion on Saturday, June 28^th.

For those eager to embark on this journey through history, tickets can be pre-purchased at nmglstore.org or purchased upon arrival inside the Museum at the front desk. No tickets are sold on the vessels themselves, and anyone boarding the ships needs a wristband.

National Museum of the Great Lakes

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Bill Calls for $14.6B in Coast Guard
Cutters, New Great Lakes Icebreakers

The Coast Guard could see $14.6 billion in new cutters as part of a massive supplemental that could almost double the service’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, according to the text of the reconciliation bill reviewed by USNI News.

Included in the Republican-led funding proposal is money for almost 30 new cutters ranging in size from the 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter to the 460-foot Polar Security Cutter, according to a source familiar with the proposed buy.

Those include:

    Three or more Arctic Security Cutters and an unspecified number of Great Lakes icebreakers for $5.03 billion.

  Two Polar Security Cutters and advanced procurement for $4.3 billion.

    Eight Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters for $4.3 billion.

    Up to 15 Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters for $1 billion.

The last icebreaker for the Great Lakes, Mackinaw, was built in 2005.

The supplemental is more than the Fiscal Year 2025 Coast Guard budget request of $13.8 billion and more than 10 times the cutter budget of $1 billion in current budget proposal. The new cutters are part of an overall $22.5 billion supplemental to the Coast Guard’s bottom line that also includes $3 billon for new aircraft and billions more for shoreside infrastructure, according to the bill. If ratified, the Coast Guard has 90 days to submit a proposal with timelines for deliveries.

Boosting the Coast Guard has been a White House priority with President Donald Trump calling for as many as 40 new icebreakers. In addition to the funding for the existing Polar Security Cutter and the new Arctic Security Cutter, the bill included language that would open the option for cutters to be built at foreign yards. Under U.S. law, the Coast Guard needs a presidential “national interest” waiver to build in a foreign yard.

USNI News reported that both Canadian and Finnish yards responded to an April request for information from the Coast Guard for the Arctic Security Cutter work.

Trump has said in public statements he was interested in building some icebreakers in Finland, including during a meeting last month with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Specifics for what amounts as a supplemental for the service comes as the Coast Guard is in the middle of what acting commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday has called a “death spiral.”

“America is demanding more of the Coast Guard today, we are less ready than at any other time in our history since World War II. We have been on a readiness spiral, personnel and material,” Lunday said last month at the Sea Air Space symposium.

Safety zone established near Soo Locks
hydro plant to protect mariners

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, are permanently closing a small portion of the Soo Locks Hydro Plant tail race to ensure the safety of all mariners.

A safety zone extending 150 feet downstream of the U.S. Government Hydroelectric Power Plants has been established. Signs will be posted at the east end of the closed safety zone to notify all mariners of the safety restricted area.

“We’re excited to welcome anglers back to the tail race this year, and safety is our No. 1 priority,” Soo Locks Operations Branch Chief Jeff Harrington said. “The safety closure will be permanent as needed to comply with Engineer Regulation 1130-2-520. The area immediately downstream of the power plant has many boils and whirlpools, making it unsafe for vessels.”

The tail race is part of federal property and therefore must adhere to federal safety standards. Beginning April 29, the safety zone will close to all vessel traffic except at the specific direction of the Chief Lockmaster.

“Infrequent New Lock at the Soo construction activities are anticipated in the tail race through 2025 and will have the right of way due to size of vessels,” New Lock at the Soo Chief Mick Awbrey said. “Mariners are urged to exercise vigilance and caution around floating plant work vessels.”

SooLeader

First cruise ship of the season arrives at Port Milwaukee

The first cruise ship of the 2025 season has arrived at Port Milwaukee. The Viking Octantis docked at Port Milwaukee around 10 a.m. Monday. This marks the fourth consecutive year that Octantis has arrived as the inaugural cruise ship.

Port Milwaukee says it is expecting 22 cruise vessel calls this season, with a total of 44 itineraries in Milwaukee, between late April and mid-October. There will be five companies with six vessels. Port officials estimate 11,000 global passengers will visit Milwaukee this season.

According to Cruise the Great Lakes, 22,000 passengers will cruise the Great Lakes this year. That is an increase of nearly 10% compared with 2024. The region’s economic impact is projected to exceed $230 million, up 15% from last year.

Cruise tourism is also expected to grow in Milwaukee next year as construction of the South Shore East cruise dock begins this spring. That new cruise dock will likely be operational for the 2026 season, which is already expecting around 18,500 global passengers.

WISN

Cleveland welcomes first cruise ship of packed 2025 season

CLEVELAND — On Tuesday morning, the Victory I cruise ship pulled into the Port of Cleveland, kicking off the 2025 Great Lakes Cruise Season.

The voyage marked a return for the vessel after a one-year absence, as it had undergone an ownership change and a new name.

The 286-foot-long Victory I and its twin ship Victory II were completely refurbished during the downtime. It’s the maiden stop on what promises to be a busy 2025 season. “This is going to be a record year for us,” said David Gutheil, Interim Port President and CEO. “We’ll have 55 cruise calls this year, a big jump from last year, which was low 20s.”

The 10-night Victory cruise takes passengers across the five Great Lakes as they travel from Toronto to Chicago.

“Welcome to the windy city,” said Harry Doer, visiting from California with his wife Kay. He wasn’t confusing Cleveland with Chicago but rather referring to the heavy winds that greeted them as they docked. They’re not complaining, at least it was a warm wind.

“It’s actually been nicer than we thought,” said Kay. “Yeah, we thought it would be colder, but it’s not at all,” added Harry.

It’s their first trip across the Great Lakes; for the Rices of Syracuse, it’s their second. They love it, though maybe their children don’t.

“We just decided, you know what, with these kids all grown up, we’re going to spend their inheritance as fast as possible,” Eileen Rice joked.

And studies have shown they’ll leave part of that inheritance here, with each passenger spending an average of $150 during their roughly 12 hours in port. Tour buses wait to take them to places like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Art Museum, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and, for Jim Estomo of Los Angeles, the Crawford Auto Museum.

“I understand that’s quite a deal because I’m into cars, so I can hardly wait to see it,” he said. “The cruise has been excellent, I’d recommend it to anyone. We’ve seen some great places along the lakes and in the cities. It’s really been quite an experience.”

Jim’s a first-time visitor from Los Angeles. We ran into a lot of Californians on this cruise, making their first visit to Cleveland. For Peter Knego, it’s a return visit following a cruise stop here in 2017.

“Actually, I was blown away by Cleveland. I had no idea. Everybody told me Cincinnati’s the best city in Ohio, I like Cincinnati a lot, but Cleveland has that incredible cemetery, great museums, I love the Mather, which I’m going to go over and see in about 15-20 minutes. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You guys have great restaurants,” he said, adding. “You should hire me to work for your chamber of commerce.”

And that’s what makes the 10,000 visitors expected to come into the port this summer so important because many will be experiencing Northeast Ohio for the first time and research by Destination Cleveland has shown that if you can get someone here for the first time you are very likely to send them off as ambassadors of the city.

News5 Cleveland

Viking passengers learn from scientists conducting research while cruising Great Lakes

ALPENA — In its fourth year of visiting Alpena, the Viking Octantis cruised into Thunder Bay on Saturday, bringing in 372 guests and 261 crew members, including scientists who conduct research while traveling the Great Lakes and around the world.

The cruise ship anchored in Thunder Bay, and guests came in on the passenger tenders, traveling under the 2nd Avenue Bridge in the Thunder Bay River, and docking behind the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, which houses the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary administrative offices.

Dr. Damon Stanwell-Smith is the head of Science and Sustainability for Viking Cruises, a Norwegian cruise line that offers international expeditions. Stanwell-Smith is based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

“We want to make it engaging and fun and exciting, as all good science communication is,” Stanwell-Smith said. “We’re all professional scientists, and so we have a joint mission both to ensure our guests have an amazing experience, but also continuing to work with our partner scientists.”

He said the guests, many of whom are retired, well-educated Americans, enjoy learning about science while cruising the Great Lakes.

“The vast majority of my work is related to our expedition ships, which are both vessels for guests to go sailing on and having expedition adventures, and also our state-of-the-art research platforms,” Stanwell-Smith said. “We have … a professional science team on board, and we also work with various partner institutions, most notably, of course, National Marine Sanctuaries.”

Jason Hayden is the chief scientist on the Viking Octantis. He is from the Cape Town area of South Africa. “I am in charge of all the science operations on board,” Hayden said. “We have a number of different projects.”

One of those projects is partnering with the National Weather Service to release weather balloons into the stratosphere, which they did on Saturday night in Thunder Bay.

“The weather balloons are for the U.S. National Weather Service,” Stanwell-Smith said. “And that relationship, also, was established through our relationship with NOAA.”

He said they launch weather balloons all over the world.

“When we’re in North America, especially this region, this contributes to the weather forecasting and climate modeling for the National Weather Service,” Stanwell-Smith said. “As far as I understand, we are the only civilian vessels in the world that are National Weather Service weather balloon stations.”

“We do a lot of science on board, not only here, but everywhere we sail, all over the world, so from Antarctica all the way here, into the Great Lakes, and now, into the Arctic, as well,” Hayden said.

They also conduct research using baited remote underwater video systems.

“We have these instruments we put down on the lake bed that measure fish biodiversity, biomass, and behavior,” Hayden said. “So, we have a lot of different scientific programs happening all at the same time, which is really exciting to do, all in this area.”

Hayden said Viking guests enjoy watching the science projects, such as the weather balloon launch held on Saturday.

“It is extraordinary,” Stanwell-Smith said. “When we put a weather balloon up, it goes up, 20 miles up into the stratosphere, and it starts as the size of a beach ball and ends up the size of an RV.”

He said guests who view the weather balloon launch and other science then feel like they have a better understanding and connection with the research being done.

“It changes their perception of how weather forecasting works,” Stanwell-Smith said.

“They have a sense of ownership to the science that’s happening on board,” Hayden added.

Stanwell-Smith said science is underway on every expedition. “For us, that’s a really important part of the guest experience,” Stanwell-Smith said. “We have a 400-square-foot laboratory on board, as well, that guests can get involved with.”

He said all the science is used for research purposes. “We don’t do anything for show,” Stanwell-Smith said. “This is genuinely data … being used for NOAA’s mission, for support of the Sanctuary, for the Weather Service.

“We’re the thinking person’s cruise, not the drinking person’s cruise,” Stanwell-Smith said, adding that fine dining, drinks, and amenities are a part of the Viking cruise, but their guests tend to appreciate a more educational environment. “That translates into travel for the intellectually curious.”

The Viking ships visit Alpena because of a partnership with NOAA.

“We first established a relationship with NOAA in 2020,” Stanwell-Smith said. “And that was with NOAA GLERL (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) in Ann Arbor, covering the Great Lakes. And then, through that initial conversation, we started a conversation with the Marine Sanctuaries, specifically Alpena, because it’s also a lovely stop for us.”

He added that in addition to the research opportunities in Lake Huron, guests enjoy visiting the city and going on various excursions in Northeast Michigan.

“I first came here in 2022,” Stanwell-Smith recalled, noting that it was April when he visited Alpena. “I’ve been lucky enough to come relatively regularly ever since … One of the things that we’ve been particularly grateful for is that we’ve also had a science retreat here in the summer of 2023, in the facility here, bringing the scientists from the different vessels together, and we’re planning to do it again.”

That science retreat is scheduled for June in Alpena.

“Yes, we’re a cruise ship,” Hayden said. “We have an amazing spa, and everything you could imagine, from amazing food to a snow grotto … But, we’re also an expedition vessel, which we have designed specifically to come here. We fit — just barely squeeze — through the Welland Canal, to be able to get here,” Hayden said of the ship canal in Ontario, Canada, which is a part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. “We are specifically designed to go to hard-to-reach places … We’re not just a cruise ship. We’re not just an expedition vessel. We are a fully capable research vessel.”

Viking cruise ships will return to Alpena 18 more times this year, including another visit on Friday. Both the Viking Octantis and Polaris will be in Alpena on the same day on June 21.

“We love coming to Alpena,” Stanwell-Smith said. “It feels like it’s thriving … We get fantastic feedback from the guests. The guests love coming, so long may it continue.”

“In Antarctica, we say that when you’ve been to Antarctica, you return an Antarctic Ambassador,” Stanwell-Smith said. “Because you love what you know, and you protect what you love. And I would hope that we are creating Alpena Ambassadors, too.”

The Alpena News

U.S. Sen. Todd Young wants more American
ships to set sail. Could Indiana benefit?

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – First it was chips. Now, it’s ships. 

Indiana U.S. Sen. Todd Young on April 30 reintroduced bipartisan legislation, known as the SHIPS Act, that intends to revitalize shipbuilding in the U.S. and close the ship vessel gap between America and foreign adversaries, such as China. 

The SHIPS Act also intends to cut red tape for U.S. vessels participating in international commerce, provide financial incentives for domestic shipbuilding and invest in future maritime workforce jobs. The effort will make its way through Congress in two parts: the SHIPS for America Act and the Building SHIPS for America Act.

Young and bipartisan colleagues Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, California Democratic U.S. Rep. John Garamendi and Missouri Republican U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly first pitched the SHIPS Act in December 2024. The bill, which was introduced at the end of the last Congress, did not move past its initial introduction.

The reintroduced SHIPS Act might have more momentum than it did four months ago, due to support from the White House and priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration. In addition to imposing widespread tariffs, Trump on April 9 signed an executive order calling for the restoration of “America’s maritime dominance.”

“Our bill will revitalize the U.S. maritime industry, grow our shipbuilding capacity, rebuild America’s shipyard industrial base, and support nationwide workforce development in this industry,” Young said in a statement. “This legislation is critical to our warfighting capabilities and keeping pace with China.” 

SHIPS Act and the CHIPS Act

The reasoning behind the SHIPS Act mirrors Young’s push for the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which sought to boost U.S. production of semiconductors, also known as microchips. Young has long claimed that U.S. chip production will benefit the country’s national security. 

The CHIPS Act brought significant investment to Indiana, including company SK hynix’s plans to build a $3.8 billion chip packaging facility in West Lafayette. 

While Indiana isn’t a coastal state, there could still be opportunities for investments in the Hoosier State. Indiana has ports to the south near the Ohio River and to the north on Lake Michigan, which international ships can access through the other Great Lakes. 

At a press availability following an April 10 event in Bloomington, Young told reporters a key way Indiana might benefit from the SHIPS Act is by producing steel or other part-manufacturers that could add to shipbuilding efforts.

“On ship building, more steel comes out of U.S. Steel here in the great state of Indiana, than any other state, so there are real opportunities to provide inputs like steel,” Young said on April 10. “You’ve got Rolls Royce and Cummins and various other component manufacturers that also employ Hoosiers and there are opportunities there should this ship-building initiative have an opportunity to become law.”

Indianapolis Star

William G. Mather Centennial celebration, May 23, 2025

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cross the ramp into the cargo hold of the Steamship William G. Mather and step into Great Lakes history. The 618-foot retired freighter opens for public tours on Saturday, May 3, and celebrates 100 years on lakes Erie, Huron and Superior on May 23, 2025.

Once the working flagship of Cleveland Cliffs, Inc., the Mather is now docked behind the Great Lakes Science Center. There it serves as a museum where guests explore an expansive deck, huge cargo holds, the brass-and-oak pilot house, time-frozen guest quarters and a four-story engine room.

During its active days, the Mather made seven-day roundtrips between Cleveland and Duluth, Minn., 35 times a year. The voyage took three days to reach Duluth, one day to unload cargo and three days to return to Cleveland with the raw materials for steel production. It required 111,000 gallons of fuel to make the trip.

These delivery materials were used to produce the steel that built this city and earned it the nickname “the ship that built Cleveland.”

While the ship was all about industry, it occasionally hosted Cleveland-Cliff employees as a reward for service years. Guest cabins were available for these and other special guests.

On the Mather’s official centennial, the science center will debut a new exhibit – “Steam and Steel: Propelling the Future of the Great Lakes.” The presentation will examine the past, present, and future of Great Lakes shipping and tie in the Mather’s contributions.

Guests visiting this exhibit will experience what it was like to steer the Mather, load and unload cargo, and use an automatic identification system to view all shipping action in real-time on the Great Lakes. They’ll see models of ships and the monstrous Hulett unloaders once used to transfer materials to shore.

Additional displays will show off the Mather’s historic firsts. For example, the ship was an early adopter of radar on the Great Lakes as well as dual propeller bow thrusters and automated boiler systems.

Those who tour just the Mather have three options:

    Self-guided Tour – These are available during normal operating hours. Tickets are free for members, $8.95 (youth) and $10.95 (adult) for nonmembers.

    Guided Tour – Held at 12:30 p.m. daily, guided tours are first-come, first-served. Reservations are not required. Tickets are free for members, $8.95 (youth) and $10.95 (adult) for nonmembers.

    Hard Hat Tour gives a deeper look into the inner workings of the ship, going where the other tours do not. Hard Hat Tours are held on select Saturdays and Sundays. They require advanced registration with a separate ticket. Tickets are $35 for members, $45 for nonmembers.

Admission to the Steam and Steel exhibit is included with general admission to the Science Center. Tickets to tour the Steamship Mather are additional. For more information on planning your visit or to purchase tickets online, visit GreatScience.com.

Cleveland.com

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

BBC Houston headed for Erie, Duluth with wind turbines

The 482-foot BBC HOUSTON has departed Montréal and is now heading up the Seaway, with a big load of turbines from Tuticorin, India for Erie and Duluth. Germany’s BBC Chartering formally named its newest vessel in a ceremony in Houston, Texas, on Monday, September 23, 2024.

The 13,000DWT vessel will be operated by BBC Chartering while ownership will remain with the Briese Group. Construction took place at Taizhou Sanfu Heavy Industry in China.

The vessel belongs to a series of 15 triple-deck ships built to transport heavy lift and project cargo. The ship’s two cargo holds are box-shaped and offer room for almost 26,000 cubic metres of cargo on a floor space of close to 5,000 square metres, when two tween decks are in operation.

The bridge and the crew accommodation spaces are located at the front of the ship, while two cranes with a combined lifting capacity of 500 tonnes are located portside. This allows for an unobstructed 2,830 square metres of space on the weather deck.

The vessels are certified to operate with open hatches. Whilst intended for worldwide trading, the design of the BBC vessels has been optimized to still fit both the St Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.

Ship Junkies – Lakes, Locks & Rivers (LL&R) – Janey Anderson 

Mainers speak out against Coast Guard plan to remove buoys from coastline

Editor’s note: Although no plans have been revealed as yet to implement buoy removal on the Great Lakes or Seaway, we are publishing this for informational purposes.

SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE – The U.S. Coast Guard is proposing a wide-reaching plan to remove or alter hundreds of navigational markers along the New England coast.

In Maine alone, the Coast Guard is considering removing more than 150 buoys and other navigation aids along the coastline that have long helped mariners navigate coastal and inland waterways safely. The Coast Guard says the removals are intended to modernize navigation aids to deliver effective, economical service.

Harbormasters say this is also about cutting the Coast Guard’s budget. “The message we got from the Coast Guard was that it was to help with budgets,” Portland Deputy Harbormaster Hattie Train said.

Train and many of her family members work on the water.

She’s concerned about the coast guard’s plan to remove buoys that help boaters safely navigate the coast, forcing them to instead rely on GPS technology.

“You can’t always guarantee that the new technology is 100 percent accurate, whereas if there’s a marker on a ledge, you know that marker’s on the ledge,” Train said. “It’s not going to be somewhere way off because of a satellite.”

“I mean, every time I go by a buoy, I’m looking to see the number on it, to make sure it’s the right one,” Maine lobsterman Gregory Turner said.

Turner says in a snowstorm or thick fog, he relies on Coast Guard buoys to confirm what his navigation system is showing him.

“When you become disoriented in the fog, and you go alongside a buoy to see what that number is, if there’s no buoy there, how are you going to figure it out?” Turner said. “You’re not supposed to rely on only one kind of navigation. I have paper charts from years ago.”

“I don’t think that all of them should be removed that they’re planning on removing,” Train said.

The deputy harbormaster says boaters have voiced concerns about three buoys in Casco Bay on the removal list: one at Broad Cove Rock in Cape Elizabeth where a boater died in a crash, and two off Harpswell that warn boaters about Green Island Ledge.

“The Green Island Ledge, if you look with sonar down on bottom, there’s still a granite barge, and that barge must have sunk for a reason,” Train said.

Portland pilots, local marinas and even weekend boaters warn if the Coast Guard goes ahead with this plan, it will be a mistake.

“Take the buoys right out of the water, that’s when you’re going to have a problem. When someone wants to find out where they are, and there’s no buoy there,” Turner said.

“We need to think about the price of people’s lives, and the fact that being on the water is dangerous,” Train said.

WGME

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Update:  Badger Trip to Shipyard Delayed Due to Weather

Due to inclement weather, the SS Badger’s April 29 departure to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, will be delayed for 24 hours. The National Weather Service forecast is predicting gale force winds on Lake Michigan with surface winds to 50 knots possible.

With the delay, the Badger is expected to depart Ludington, Michigan, on April 30, between 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the trip will take approximately 12-hours.

The Badger will be traveling to Sturgeon Bay for repairs in preparation of the upcoming sailing season which begins on Friday, May 16.  The ship will sail, under its own power, to Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding where it will undergo a propeller shaft bearing repair. 

Following the repairs, the ship is expected to return to Ludington on May 11.

S.S. Badger: Lake Michigan Carferry

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Update:  Badger Trip to Shipyard Delayed Due to Weather

Due to inclement weather, the SS Badger’s April 29 departure to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, will be delayed for 24 hours. The National Weather Service forecast is predicting gale force winds on Lake Michigan with surface winds to 50 knots possible.

With the delay, the Badger is expected to depart Ludington, Michigan, on April 30, between 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the trip will take approximately 12-hours.

The Badger will be traveling to Sturgeon Bay for repairs in preparation of the upcoming sailing season which begins on Friday, May 16.  The ship will sail, under its own power, to Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding where it will undergo a propeller shaft bearing repair. 

Following the repairs, the ship is expected to return to Ludington on May 11.

S.S. Badger: Lake Michigan Carferry

Victory Cruise Lines’ passenger vessel
Victory I christened Sunday in Toronto

TORONTO, ON – A reborn Victory Cruise Lines christened the Victory I on Sunday in Toronto, just over a year after John Waggoner decided to come out of retirement and jump back into cruising.

Victory I’s christening will be followed by Victory II’s on May 12 in Chicago.

Waggoner purchased the two ships in American Queen Voyages’ bankruptcy auction last April, and soon after announced plans to return them to service on the Great Lakes after a refurbishment. The ships had sailed the Great Lakes as the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator for American Queen Voyages, which ceased operations in February 2024.

Waggoner was the CEO of American Queen Voyages when it acquired Victory Cruise Lines in 2019. Waggoner founded American Queen Steamboat Co. in 2011 — the company was renamed American Queen Voyages in 2021.

“As we celebrate the return of Victory Cruise Lines to the Great Lakes, I must reflect on the amazing feat by an incredible team that has brought this vision to life once again,” Waggoner said. “Thank you to everyone here, as well as those not in the room today, that have believed in us and this dream to share our passion for cruising here on the Great Lakes.”  

Waggoner’s daughter Emily Coleman, Victory I’s godmother, christened the ship with a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian Whisky. The national anthems of the United States and Canada were performed.

Waggoner purchased the two ships with a bid of $1.9 million. That began a whirlwind year of coming out of retirement and getting a cruise company up and running in time for a spring 2025 launch.

The Victory I’s maiden cruise departed April 17 from Portland, Maine. The cruise was a 10-day voyage to Toronto with Waggoner and his wife Claudette aboard.

The Victory ships, built in 2001, each carry 190 passengers and were designed for coastal cruising by American Classic Voyages. Since that company’s bankruptcy after the 9/11 attacks, the ships have had several owners.

Victory Cruise Lines is sailing 33 voyages this year, each traversing all five Great Lakes.

Travel Pulse

Frontenac opens Midland shipping season

MIDLAND, ON – Congratulations to Captain Louri Makarenko of the Canada Steamship Lines’ M.V. Frontenac for being the first commercial vessel of the season.

The Top Hat Ceremony is a 100+ years old tradition started by Canadian shipowner James Playfair, which added some friendly competition amongst commercial vessels. The ceremony celebrates the first ship to arrive in the harbor each year, with the captain being “crowned” with Mr. Playfair’s own silk top hat.

This tradition carries on, as the arrival of the first commercial vessel is a moment that deserves recognition and celebration. The vintage silk top hat used in this annual ceremony is from Mr. Playfair’s personal collection.

Congratulations to the captain, the ship’s crew, the shipping company, and all those who have made this moment possible.

Town Of Midland

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Turning the tide: The shipbuilding company reviving a small Midwest town

Italian-owned Fincantieri is tapping into the US naval shipbuilding market – and breathing life back into Wisconsin in its slipstream.

Wisconsinites are well accustomed to harsh winters but the deep freeze that descends upon the northern part of the Midwestern US in the first months of the year can test even the hardiest. When the temperature dips to minus 34C, schools close and workplaces shutter. Yet in tiny Marinette, a town on the icy shores of Lake Michigan, some 2,000 welders, fitters and engineers report for work as usual to build the next generation of American warships.

Founded in 1942 to bolster the US Navy’s war effort, today the Marinette yard is helmed by Italy’s state-owned shipbuilders Fincantieri, which acquired this frozen outpost in 2009. It’s a far cry from Fincantieri HQ in Trieste, which launches ships into the much more clement Adriatic Sea, but it has caught the changing tide of a once-dying American industry and is investing in the Rust Belt.

Fincantieri is the largest shipbuilder in Europe and owns an integrated network of yards from Genoa to Palermo, which churn out cruise ships, submarines, off-shore wind-support vessels and luxury yachts. Over the past 20 years, however, it has expanded its reach across four continents with 18 shipyards. In 2009 the firm’s CEO Giuseppe Bono, eager to break into the market of Nato’s largest naval power, spotted an opportunity that larger US shipbuilders had overlooked: a somewhat forlorn outpost on Wisconsin’s Great Lakes, which had access to the Atlantic Ocean and several modest contracts with the US Navy. Fincantieri acquired Marinette Marine that year, along with another shipyard 35km across the water in Sturgeon Bay, for $120m (€115.6m). Since then, the firm has invested $400m (€369m) in new facilities and infrastructure, with climate-control systems that keep the assembly lines at 15C even in the dead of winter.

“We’ve never lost a day due to bad weather,” says Marco Galbiati, CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group, the firm’s US subsidiary. In tailored houndstooth trousers, black loafers and white dress shirt, the Italian executive sticks out among his fleece-clad Midwest counterparts. Nevertheless, he is at home in the shipyard and is proud to give Monocle a tour of the expanding facility. In a hangar-sized building, we watch as hunks of steel are cut and welded onto a gargantuan hull destined for a ship in Saudi Arabia’s naval fleet. Then we are ushered into an even more cavernous space completed last year to accommodate Fincantieri’s mammoth new project: the construction of the US Navy’s first Constellation-class guided-missile frigate, the skeleton of which is taking shape before our eyes.

Galbiati, who worked his way up Fincantieri’s corporate ladder in Italy before moving to Washington, makes regular visits to Wisconsin to ensure that the company’s trademark “system of yards” process of shipbuilding is working smoothly. “The idea of ‘system of yards’ is about flexibility and to smooth out the peaks and valleys of shipbuilding production,” says Galbiati. In practice, this means that a facility in Sturgeon Bay cranks out ships’ bows while a purpose-built aluminium construction plant in Green Bay fabricates the superstructure. These modules are then shipped by barge to Marinette, where they are welded together into a hull.

This multi-site production process happens in the same way whether it’s at the Great Lakes or between Fincantieri’s cruise ship-manufacturing shipyards on the Adriatic. It’s what has turned the storied company into a true global powerhouse – and a potential saviour of US shipbuilding as it attempts to recapture its glory days. “We build for customers who need complicated ships that require skilled workforces,” says Mark Vandroff, the outgoing CEO of Fincantieri Marinette Marine, which operates the shipyard. The only type of seaworthy vessel that Fincantieri doesn’t make, he explains, is container ships. “We don’t build boxes to haul boxes.”

Shipbuilding was once a symbol of American industrial might. During the Second World War, the US built aircraft carriers in a matter of months. Today a new carrier takes eight years. But from its lowest point in the 1980s, when some 40,000 production jobs disappeared, shipbuilding is now a rare subject of bipartisan agreement in Washington. The Navy’s $1trn (€962bn) procurement plan calls for more than 100 new vessels over the next 30 years, and production is expected to peak in the next decade. This presents a lot of potential work for a dwindling number of active shipyards.

From Saab to Hyundai, foreign firms have been lining up to enter the world’s biggest defence market. But getting on the Pentagon’s books is notoriously difficult, especially in an industry dominated by large, historic US players. Wisconsin might be out of the way, with ports that freeze over for three months of the year, but the Marinette shipyard has allowed Fincantieri to get a firm foothold in the US market. All of this makes it well-positioned to tap into a lucrative revival of the industry.

When it took over the shipyard in 2009, Fincantieri inherited a contract to build 16 nimble, multipurpose craft for the Navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) programme. While the LCS was ultimately a choppy project, it required Fincantieri to hire 1,000 people in the US, and proved to the Navy that it could build at scale. This helped Fincantieri land a bonanza deal to build 10 frigates worth $5.5bn (€5.3bn) in 2020 and has ensured steady work for decades to come. It will need to recruit another 500 workers over the next two years to ramp up the construction efforts that have re-energised this Rust Belt town. “In this area, either you work here, your family works here or your best friend works here,” says Fincantieri’s Bethany Skorik, a Marinette local.

Today the shipyard looks very different from when Fincantieri took over. The company is bringing state-of-the-art shipbuilding practices across the Atlantic. These include importing a measure of automation – which proved effective in Italy to recruit younger welders by offering work that couples traditional skills with new technology – and recent innovations that reduce the physical demands of shipbuilding, such as installing exoskeletons to help with the backbreaking work of painting gargantuan hulls.

Shipbuilding remains an intense job: manoeuvring steel sheets weighing upwards of 1,800kg with the help of magnetic cranes and welding with blowtorches that send sparks flying. Nevertheless, these jobs are a chance to pursue the American dream. A high-school diploma is sufficient to land a steady job at the shipyard with wages that can support a family and pay for a house. The so-called Badger State of Wisconsin runs the oldest technical college system in the US and a marine trade school sits just outside Fincantieri’s gates in Marinette. The company is recruiting at full speed across the state as the market for skilled tradespeople is extremely tight.

There are only about two dozen people from the parent company in Wisconsin – a mix of Italians, Norwegians and Romanians – but many more come for multiweek rotations. It means that there’s now an espresso machine installed in the Marinette corporate office alongside the pot of filter coffee, and that a nearby food shop stocks San Pellegrino. Americans who have never travelled abroad are sent to Italy for training. “It’s been such a change for a small town in Wisconsin that didn’t have an international footprint,” says Skorik. “People are much more open-minded. You’ll even hear Wisconsinites speaking a bit of Italian.”

Source: The Monocle – Writer Gregory Scruggs
Photographer Jesse Chehak
April 26, 2025
[#shipjunkies]

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Trump administration’s fees on Chinese-built
ships appear to spare Great Lakes vessels

DULUTH — The Trump administration’s new trade rules aimed at penalizing operators of Chinese-built ships and boosting domestic shipbuilding appear to have spared the Great Lakes shipping industry from fees on ships built in China. The new proposal explicitly exempts lakers. The oceangoing vessels that travel on the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes are generally too small to trigger the fees.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced last week that it would charge Chinese ship operators and operators of Chinese-built ships a fee for every U.S. voyage it makes based on the amount of cargo the ship is carrying, backing away from its original proposal that would have put millions in stacking fees on a Chinese-built ship each time it made a port call.

The new set of proposed fees explicitly exempts lakers — ships that move cargo within the Great Lakes — from the fees, but it’s less clear on salties, the oceangoing vessels that traverse the St. Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

However, since those vessels need to be small enough to fit through the Seaway’s system of locks, salties are unlikely to exceed the proposed action’s floor, where fees would begin, of “55,000 deadweight tons, or an individual bulk capacity of 80,000 deadweight tons.”

“Based on deadweight tonnage, the oceangoing vessels that typically operate in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System are not targeted by the action announced April 17 by the USTR,” Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said in a statement Thursday. “As a result, we don’t expect this particular action to inhibit oceangoing traffic through the Port of Duluth-Superior.”

DeLuca said the changes were an “improvement” over the original proposal. In February, the USTR proposed stacking fees of up to $3 million every time a Chinese-built ship stops at a U.S. port, regardless of what country’s flag it sails under or where the cargo originated or is destined. DeLuca and other shipping officials along the Great Lakes warned such moves would cause job losses and threaten shipping on the Great Lakes.

Chinese-built ships account for about two-thirds of all salties that made port calls last year. Of the 61 port calls by oceangoing vessel cargo ships in the Port of Duluth-Superior last year, 41 were made by ships built in China. The remaining were made in Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.

Canadian shippers also now sail 17 Chinese-built lakers, some of which make regular appearances in the Port of Duluth-Superior.

Duluth News-Tribune

SS Badger will head to Sturgeon Bay for repairs

The SS Badger will be traveling to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on April 29, for repairs in preparation of the upcoming sailing season which will begin on Friday, May 16.

The 410-foot ship will sail, under its own power, to Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS) where it will undergo a propeller shaft bearing repair.  It is expected to depart Ludington, Michigan, between 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the trip will take approximately 12-hours.

“This trip is being made under our own power instead of under tow because we are so close to our sailing season, we will already have a crew getting the boat ready to sail,” said Badger Chief Engineer Andrew VerVelde. “It takes two to three weeks of ‘fit out’ prior to the season, which involves getting her engines and machinery ready. Since the crew is going to be aboard anyway, we might as well steam her over.  It has been done before, but not recently.”

The Badger was built by Christy Corporation in Sturgeon Bay in 1953, located at the same facilities now owned by FBS.  Rather than traveling through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the vessel will take a northern route to the tip of the Door Peninsula and Washington Island from Lake Michigan into Sturgeon Bay. It will then travel south back to the city of Sturgeon Bay.

VerVelde said the repairs to the propeller shaft bearing requires taking the boat out of the water and removing its 13-foot, 10-inch starboard propeller. This repair is different than the Badger’s routine five-year dry dock inspection which last took place over the winter of 2021-2022.

The Badger is expected to return to Ludington by May 10.

“It is the priority of Lake Michigan Carferry and our parent company, Interlake Maritime Services, to keep the Badger in its best working condition,” said Sara Spore, general manager of Lake Michigan Carferry. “Having these repairs done now will reduce interruptions to our summer sailing season and we are thankful for Interlake’s commitment to assuring the Badger will sail reliably for many years to come.”

The 2025 sailing season begins Friday, May 16. To reserve tickets, visit ssbadger.com or call 800-841-4243 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (ET).

S.S. Badger: Lake Michigan Carferry

Obituary: Mark D. Veum – Engineer on Great Lakes, Missisippi River

Mark D. Veum began his sail down the Mississippi into eternity April 20, 2025, from Roseville, MN. Mark is survived by sister Linda Engelken, loving wife, La Veum, and children Thomas and Olivia Veum. He was born April 4, 1973, in St. Paul, MN, to Kathy and Wayne Veum and was a 1999 graduate of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy.

He sailed aboard many Great Lakes vessels, including the Kaye E. Barker (his first boat), Reserve, Oglebay Norton and Maumee, and completed his career as an engineer on the Mississippi River passenger steamer American Queen, out of New Orleans.

Beloved son, brother, husband, proud father, cousin, nephew, teacher, classmate, proud Eagle Scout, proud Maritime Engineer, shipmate, friend, the author has set down his pen and gathered his final duffle for his trip down the river, welcoming aboard loved ones who have gone before.

He penned his adventures, collected books and mementos, taught his son how to drive, and encouraged creativity in his daughter to draw. Mark spent time fishing at area lakes with his dad and children, always being drawn to water.

A private family service date is yet to be determined at King of Kings Lutheran Church, in Roseville, MN. Donations may be made in honor of Mark to any charity or cause of your choice, per Mark’s wishes.

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Ice still an issue at Soo Locks

On Thursday, James R. Barker spent around 8 hours making it into the Poe Lock headed downbound. Ice blown into the narrow passage remains the issue, with 1,000-footers having an extra hard time as they push ice ahead of them into the lock, meaning the ice in the lock must be locked down and flushed out before the vessel is able to enter. The process might have to be repeated several times. USCOE tug Cheraw assisted the Barker, and she finally got moving in the early afternoon,with a group of her fans greeting her at Mission Point. Upbound Algoma Spirit and Algoma Guardian were also delayed while the Barker worked to get into the lock

Know Your Ships

New Algoma Endeavour arrives at Montreal

After her long journey from Croatia, the new Algoma Endeavour arrived at Montreal on Thursday. She’s going to Section 34/35 for her change of crew and flag before heading up the Seaway

The Algoma Endeavour, commissioned by Canada’s Algoma Central Corp., is the longest ship (740-foot forward-mounted) self-unloader launched at the Rijeka shipyard in Croatia.

This vessel is optimized for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. The Endeavour is also the third in Algoma’s domestic dry-bulk fleet with a forward-mounted boom, joining the Algoma Intrepid and Algoma Innovator.

Ship Junkies – Lakes, Locks & Rivers (LL&R)

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Great Lakes freighters don’t take holidays. What Easter looked like on one

Published: Apr. 21/2025
By Justine Lofton

Easter aboard M/V Mark W. Barker

Great Lakes freighters and their crews don’t get the day off for holidays.
“When sailing the (Great) Lakes, our mariners work every day to keep commerce flowing to the industrial and manufacturing centers in the region, including weekends, evenings and holidays,” Interlake Steamship Company said on Facebook.

The crew of the M/V Mark W. Barker celebrated Easter over the weekend with an impressive spread and a ship-wide egg hunt.

“Even with their demanding schedules, our galley team and others keep their fellow shipmates’ spirits lifted with amazing food spreads and festivities on the vessels,” the post said.

Plastic eggs and foam Peeps were placed around the ship, including in spots with spectacular views of blue skies and water.

The Easter feast included festive cake, pie and cupcakes, fruit kebobs and other special treats.

The company posted about a similar celebration aboard the M/V Mesabi Miner.
[Photos in Gallery]

Engine Room Fire on Ocean Navigator
Linked to Poor Maintenance, NTSB Reports

Editor’s note: Ocean Navigator had recently completed her last Great Lakes/Seaway cruise for the now-bankrupt American Queen Voyages when the fire occurred. Now owned by Victory Cruise Lines and with repairs completed, she will return to Great Lakes cruising this summer as Victory II.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that debris in an engine’s lubrication oil system caused a serious engine failure and subsequent fire aboard the passenger vessel Ocean Navigator while docked in Portland, Maine.

The incident occurred on October 18, 2023, when the vessel’s no. 2 auxiliary diesel generator engine experienced a catastrophic mechanical failure. The event resulted in serious injuries to one crew member and an engine room fire. The vessel, which had 128 passengers aboard at the time, sustained an estimated $2.4 million in damage. Fortunately, no passengers were injured, and no pollution was reported.

Investigation findings revealed significant maintenance oversights. The vessel’s crew had operated the engine for more than 5,000 hours without changing the lube oil – five times longer than the manufacturer’s recommended interval. The last complete lube oil change was performed in September 2022, approximately 13 months before the failure. Additionally, the oil filter elements, which should have been replaced after 1,000 hours of operation, had been in use for over 3,000 hours since their last replacement in May 2023.

Post-incident inspection by third-party technicians uncovered extensive damage to critical engine components, including the crankshaft, main bearings, connecting rod bearings, and the no. 14 fuel injector. Further examination revealed abnormal wear on various bearings, showing signs of cavitation erosion and debris-related damage.

The NTSB concluded that the engine failure resulted from debris accumulation in the engine’s lube oil system, attributing this to the crew’s failure to follow manufacturer-recommended maintenance intervals. The contaminated oil system led to catastrophic mechanical damage and ultimately caused the fire when atomized lube oil ignited after being released through the engine’s ruptured crankcase.

Despite the serious nature of the incident, the crew’s quick response prevented the situation from escalating. By promptly securing engine room ventilation and fuel sources, they successfully contained the fire, which self-extinguished.

The NTSB emphasized the importance of following manufacturer maintenance schedules, stating, “Manufacturers provide maintenance recommendations and intervals to ensure equipment operates safely, optimally, and reliably throughout its service life”.

The report also highlighted the particular vulnerability of engine rooms to rapidly spreading fires due to multiple fuel sources and mechanical ventilation. It stressed the importance of crew familiarity with machinery, fuel oil, lube oil, and ventilation shutoff systems to effectively contain and suppress engine room fires.

gCaptain

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/

Great Lakes cruise, diverted by Detroit Grand Prix, to dock in Toledo

TOLEDO, OH – A cruise ship will visit Toledo next month for the first time since the late 1990s thanks to the efforts of local officials and an auto race that is diverting the ship from Detroit.

Victory Cruise Lines was already planning to run shore excursions to the National Museum of the Great Lakes during its two vessels’ 34 scheduled calls to Detroit’s port during the upcoming sailing season.

But one of those 34 Detroit calls turned out to have a conflict with the Detroit Grand Prix auto race on that city’s downtown streets, which has events May 30 and 31 along with the headline event June 1.

So instead of docking in Detroit, the 296-foot Victory I cruise ship will bring all of its 190 or so passengers to Toledo on May 30, officials with the museum, the city, and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority formally announced Tuesday.

Between the ship’s 9 a.m. scheduled arrival and 7:30 p.m. departure, passengers will be offered a VIP tour of the museum, including a celebratory lunch on board the S.S. Col. James M. Schoonmaker museum freighter.

Passengers may also take a shore excursion to the Toledo Museum of Art or to the Henry Ford/Greenfield Village museum complex near Dearborn, Mich., which is a shore-trip option for all of the Detroit itineraries.

“We’re thrilled to drop anchor in Toledo for the first time,” John Waggoner, Victory’s founder and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “The port authority’s seamless coordination and the museum’s world-class programming made it an easy decision to make this call.”

Key to the ship’s visit was establishing a suitable docking space: the Holcim Cement dock on the Maumee River just downstream from the port authority’s headquarters. Besides having adequate water depth for the ship, it has a fence to mark off a security zone and the port authority’s adjoining parking lot where buses can pull in for passenger boarding, said Joe Cappel, the port authority’s vice president of business development.

Mr. Cappel said the port authority began conversations about a year ago with Holcim about the potential use of its dock, and the cement company cooperated by filing an amendment of its dock security plan with the Coast Guard.

“We wanted to be ready in case one of these cruise ships wanted to come to Toledo,” Mr. Cappel said.

Kate Fineske, the museum’s executive director, said that opportunity arose as part of a conversation she had in March with a Victory representative during the museum’s training of LakeLorians, cruise line employees who will give onboard presentations about Great Lakes history during the cruises.

During that discussion, Mrs. Fineske mentioned that should Victory need someplace for one of their ships to call on short notice, Toledo had a dock ready for it.

“Their vice president of operations said, ‘Well, actually, we do,’” she recounted.

Lance Woodworth, president and CEO of Destination Toledo, reiterated that the shore visits during the Detroit calls had been envisioned locally as a foot in the door toward future ship calls.

“We didn’t think it would happen this quick, but we were ready, with a plan in place,” he said.

Lunch will be served to the cruise passengers in the Schoonmaker’s captain’s quarters during the port call, Mr. Cappel said, and special activities also are planned at the art museum for the maritime visitors.

“We really want to be good partners with Victory Cruise Lines,” Mrs. Fineske said. “We want to see them succeed.”

Holcim is able to tweak its cement boats’ deliveries “with enough advance notice” to accommodate cruise dockings in Toledo, Mr. Cappel said, while the port authority is working on the potential for future use of International Park’s wharf for that purpose. Funds have been awarded to Metroparks Toledo to perform a structural analysis on the dock wall there.

Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said the upcoming port call will demonstrate “the potential to bring consistent tourism dollars into Toledo” even though this is a one-time visit.

“Part of the vision for the Glass City Riverwalk is to build permanent docking space across from Owens Corning that could facilitate consistent stops from the big cruise companies,” the mayor said. “Even just a few dozen visits a year would bring thousands of tourists into Toledo, so the possibilities are exciting.”

Toledo Blade

Two groups offer raffles for trips on the Edwin H. Gott

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association and The Soo Locks Visitors’ Center Association are raffling off a round-trip cruise on the 1,000-footer Edwin H. Gott.

Visit these websites or see fliers in the gallery below.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1052918876872355&set=a.458641912966724
https://www.lsmma.com/