Victory Cruise Lines ship christened
Monday at Navy Pier before Great Lakes voyage
CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago is now a cruise ship destination. The ship Victory II was christened Monday morning at Navy Pier. It was believed to be the first overnight cruise ship ever christened at the pier.
“It’s majestic to see a boat like this at Navy Pier. It’s not something you’re used to seeing,” said Jordan Engerman, Choose Chicago, VP of partnerships.
It’s a smaller, higher-end cruise ship, geared toward adults who will travel on all five Great Lakes between Chicago and Toronto. Some of the other stops include Mackinac Island, Detroit, Cleveland and Niagara Falls. It can hold 190 guests, is 300-feet long and has 92 crew members.
A 10-night cruise starts at $6,500 a person and offers passengers a glimpse at the history of the region.
“We go from Chicago up to Escanaba to Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, Cleveland, Niagara Falls and Toronto,” Victory Cruise Lines founder and CEO John Waggoner said.
Waggoner, who was born in Elgin, said people can expect to catch either the Victory I or Victory II coming through Chicago about every week and a half.
Waggoner says passengers will see the Great Lakes in a way they’ve never experienced. “Look at all the shipwrecks and the clear water, and you get to go to Door County and Sturgeon Bay, and then you get to hear about ship-building and building 1,000-foot freighters that can’t get out of the Great Lakes,” Waggoner said.
For Chicago, the cruise offering is another tourism driver. When the ship is docked, it serves as a big billboard to more than 9 million people who visit Navy Pier every year.
“Navy Pier is a huge regional attraction; now adding this just gives another reason for people to come to Chicago, another way to get here, another experience to come through the Great Lakes, through Lake Michigan,” Engerman said.
Visit victorycruiselines.com for more information.
ABC Eyewitness News
Great Lakes Iron Ore Trade Down in April
CLEVELAND – Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes totaled 3.7 million tons in April, a decrease of 18.7 percent compared to 2024. Shipments were 19.1 percent below the month’s 5-year average.
Year-to-date, the iron ore trade stands at 6.7 million tons, a decrease of 25.1 percent compared to a year ago. Through April, iron ore shipments are 17.4 percent below their 5-year average for four months of the year.
Since 1880, Lake Carriers’ has represented the U.S.-flag Great Lakes fleet, which today can move more than 90 million tons of cargos annually that are the foundation of American industry, infrastructure, and power: iron ore, stone, coal, cement, and other dry bulk materials such as grain, salt, and sand. More information is available at www.lcaships.com.
‘I did not expect to find a shipwreck!’ says boy whose treasure is being excavated
Andrea Bellemare · CBC News · Posted: May 10, 2025
Lucas Atchison found metal spikes on a Lake Huron beach with a metal detector
During a family trip to Point Farms Provincial Park north of Goderich, Ont., in 2023, Lucas Atchison was using a metal detector that he got as a gift for his birthday, when he found something big and old.
“We were on the beach, we got our metal detector out, and as soon as we set it up, ding! It was a spike from the shipwreck,” Lucas said, who is now 10.
He recalls alerting his dad, who at first thought the spike may have been used to tie up a boat. But Lucas wasn’t convinced, and the pair started digging deeper. What they found was more spikes attached to wood.
“Then Dad told me, ‘Lucas this is a shipwreck,'” the boy explained. “When I woke up that morning I did not expect to find a shipwreck!”
Dad Jason Atchison said they reported the find to provincial parks staff, and then reached out to the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee (OMHC), a non-profit volunteer group dedicated to recording and preserving marine history.
This week, with Lucas keeping a close eye on the work, excavation on the shipwreck began with an OMHC team digging to see exactly what Lucas found.
Excavation work begins
The approvals process to dig takes time, with regulatory requirements needing to be met, according to marine archeologist Scarlett Janusas and marine historian Patrick Folkes.
They first met the Atchisons in the fall of 2023 at the beach to show them where they should be looking. Then, on Wednesday, a group of volunteers from the OMHC arrived with heavy machinery supplied by the provincial park, and then switching to hand shovels, trowels and brushes to see what the sand had buried.
So far, Janusas said they found a smaller portion of the ship than they had hoped, but determined the section was frames from the side of the ship.
“We had double frames, which seems to suggest that it was stronger-built ship and we believe that it was a schooner,” said Janusas. “A schooner is usually a two-masted sailing vessel, usually wooden.”
Maybe the St. Anthony?
There wasn’t enough of the ship to definitively determine its identity, but Folkes says one candidate is the schooner St. Anthony.
“[It] was wrecked in October of 1856 on a voyage … from Chicago to Buffalo, New York, with a load of grain,” he said. “It was described as having gone ashore four miles north of Goderich, which fits about where this wreckage is, and this would only represent a very small piece.”
The volunteers will complete scale drawings of the wreck, including a plan view (from on top) and profile (side view) of the wreck.
Folkes says that 19th century insurance requirements would specify how many fasteners, or spikes, should be placed in the frames and at what distance. Those details, he said, will help determine the ship’s age.
What comes next might be surprising. The volunteers will then rebury the ship to preserve it.
“We fill the hole back in, bury it and create an anaerobic environment, i.e. without oxygen, so you don’t have any kind of parasites in there or any other organisms that will eat or destroy the wreckage,” said Janusas.
“It’s not a perfect solution but it does maintain the structure of that ship probably for at least another 50 years.”
Video Spotlight: Know Your Ships and its long-time editor
Author and documentarian Wes Oleszewski chats with Know Your Ships book Editor and Publisher Roger LeLievre. Listen here:
Registration Now Open for Annual Soo Boatnerd Cruise
Join us for the Annual Boatnerd Freighter Chasing Cruise on the St. Marys River!
- When: Friday, June 27, 6-9 pm, rain or shine
- Where: Soo Locks Boat Tours, Dock #2 (next to the Valley Camp)
- Limit: 100 passengers
- Food: Pizza and salad included with paid passage
- General Adult Admission:
-Early Bird Adult $35.00 each (through May 31)
-Regular Adult $40.00 each (June 1-June 20)
-Procrastinator Adult $45 each (after June 20)
- Youth Admission, age 5-17: $15 flat rate
- Youth Admission, age 4 and under: FREE
- Students (age 18+) with a current, valid i.d. get a $5 discount off an adult ticket. The student must present their student i.d. when boarding.
This year’s St. Mary’s River cruise will be aboard a Famous Soo Locks Boat Tours boat on Friday, June 27. Boarding begins at 5:30 pm, and we cast off at 6pm. The cruise is three hours long. We plan to travel through the U.S. Locks, but that may change in order to chase freighters.
Pizza and salad are included in paid passage. There will be a cash bar on board. You can bring your own food and beverages (you cannot bring alcohol).
Reservations are a must, as the group is limited to 100 passengers. Mailed checks must be received no later than Friday, June 20.
If the cruise is not sold out by June 20, we will take online or cash (US funds only) reservations at the Procrastinator Price of $45.00 per General Admission ticket. Youth ticket rates stay the same as listed above.
Click link below to buy your ticket(s) online.
Contact Angie at griffinclawangie@gmail.com or 734-386-0899 if you have questions or to request any refunds. No refunds will be issued after June 19.
