Cleve­land, Ohio. The arrival of the M/V DIANA marks the first saltie to arrive at Duluth-Supe­ri­or for the 2014 Nav­i­gat­ing sea­son, and also sets the record for the lat­est arrival by a saltie at the port in the his­to­ry of the U.S. Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Sea­way System.

The DIANA, oper­at­ed by Ocean Gate Char­ter­ing Inc., Mon­tre­al, was assist­ed by The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company’s tug NORTH DAKOTA inbound Duluth-Supe­ri­or to the CHS grain ele­va­tor in Supe­ri­or on Wednes­day night.

The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny offers ves­sel oper­a­tors ser­vices under a Full Ser­vice Lakes-Wide Tow­ing Con­tract. The vast major­i­ty of ves­sel oper­a­tors call­ing on the Great Lakes, includ­ing Ocean Gate Char­ter­ing Inc., rec­og­nize the cost ben­e­fits avail­able to them by enter­ing into a Lakes-Wide Tow­ing Con­tract with the Tow­ing Company.

The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny oper­ates the largest U.S. flag tug­boat fleet on the Great Lakes, pro­vid­ing ship assist, car­go trans­porta­tion and logis­tics, ice break­ing, and emer­gency assis­tance to every kind of ves­sel, barge, and marine struc­ture, with a fleet of more than thir­ty (30) tug­boats strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tioned in eleven (11) ports across the entire Great Lakes region.

With an oper­at­ing area that extends over 8,300 miles of shore­line, encom­pass­ing a water sur­face area of rough­ly 100,000 square miles, ves­sel oper­a­tors under­stand the advan­tage that the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny pro­vides with its Lakes-Wide Con­tract and its expan­sive reach across the Great Lakes with its size­able tug­boat fleet.

Many ves­sel call­ing at the port of Duluth-Supe­ri­or, for exam­ple, must first dis­charge car­go at two or three ports before mak­ing its way upbound the St. Marys Riv­er, through the Soo Locks and final­ly to Duluth-Supe­ri­or for load­ing. The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny pro­vides ser­vices in all of these dis­charge ports, as well as load ports such as Duluth-Supe­ri­or. Their tug­boat fleet is also in posi­tion to pro­vide emer­gency res­cue and assis­tance for ves­sels expe­ri­enc­ing loss­es of pow­er, ground­ings or oth­er nav­i­gat­ing per­ils, mak­ing The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny the pre­ferred choice of ves­sel operators.

This July 7, the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny will have been oper­at­ing on the Great Lakes, includ­ing in Duluth-Supe­ri­or, for 115 years. Enter­ing its 116th year in con­tin­u­ous busi­ness, the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny employs local crewmem­bers in each of the ports where its tug­boats are sta­tioned, many of which fam­i­lies have been employed by the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny for mul­ti­ple generations.

Contact

Gregg A. Thauvette
Vice Pres­i­dent, Oper­a­tions & Marketing
The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company
Tel: 216–367-8133 
E‑mail: gat@thegreatlakesgroup.com