The nearly 700-foot-long Michipicoten was en route from Two Harbors to Thunder Bay, Canada, when it began taking on water Saturday. Half of the ship’s crew was evacuated, and the vessel then limped on to Thunder Bay. (U.S. Coast Guard)
The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that the Great Lakes freighter hobbled near Isle Royale this weekend may not have suffered an underwater collision as originally thought.
The nearly 700-foot-long Michipicoten was en route from Two Harbors to Thunder Bay, Canada, when it began taking on water Saturday. Half of the ship’s crew was evacuated, and the vessel then limped on to Thunder Bay.
The Coast Guard first reported the Michipicoten, which was carrying taconite mined on Minnesota’s Iron Range, had hit something underwater.
“We are no longer confident that is what caused them to take on water,” said Lt. Joe Snyder, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. “We can’t rule that out, but we are looking at every possibility.”
The first reports from the ship indicated an underwater collision, but later conversations with crew members and an initial assessment of the ship indicated the cause could be something else, Snyder said.
The damaged Michipicoten is now laid up at Keefer Terminal in Thunder Bay, while investigators from the U.S. and Canada try to figure out what went wrong.
The ship began taking on water shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday about 35 miles southwest of Isle Royale in U.S. waters. The Coast Guard and the U.S. National Park Service responded, evacuating half of the Michipicoten’s 22 crew members by boat. None were injured.
“They needed some crew to keep the vessel moving,” Snyder said, while the rest were evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.”
The ship, listing at 5 degrees, reached Thunder Bay under its own power. It was accompanied by another bulk carrier, the Edwin H. Gott, with the assistance of Coast Guard, U.S. Border Patrol and Park Service boats.
The Michipicoten was built in 1952 as the coal-fired steamer Elton Hoyt II. It was converted to diesel propulsion and rechristened the Michipicoten in 2003 when it was bought by a company that is now a subsidiary of Rand Logistics.
New Jersey-based Rand Logistics is a major Great Lakes fleet operator. Ten of Rand’s vessels are U.S.-flagged; another six, including the Michipicoten, sail under the Canadian flag.
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