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Duluth, MN – Superior, WI – Joshua Hebeisen
A Barker Bark after midnight? You betcha! The massive two-tone sound of the JRB woke Canal Park early Sunday morning as Captain Newland sounded off a thunderous salute for the late-night faithful watching along the piers. The footer’s 00:50 arrival from anchorage came on the heels of a 00:13 departure by Walter J. McCarthy Jr., the latter on her way to Indiana Harbor with a load of iron ore from CN Dock 6. The Barker would soon find herself under the conveyors for what is expected to be a long load in West Duluth. A day of traffic featuring solely members of the 1,000-foot club longer continued at 07:27 with a Superior twofer of ASC footers; American Integrity departed with 63,000 tons of Keetac ore for Conneaut with Burns Harbor taking her place within the hour. BNSF would switch out the pockets with Hibtac ore in preparation for her standard weekly load. American Century put the cap on the weekend with a 20:41 arrival beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge for coal at SMET. Off the piers, Federal Frontier is currently waiting to load wheat at Riverland Ag with an ETA of Monday morning. Fellow salite Reestborg is at the port terminal unloading wind turbine components before an anticipated Monday night exit.
Marquette, MI – Oggdo Bogdo
The American Spirit departed for Toledo at 06:56 after a 58 hour load, due to the challenge of loading a footer at LS&I plus the high volume of traffic at the docks. The Mark W. Barker also departed after a relatively long load, leaving at 22:56. She, like her Interlake fleet mates, will make the Marquette to Dearborn run. The Lee A. Tregurtha will arrive tomorrow, and the Hon. James L. Oberstar will almost certainly arrive in a few days after dropping off stone at Duluth.
Port Inland, MI – Andrew Meyer
A rather long and unusual hiatus of traffic occurred from Wednesday through Saturday. Cuyahoga broke the streak with an arrival at 0319 on Saturday, departing at 1340. She’d prove to be the only traffic of the day. Herbert C. Jackson would follow in a similar pattern of arrival/departure on Sunday with an early morning arrival and a midday departure. Joseph L. Block is due Monday morning from Indiana Harbor.
Sturgeon Bay, WI – Joshua Hebeisen
Stewie’s back! Stewart J. Cort, proud #1, is currently preparing to fit out for the season at Bay Shipbuilding following an extended winter layup due to lack of demand. She is tentatively expected to resume her regular Superior-Burns Harbor run later this week.
Southern Lake Michigan Ports – Andrew Meyer
Calumet Harbor, IL: G.L. Ostrander and her barge are moving up the Calumet River at the time of this writing- 2115 CDT. Algoma Compass is due to grace Chicago with her presence sometime Monday.
Indiana Harbor, IN: Saturday’s traffic was the Joseph L. Block, arriving at 1913. Sunday would be slightly busier, with the Block leaving town at 0818, followed by the Whitefish Bay arriving at 1136. Though I’m not sure it would go in the “rare” category, it certainly is an infrequent visit for the Trillium Class laker. Walter J. McCarthy is due next on September 20 with a load of ore from CN6 Duluth.
Gary, IN: Gary remains quiet and will for several days. Edgar B. Speer is due on the 20th sometime, but she just left Two Harbors Sunday evening.
Burns Harbor, IN: Saturday was quiet in Burns Harbor, but Sunday saw the Indiana Harbor arrive at 0315 and Wilfred Sykes arrive at 1411. Both should depart sometime Monday.
Grand Haven, MI – Oggdo Bogdo
Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 arrived at 19:35 to unload stone from Port Dolomite at Verplank, apparently as part of a split load since the duo is due at Holland next. The river vessel Sam Laud arrived at 23:01 to unload stone from Bruce Mines at St. Marys cement dock.
Muskegon, MI – Oggdo Bogdo
The Herbert C. Jackson will pay another visit to the eastern side of Lake Michigan after unloading at Grand Haven just a day or two ago. This time, Herbie is bringing stone from Port Inland to Muskegon.
Drummond Island, MI – Andrew Meyer
Drummond Island is quiet this weekend.
Calcite, MI – Andrew Meyer
The 94 year old Olive L. Moore navigated her barge Menominee out of Calcite at 0731 on Saturday morning. The John G. Munson would follow with a 1445 departure. The remainder of the weekend would see another Rand ATB- Maumee and Victory- arrive at 1151 Sunday. Great Republic is due to arrive late Sunday night, and H. Lee White and Defiance/Ashtabula are expected to arrive Monday.
Stoneport, MI – Joshua Hebeisen
The comeback season for Philip R. Clarke continues with a 14:00 stone-laden departure from Stoneport. Next stop: Duluth.
Detroit, MI –Windsor, ON – Joshua Hebeisen
A Mistersky stop for Manitowoc around 3 o’clock would see the vessel spend a little under three hours in port fueling up for the trip to Charlevoix before continuing on her way at 05:32. In that span, fleetmate American Courage was upbound from Marblehead on the Windsor side of the river and stopped at Southwestern Sales West to unload. After hitting the company’s east facility farther up the river midmorning, the Courage headed back down for Marblehead in the afternoon. Thessalon-bound Laura L. VanEnkevort/Joseph H. Thompson were in from 06:36 to 09:46 for a drink at Mistersky, cruise ship Ocean Voyager stopped for another Motor City visit from 07:40 to 17:48, and CSL Tadoussac was upbound on her way to Superior around 15:30 after unloading at St. Marys Cement on the River Rouge. Classic Kaye E. Barker was headed for Dearborn at 18:24 fresh from Marquette.
Lake Erie Ports – Bill Kloss
Monroe, MI: Harvest Spirit arrived at 02:29 and is unloading steel coils at the Port dock.
Toledo, OH: Leonard M/Huron Spirit arrived at Midwest Terminal at 17:55. Federal Fraser remains at Kuhlman’s.
Marblehead, OH: American Courage loaded stone and departed for Windsor, ON at 01:22.
Sandusky, OH: John J. Boland left at 01:45 with coal for Algoma Steel at the Soo.
Cleveland, OH: Departures were ABB Vanessa at 01:17 for Valleyfield, PQ and Lake St. Clair at 15:32 for Port Colborne, ON. Joyce L. VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader arrived at the Bulk Terminal at 17:25 to unload ore.
Ashtabula, OH: Algoma Mariner was a late night arrival.
Erie, PA: Calumet departed for Cleveland at 16:24.
Nanticoke, ON: Departures were Algoscotia with petroleum products for Montreal, PQ at 08:16 and Edwin H. Gott light for Two Harbors, MN at 10:38. Algocanada is still at Imperial Oil.
While we do not currently have daily write-ups for the following ports, their respective port authority websites post schedules of vessel traffic that are embedded below. Each schedule takes the form of a miniature webpage within a box – scroll with your cursor within the box (or slide your finger within the box on a mobile device) to move through the schedule as you would a normal webpage. To move up or down the actual Port Reports page itself, make sure your cursor/finger is outside of the box.
Green Bay, WI – Port of Green Bay
Click on vessel image for voyage info.
Hamilton, ON – Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority
Scroll past AIS map for arrival/departure schedule.
- Reestborg sits at Duluth’s Clure Public Marine Terminal prepping for a Monday night departure. Glenn Blaszkiewicz image, September 18
- Lights on the deck of Federal Frontier reflect off the fog in the inky darkness, giving the ocean vessel a ghost ship-like appearence as she waits at anchor off the Duluth piers. David Schauer image, September 17.jpeg
- Lights shine bright at the CN dock as Arthur M. Anderson wraps up the weekend and her load of taconite pellets. Rich Pedersen image, September 18
- As the light fades from the sky, Maria G arrives at Thunder Bay for a load of grain. Assisting the saltie on arrival is tug Teclutsa. Jamie Ruggles image, September 18
- Dock and deck crew watch as the Mark W. Barker continues her first load of ore beneath the gravity chutes. Thom Skelding image, September 18
- Upbound French liner Le Dumont D’Urville casts a mysterious glow on the St. Marys River while passing Rotary Park. This is her first trip to the Soo. Rob Myers image, September 18
- Badger arrives Ludington at sunset on the second of her two daily trips across Lake Michigan. Spencer Hanson image, September 18
- Cuyahoga heads downbound at Port Huron. Dave Baker image, September 18
- Calumet puts ashore stone in Erie before loading sand for the North Pier. Jeff Mientkiewicz image, September 18








