This has not been the best year for Lower Lakes Towing (the Canadian flagged subsidiary of Rand Logistics). In March, the M/V Cuyahoga caught fire while docked in Ashtabula, Ohio. It had an engine fire the year before but may have been running again though I think it may have been on the winter layup in Ashtabula.
Major Fire on Historic Canadian Lake Bulk Carrier MV Cuyahoga
March 15, 2024
A Canadian-registered lake bulk carrier suffered a major fire at the Port of Ashtabula, located on Lake Erie in Ohio.
The U.S. Coast Guard said USCG personnel responded to the incident on board the M/V Cuyahoga with boats and a helicopter.
The Master and crew of reported as safe and accounted for.
Photos showed the vessel engulfed in flames at a dock.
“#AshtabulaCounty is utilizing maximum county and city fire department resources to put out the fire. #CoastGuard marine inspectors and investigators are en route to begin investigating the cause of the fire. The captain of the port has issued a safety zone around the vessel,” the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes wrote on “X.”
Unconfirmed reports said the fire has been extinguished and damage is being assessed.
The self-unloading vessel, operated by Rand Logistics, is one of the oldest Canadian registered ships still in active service on the Great Lakes. It was originally built in 1943 to support the war effort and later converted into a self-unloader in 1974.
https://gcaptain.com/major-fire-on-hist ... -cuyahoga/
Cuyahoga, one of the oldest Great Lakes ships, is on fire in Lake Erie
Last May, the Cuyahoga reported an engine room fire, also in Lake Erie while the ship was near Pelee Island. Some of the crew's non-essential personnel were evacuated at the time and no injuries were reported.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ ... -1.7145431
I found this when checking on where the other Lower Lake ships were. The Robert Pierson is on Lake Erie and headed to Lorain, Ohio. The Saginaw is in Two Harbors, Minnesota so I assume it is picking up a load of taconite for the steel plant in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. M/V Manitoulin which is the one that is supposed to pick up the load for the MIchipicoten just arrived in Calcite (next to Rogers City, Michigan, sort of at the end of your index finger if you look at your hand with the thumb to the right). Since it is picking up a load there, it will need to drop that off wherever it is supposed to go and then end up the Thunder Bay. It will be a bit before they get there.
I am not sure where they are going to take Michipicoten. If US yards can work on Canadian-flagged ships, the Fraser yards in Superior, Wisconsin would make sense. Their dry docks are large enough. If not, it might have to go to Sturgeon Bay (Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan) or down to Erie, PA. I forget where the Canadian dry docks are now. If they say Port Colborne, I think that means she's finished (Port Colborne is where most go to be scrapped).