Freighter caught in ice outside Duluth requires Coast Guard help
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A Great Lakes freighter required Coast Guard help to break free from Lake Superior ice offshore from Duluth on Friday.
The Lee A. Tregurtha was testing recent engine repairs when it ground to a halt in thick ice Friday about a mile from the Duluth piers and ship canal. The U.S. Coast Guard sent the cutter Spar to the rescue, which spent around 90 minutes smashing the ice to clear the way for the freighter to reach the open lake.
Scott Bjorklund, an Army Corps of Engineers park ranger stationed at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, said in an interview the spectacle drew out a crowd and commenters, but it is fairly common on the lake.
“I feel like if this had happened in the middle of the night, no one would have noticed and it wouldn’t have blown up as much as it has,” Bjorklund said.
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The Lee A. Tregurtha is more than 800 feet long. It was built in 1942 as an oil tanker before being converted to a traditional Great Lakes freighter, according to Interlake Maritime Services, the Ohio-based company that owns the ship.
It was the largest steam-powered ship on the Great Lakes through the 2005 navigation season.
Bjorklund said the season for stuck ships isn’t over on the Great Lakes, particularly along the St. Marys River and in Whitefish Bay on eastern Lake Superior.
The last stuck ship he could personally recall in Duluth was in April 2022. That ship required a tug rather than an icebreaker.
“The ice is still probably going to be a problem for weeks to come, because according to our forecast, it’s still not going to be that warm for us up here,” he said. “It’s going to look pretty below average. I don’t know, it might happen again. We’ll see.”
