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/

First saltie arrives in Duluth on Monday morning

DULUTH, MN – The first saltie of the 2025-2026 maritime year arrived in Duluth Monday morning and was celebrated by Twin Ports officials.

It’s an annual tradition that signals the end of winter and the ice that prevents easy travel on the Great Lakes. This year, the bulk carrier Federal Nagara claimed the honor. She is 656 feet long and carries a load of sugar beet processing equipment bound for the Red River Valley. It was transported from Bremer, Germany.

Capt. R.C. Sanjeewa was presented gifts from officials representing the port, the cities of Duluth and Superior and the area news media. Sanjeewa said he is familiar with the Twin Ports, having been here with the Fednav-owned vessel several times in past years.

Kristi Osheim won the first vessel contest, sponsored by Visit Duluth, guessing the arrival time within 38 second of when the ship actually entered the port.

Business North

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/

Severe cuts at NOAA would kill Great Lakes data buoy network

ANN ARBOR, MI — Severe cuts proposed at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would shutter a Great Lakes data network which aids fishermen and helps forecast threats to beaches and drinking water intakes.

The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) is facing potential shutdown of its real-time data network of buoys and meteorological towers under a fiscal 2026 Trump administration budget proposal that cuts roughly $1.6 billion from NOAA.

The proposed cuts are detailed in a budget passback memo obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle and other news outlets.

The White House Office of Management and Budget proposes eliminating the Great Lakes buoy system’s parent program, the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), as part of a proposed halving of the National Ocean Service line office budget.

The proposal is part of a broader Trump administration effort to slash the federal budget and workforce which has already resulted in job cuts at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, where GLOS is based.

Former NOAA officials and researchers say the proposed budget effectuates a Project 2025 goal to entirely break up the agency and privatize much of its services.

If Congress approves the proposed budget cuts, GLOS program managers say the buoy and tower network would go offline within a couple months.

“This map is going to go dark,” said Jen Boehme, GLOS chief executive.

The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) uses Seagull, a cloud-based data platform to make data on Great Lakes water and weather conditions freely available.

The loss of an 8-state observation network appears in conflict with goals in the White House OMB passback memo, which says the Department of Commerce is being refocused on “core activities” such as “enforcing trade laws, producing core statistical products, conducting leading edge R&D, and collecting essential scientific observations like ocean and weather data to support navigation and forecasting.”

The memo calls for eliminating functions “misaligned with the president’s agenda and the expressed will of the American people,” and curtailing climate programs at NOAA.

The GLOS nonprofit is almost entirely funded through federal dollars, according to its 2024 annual report. The NOAA IOOS program supplied roughly $3.3 million last year, which was supplemented by roughly $860,000 in infrastructure law grants.

That funding supports deployment of more than 250 of buoys, towers, underwater gliders and high-frequency radar which aids weather forecasting, search-and-rescue operations, maritime navigation, flood warning and harmful algae bloom and alerts.

The system’s nearshore buoys are popular with commercial and recreational anglers, who can “text a buoy” for water temperatures and other conditions.

Its high-frequency radar system in the Straits of Mackinac helps map the speed and direction of currents to aid navigation and improve emergency response.

The observing system’s data is freely available on Seagull, an online dashboard GLOS says is used by anglers, boaters, tour operators, scuba divers, beachgoers, water treatment plant managers, researchers, vessel pilots and cruise ship operators

About 70 percent of the system users are “folks who just want to figure out, ‘is it safe to go to the beach? Can I go out on my boat today?’” Boehme said. “These are tools and observations that aren’t replaceable by the NOAA programs that would remain.”

In Ohio, the buoy network extends inland up the Maumee River watershed and measures nutrients bleeding off farmland, which Heidelberg University researchers use to help NOAA forecast the severity of the annual toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie.

Models used in algae forecasting are housed at GLERL in Ann Arbor. That facility is also facing elimination under the proposed budget, which closes the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

The GLERL lab has already lost 35 percent of its staff this year, according to former staff members who testified before a Michigan Senate committee this week.

Read the full story here: https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/04/severe-cuts-at-noaa-would-kill-great-lakes-data-buoy-network.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawJyXzhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHkPpLx09OI0FeGnqO3IxyQKtNNg1XqEYBqOe5JWcNPxjDObA6mlEbu6SsjbK_aem_Aeo8i7yV6C_8dRqkqCt3aA

Lake Michigan water levels drop below long-term average for first time in a decade

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been monitoring Great Lakes water levels for over 100 years.

“Over this past year, we have noticed Lake Michigan, Huron dip down below long-term average water levels for the first time in a decade,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Megan Royal said.

Adelaide Pointe on Muskegon Lake opened last year with all floating docks to accommodate various water depths.

“When the water level goes down the total draft available from the water level down to the bottom of the lake or the marina changes pretty significantly,” Ryan Leestma, owner and founder of Adelaide Pointe, said. “This is drafted to nine feet deep even at low water. There’s a lot of sand that we took out of here in order to make sure that we had proper depth.”

Leestma noted an increase in dry marina sales as lakefront homeowners face challenges with dock length due to lower water levels.

“We are selling twice as many dry slips as we are wet slips right now. That’s a combination of water levels and the cost of having your own stuff or buying your own dock, or getting a different lift, and the hassle,” Leestma said.

The Army Corps of Engineers forecasts water levels six months ahead and expects a seasonal rise over the next few months, though levels will likely remain slightly below averages throughout the summer.

Fox 17

New designation will protect Indiana’s Lake Michigan shipwrecks

Apr 18, 2025 |

Ranger III seeks QMED/oiler

A small-ship cruise operator
is pursuing a comeback in the U.S.

Victory Cruise Lines is relaunching in April with Great Lakes and Canada cruises. American Queen Voyages’ founder, John Waggoner, is reviving the brand with two 190-passenger ships, Victory I and Victory II.

The vessels, which were purpose-built to sail the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and French-Canadian Maritimes, were owned by American Queen Voyages before it shut down last year (Waggoner was no longer involved with the company at the time). American Queen Voyages acquired Victory Cruise Lines in 2019.

Both ships have been refurbished and will sail popular and lesser-visited ports within North America. Many of Victory’s customers want to “wrap (themselves) in the American or Canadian flag,” founder and chairman Waggoner said.

“I think what we find is that a lot of our guests have traveled all over the world, and now they are looking for something that’s at home,” he told USA TODAY.

When will Victory Cruise Lines relaunch?

Waggoner and his wife, Claudette, who co-owns the company, will host Victory’s first cruise of the year. The 10-night cruise aboard Victory I will sail from Portland, Maine, to Toronto in April ahead of the ship’s christening.

Victory II will be christened in Chicago on May 12.

The ships can accommodate 190 guests.

What can guests expect?

Victory will sail itineraries ranging from nine to 14 nights in 2025. Those include All 5 Great Lakes cruises, which visit Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior, sailing from either Chicago or Milwaukee to Toronto (or departing from Toronto).

The 5 Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway itinerary will sail between Chicago and Montreal, while the Great Lakes & Thunder Bay cruise round trip from Chicago covers two great lakes – Michigan and Superior – and an overnight stay in Michigan’s Mackinac Island, among other sailings.

Stops will include Detroit and Marquette in Michigan; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Port Colborne, Ontario – giving guests access to Niagara Falls – and more. Victory will also be the only cruise line to dock at Chicago’s Navy Pier.

The company offers a variety of excursions along the way, from a visit to the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and the Museum Ship Valley Camp, where guests can learn about the area’s history, to a behind-the-scenes tour of Lambeau Field, where the NFL’s Green Bay Packers play.

“And then you hit Cleveland, where you dock right (near) the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Waggoner said. “And then Detroit, where you get to go to the Henry Ford Museum of (American) Innovation.”

The ships also will host a LakeLorian program in partnership with the National Museum of the Great Lakes, offering lectures from historians and naturalists. Other onboard features include three dining concepts, a sundeck and a salon and spa.

Passengers can catch some sun on an open deck.

How much does Victory Cruise Lines cost?

Available cruises start at $4,999 per person, according to Victory’s website. The fares include a pre-night hotel stay, transfers from the hotel to the ship, food and drinks on board, a tour in each port, Wi-Fi and more.

“What I hope (guests) take away is the grandeur and the beauty of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway,” Waggoner said.

USA Today

Great Lakes maritime industry
gets backing from Trump Administration

Bartlett Maritime Corporation has plan for submarine repair facility in Lorain

By Heather Chapin [The Morning Journal]
PUBLISHED: April 17, 2025

The company aiming to bring a submarine repair facility to Lorain praised President Donald Trump’s administration for calling for an increased investment in the maritime industry.

“That is exactly the type of message that Ed Bartlett (founder of Bartlett Maritime Corporation) and the city of Lorain has been hoping for,” said Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley.

The White House Executive Order issued April 9, called “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” directs the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with other cabinet members, to find opportunities to encourage investments in American “maritime prosperity zones,” according to a news release from Bartlett Maritime Corporation.

The order specifically identifies the Great Lakes for inclusion in the effort, which will be part of a Maritime Action Plan developed by the assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, the release stated.

“I’m hoping with the vice president (J.D. Vance) being from Ohio and two new innovative senators (Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted) that we can get this done,” Bradley said.

Bartlett praised the Trump Administration’s call for increasing investment in the maritime industry of the Great Lakes region and welcomed the growing national urgency to build national maritime capacity.

“We appreciate the Administration’s action to restore and expand the shipbuilding industry in the United States and look forward to the growth of Ohio’s role in this important industry,” Bartlett said in the release. “Right here in Northeast Ohio, we have the skilled workforce available, we have significant potential for industrial facility development and we have a proud maritime heritage.”

The corporation received a grant through the Lorain City Port and Finance Authority to train welders to work in the many positions that are expected to open up once the project is finalized.

The Executive Order calls for the maritime prosperity zones to provide “opportunities to incentivize and facilitate domestic and allied investment in United States maritime industries and waterfront communities.”

“The need for greater shipbuilding and ship repair capacity is a national challenge that goes beyond the geographical limits of coastal areas,” Bartlett said. “America can only meet this challenge by making the most of our industrial capabilities nationwide.”

The corporation has been looking at purchasing or leasing land from two entities, Republic Steel and Stein Corporation, which is located next to the steel mill, Bradley said.

Republic Steel has about 400 acres available and Stein has approximately 60, he said.

Corps of Engineers to begin dredging at Holland Harbor

DETROIT — The U.S. Corps of Engineers, Detroit District will start dredging the entrance to Holland Harbor as early as Thursday, April 24 to remove shoaling across the federal channel.

Surveys indicate a shoal formed in the winter months across the entrance to the harbor that could potentially impact commercial dredging if not addressed.

Holland Harbor was scheduled for dredging in the 2025 maintenance work plan to maintain the Congressionally authorized depth of the federal channel.  King Co. Inc., based in Holland, will dredge about 12,400 cubic yards of sediment hydraulically. The project will cost $344,480 out of a three-project contract that also includes Grand Haven and St. Joseph Harbors.

“After finding the shoaling in Holland, we asked the contractor to prioritize the harbor in their spring schedule to keep commercial vessel traffic moving without impact,” said Liz Newell Wilkinson, the operations manager at the Grand Haven Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. “Our staff works hard to get out early after ice out to survey and identify potential problem areas in the Great Lakes Navigation System.”

Holland Harbor is considered a deep draft commercial harbor with an authorized federal channel depth of 23 feet at the entrance. If ships are unable to draft at their full capability, commercial traffic is forced to take less freight or “light load.” A loss of 4-5 feet in channel depth would result in a loss of about $1.4 to $1.9 million per year to the shipping industry at Holland Harbor due to light loading, according to Corps of Engineers’ Great Lakes – System Analysis of Navigation Depths (GL-SAND).

Dredged sediment will be placed south of Holland Harbor on the nearshore lake bottom 8 to 12 feet deep. The placement allows the beach to be nourished – a replacement of eroded sediment – without the impacts of heavy machinery or pipes onshore. 

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy previously approved a water quality certification for sediment to be placed in the area with a Section 401 water quality certification.

Dredging is authorized for 24-hours per day operations. The public is asked to adhere to all safety signage, public notices and broadcast warnings to mariners.

The Detroit District, established in 1841, encompasses 3,150 miles of shoreline and 81 harbors and channels joining lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Clair and Erie. In addition, the district boundaries cover projects and regulatory oversight throughout the state of Michigan and portions of Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

U.S. Corps of Engineers, Detroit District

What to do with steel, grain shipments?
Impact of Trump tariffs piling up in Windsor

WINDSOR, ON – Shipments of steel from eastern Europe and Canadian aluminum is being warehoused rather than forwarded to the U.S. where it faces tariffs. “We’re seeing the impact already,” said Windsor Port Authority CEO/president Steve Salmons.

“The companies are waiting to see what will happen with tariffs rather than pay 25 per cent. It makes it uncompetitive. “Salt isn’t being shipped to the U.S.. It would double in price.”

 Salmons added tariffs have also affected grain shipments out of Windsor. Instead of being sent to Ohio for use to feed livestock, grain is finding new markets in Europe.

 “About 80 per cent of the grain that goes through here, goes to the U.S.,” Salmons said. “It’ll now going elsewhere where there’s no tariffs.

 “Shipping adds some cost, but nowhere near 25 per cent.”

 Salmons said Canada already serves as a transshipping point for the world accessing U.S. markets. Vancouver is the largest port on North America’s west coast and bigger than all but two U.S. ports.

 “All these products will now face a tariff going into the U.S.,” Salmons said. “It will result in fewer products being shipped. We’ve already had a couple shipments of steel cancelled.”

 Salmons said the reduction in steel/aluminum shipments will soon begin to jam up the automotive supply chain. There are already backlogs for aluminum in the U.S., most of which is coming from Canada.

 Steel coils are another key automotive component that flows through the port of Windsor.

 “There’s a domino effect in the supply chain,” Salmons said.

 “The steel coils directed through Windsor get a highly specialized coating at a local treatment plant that’s needed for use in the auto industry.

 “This type of treatment plant (ArcelorMittal Windsor) doesn’t exist in the U.S. There’s no alternate source.”

 Salmons expects to see countries begin to more frequently by-pass the U.S. and ship directly to Canadian markets to distribute their products in this country to avoid incurring tariffs.

 One such company is Swiss chocolate maker Lindt. It moved production for the Canadian market out of the U.S. and now supplies Canada from its European plants.

 Salmon noted the trade war highlights how important the current expansion of the Windsor Port Authority has become. The expansion will give Windsor the capability of handling container vessels and will become operational in 2028.

 “This will open up markets for our local manufacturers and other businesses,” Salmon said. “A lot of them don’t have access to Europe because they can’t ship their products.

 “We have so manufacturing and potential we can tap into once the port is expanded.”

 Though auto tariffs have caused the Windsor Assembly Plant to shut down for two weeks resulting in thousands of layoffs, Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce Ryan Donally said the full impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs is still working its way through the local economy.

 “We’re just glad the focus of the ire of his trade war has moved away from Canada and we’re not caught in anything new,” Donally told the Star. “There remains so much uncertainty.

 “The big cloud hanging over us is what is to be determined about auto parts. That’s the biggest concern for Windsor Essex.”

 The Trump administration is targeting May 3 for having a system to track and tariff at 25 per cent all non-U.S. auto parts entering the states. Many of those parts, tools and moulds will have been produced locally and threaten the viability of those suppliers.

We’re not aware of that yet,” said Donally of whether tariffs had resulted in any business closures. “I haven’t heard from our tariffs’ task force of any business closure directly attributed to tariffs.”

 Donally added the biggest challenge for local businesses will be cash flow, especially in the automotive sector. As tools and mould projects are finishing up, he noted new orders and quotes are not back filling the pipeline.

 “The uncertainty has slowed down global manufacturing, especially anything going from Windsor-Essex to the U.S.,” Donally said.

 “The overarching issue is what is happening to the inputs that go into products. That’s the big concern locally when 22 per cent of the community is tied to manufacturing.

 “That is when you’re going to see the trickle-down effects of tariffs.”

 Outside of manufacturing, Donally said small and medium businesses are holding their own.

“Small business, car sales … things are slowing down, but we haven’t been as affected as much as I thought we would be at this point,” Donally said. “It’s a positive.

 Windsor Star

CSL’s Nukumi tests solar panels

MV Nukumi is the first self-unloading bulk carrier in Canada equipped with solar panels.

In partnership with Innovation maritime, UQAR – Université du Québec à Rimouski, Polytechnique Montréal and Nergica – and with support from the Government of Québec – CSL is participating in a project to explore the performance, durability, and technical challenges of installing and operating a solar power station on a bulk carrier in the Gulf and the St. Lawrence River.

To date, solar panels have not been tested in real-world conditions aboard ships operating in this region. The impact of environmental factors, such as harsh winters and ice accumulation, and logistical factors like maintenance requirements, remain largely unstudied.

Running over three years, the project will address this gap by installing a small-scale solar system on the Nukumi. The ship’s hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system, which already delivers fuel savings and reduced noise, make it an ideal candidate for testing renewable energy integration in marine operations.

CSL Group

 Windsor Port, maritime industry fear being torpedoed by U.S. tariffs, fees

 WINDSOR, ON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to revive the American shipbuilding industry threatens to create another vehicle to drive up costs for shipping companies, port authorities and consumers through a cocktail of tariffs, fees and taxes to finance the project, said  CEO Windsor Port Authority CEO/president Steve Salmons.

 “Ultimately, we have to cover those costs,” he told the Star. “Like anything, if the costs in shipping go up, that’s going to be passed along to the consumer.”

 Three new charges alone contained in a new Trump administration proposal aimed at rejuvenating U.S. shipbuilding will add a minimum of over 20 per cent to any non-American cargo entering the U.S.

 The proposal is expected to come under final review in the coming months, with a Maritime Action Plan to be in place within 210 days.

 “It will definitely affect our cost structure,” said Salmons, who noted Canadian port authorities receive no government support unlike their American counterparts. “It squeezes margins.

 In a final draft of Trump’s executive order on ‘Maritime Dominance’ released April 9, the U.S. is proposing to apply its Harbor Maintenance Fee (.125 per cent of cargo value) and related fees to any vessel that lands at any port that transships goods into the U.S.

 In addition, that U.S.-bound cargo will be subject to Trump’s new universal tariffs based on country of origin. A further 10 per cent handling charge will be added at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to cover any costs incurred in implementing the new plan.

 Tariffs would also be imposed on vessels using Chinese-built ship-to-shore cranes and other cargo-handling equipment.

 The order directs U.S. officials to engage allies within 90 days on aligning counter tariffs and trade policies with China. It furthers holds out the carrot for those nations that such alignment could be a mechanism for addressing land border tariffs.

 Trump has also directed U.S. officials within 90 days to identify ‘the vision, goals challenges and objectives necessary to secure the arctic waterways and enable American prosperity in the face of evolving arctic security challenges and associated risks.’

 However, Salmons said the biggest win was what wasn’t included in the re-drafted order after industry officials pleaded their case at the U.S. Trade Representative public hearings in March.

 Gone for now is a proposal to charge Chinese-built or flagged vessels millions every time they stop in a U.S. port. The proposal would’ve seen possible fees over US$1.5 million per port call.

Much of the Great Lakes shipping fleet in Canada has been built in China in recent years, exposing them to those massive taxes.

“We were successful because both the Canadian and American industries were able to articulate how serious the impact of those fees would have been for Great Lakes shipping,” Salmons said. “You can’t spread such huge fees over as many containers on 25,000-ton ship on the Great Lakes as you can on an ocean-going vessel.

“Still, even on a larger, 10,000-container ocean vessel, those fees would’ve added US$600-$800 per container.”

With Great Lakes ships often making multiple stops on a run, the massive bills would’ve devastated the maritime industry on both sides of the border.

Salmons said the Great Lakes shipping industry is the bulk version of what trucking does in the same region. “We’re moving around the Great Lakes basin by ship the large, bulky items like iron ore, coal, steel, salt and grain,” Salmons said.

Salmons said American shipyards only built five vessels last year, all of them for the U.S. Navy. The U.S. essentially has no commercial shipbuilding industry, he said.

 “There are 3,000 to 4,000 new ships built each year,” Salmons said. “The first slot available to build a commercial ship in the U.S. isn’t for seven years.

 “They don’t have a commercial industry and what they build is three to five times more expensive because they’re doing it for the military.

 “China, South Korea, Malaysia are highly skilled and efficient ship builders, and they build the world’s shipping.

 Windsor Star

Ranger III seeks QMED/oiler