(Greg Rourke) – Didja ever have one of those days? We all have, and on September 20, 2014 the captain of the M/V Paul R Tregurtha really had one of those days.
The Tregurtha is the longest ship operating on the Great Lakes. At 1013 feet long, NHRA would probably try to run fuel cars on the deck if they could get them stopped in 13 feet. On this particular day she was loaded with 68,000 tons of coal, and heading to port in Duluth Minnesota.
Duluth must be a town without a lot of activities going on, because they built a park just for folks to watch the Lakes ships come and go under the giant lift bridge. It was a nice sunny day, the park was crowded with people waiting for one of their favorite ships to come in. But she didn’t quite make it, and ran aground right in front of everybody. Her twin V 16 diesels at 8500 horsepower each weren’t enough to get her free. Great Lakes Towing sent two tugs to get her free, and made quick work of it. Had they asked me, I would have sent about 17 tugs. Good thing I’m not in charge of anything. Eyewitnesses say the Tregurtha was maneuvering around a smaller vessel when the incident happened. The Coast Guard is inspecting the vessel, and investigating the incident.
From grounding to refloating, about 4 hours. And gave the boat nerds of Duluth something to talk about for years.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A PAIR OF TUG BOATS FREE A 1,000FT LONG CARGO SHIP FROM SHALLOW WATER IN MINNESOTA –
According to a tugboat fan site, the boats you’re looking at are 84 long – they don’t look very large next to the Tregurtha! The tugs have also been in use for around 90 years, getting engine swapped (from steam to diesel) in the 1950s.
I’m on the ameteur end of the “boat nerd” camp as I really enjoy the videos of watching the big lake ships move. She’s aground inside the turning basin inside the harbor, not outside. Scary to see her abeam to the current too.