Thanksgiving gales send vessels to anchor around lakes

FRIDAY UPDATE: While some vessels are now on the move, many are still anchor. The Welland Canal remained closed Friday morning.

ORIGINAL REPORT: With a severe winter storm bringing high winds and snow to much of the Great Lakes basin, many vessels have gone to anchor while others are taking courses that put them in the lee of the Michigan and Wisconsin shores.

LIST UPDATED LATE THURSDAY:

LAKE SUPERIOR
   By Wednesday evening, Atlantic Huron was anchored off Superior, WI, and will load when the James R. Barker leaves. American Century and Stewart J. Cort were anchored in Terrace Bay, just west of Marathon, ON, on the north shore of Lake Superior.

ST. MARYS RIVER
   Onego Duero, Kaye E. Barker, Victory/Maumee, Patagonman, CSL St. Laurent and Sharon M 1/barge Huron Spirit were anchored above DeTour. Goulais Bay, above the locks on the Canadian side, hosted Hon. James L. Oberstar, Joseph L. Block, Captain Henry Jackman and Joyce L. VanEnkevort. Algoma Mariner was anchored off Bay Mills. By Thursday morning, Algoma Bear and John D. Leitch had joined the Thanksgiving party, dropping their hooks on northern Lake Huron just southwest of DeTour.

LAKE MICHIGAN
   Wilfred Sykes and Dirk S. VanEnkevort anchored off Port Inland. Clyde S. VanEnkevort found shelter off the Sturgeon Bay ship canal, but resumed her trip Thursday morning. Manitowoc was on the hook off Milwaukee, while American Spirit anchored off Waukegan. American Integrity is anchored north of Indiana Harbor.

LAKE HURON
   Saginaw tucked herself into the north lee of Cockburn Island (but was on the move Thursday mornkng) while Algoma Compass anchored near Meldrum Bay. Algosolis is tucked in north of St. Ignace. Walter J. McCarthy Jr., Algoma Equinox, Federal Bering, Federal Beaufort, Federal Yukina, Drawsko, Gaia Desgagnes and Johanna G were anchored at the southern end of Lake Huron. American Courage and Algoma Compass are stopped in Saginaw Bay.

LAKE ERIE
   With sieche conditions on Lake Erie, several vessels were sheltering in the lee of Long Point including Whitefish Bay, Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin, Manitoulin, Algoma Endeavour, Tamarack, Algoberta, Algocanada and Northern Venture. Cedar Point is providing shelter for Algoma Intrepid, Dorothy Ann/Pathfinder, Algoma Innovator, Algoma Niagara and H. Lee White.

WELLAND CANAL
   Weather has also closed the Welland Canal, sending several vessels to anchor at the Lake Ontario end, including Federal Nakagawa, Federal Hunter, Bonita Ann, FWN Alantide and Barbouni. Torrent is moored at the Port Weller Pier, Blair McKeil is stopped at Thorold and Federal Welland is cooling her heels at Port Colborne.

[Baotnerd Staff Reports]

Navy and Coast Guard Keep Building Ships Before the Blueprints Are Finished Resulting in Delays, Cancellations

Malte Humpert
November 27, 2025

   The U.S. government is once again under fire for a long-standing shipbuilding habit: starting construction before designs are fully baked. The practice has repeatedly led to cost overruns, delays, and technical setbacks across several major maritime programs, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has repeatedly pointed out in its reports.
   Earlier this week the Navy announced the termination of four ships from its troubled Constellation-class frigate program. Only the initial two vessels of the program will be completed following a 36-month delay pushing delivery to April 2029.
   For more than a decade, the GAO has cautioned defense and homeland security officials against “concurrency,” the risky practice of overlapping design and construction phases. Yet despite repeated warnings, the pattern persists.
   In recent reports, the watchdog has pointed to the Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter and Offshore Patrol Cutters as well as the Navy’s Constellation-class frigates as examples of this problem. The Zumwalt-class destroyers serve as another case study where construction began before the design was finalized, resulting in massive cost overruns and the program being cut from an initial 32 ships to just three hulls.
   The Polar Security Cutter, which the Coast Guard desperately needs to replace its aging icebreaking fleet, has become a flagship case study. During repeated Congressional hearings on the issue expert witnesses urged Coast Guard leadership to achieve 100 percent design maturity before starting construction.
   “We will not be at the level of design maturity that the GAO would like to see when we do [begin construction],” Vice Admiral Paul Thomas, Deputy USCG Commandant for Mission Support, stated in front of Congress last year.
   GAO auditors noted that the vessel moved into construction before its design reached a stable maturity level, leading to significant redesign work. The Polar Security Cutter design, adopted from the upcoming German icebreaker Polarstern 2, was modified to such a degree that the eventual PSC vessel will be 40 percent larger, 14,000 tons vs 18,000 tons, than the design it is based on.
   Those changes have compounded delays for a project that is now years behind schedule and with construction costs for the initial vessel nearly doubling from $1.3 billion to 2.4 billion. The first PSC is now not expected until at least 2030, putting it roughly six years behind schedule and 11 years after contract signing.
    The Offshore Patrol Cutter, one of the Coast Guard’s largest acquisition efforts currently standing at $17 billion, has also been hampered by premature construction starts.
   The Navy’s Constellation-class frigates show a similar pattern. While based on the Italian Navy’s version of the European multipurpose frigate (FREMM), the American variant has required substantial modifications. The changes resulted, among others, in an increase in size and displacement, changing the bow design to remove the sonar dome, and altering the topside to accommodate US combat systems.

The GAO found that design work lagged behind the start of fabrication, forcing the shipbuilder to rework completed sections and slowing production on a new ship class meant to be a cornerstone of the Navy’s fleet renewal.
   According to the GAO, beginning work without finalized designs contributed to schedule disruptions and technical challenges that could have been avoided with a more disciplined sequencing approach. The watchdog has repeatedly stressed that “design stability before construction” is one of the most reliable predictors of a program’s success; advice that decision makers at Navy and Coast Guard acknowledge in principle but have struggled to follow in practice.
   Together, the trio of troubled programs underscores a systemic issue across U.S. shipbuilding: political and public pressure to begin visible work and meet deadlines often outweigh the less glamorous aspect of finalizing design work.
   The Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter is a prime example: facing expectations to demonstrate progress and meet end-of-year deadlines, the service ended up announcing the start of construction several times across a six-month period. The episode highlights how the drive to show visible momentum on big-ticket shipbuilding programs can lead to almost farcical outcomes.