Cleve­land, Ohio. The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny repo­si­tioned its Tug HURON to Duluth, Min­neso­ta on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 2, 2017 to enhance capa­bil­i­ties for ice break­ing, har­bor assist and oth­er ser­vices essen­tial to com­mer­cial ship­ping in the Duluth-Supe­ri­or region. The Tug HURON’s first ice break­ing oper­a­tion of 2017 took place late Wednes­day evening, Jan­u­ary 4^th when she assist­ed long­stand­ing cus­tomer, Cana­da Steamship Lines M/V THUNDER BAY in the Port of Duluth.

Pho­to Cap­tured by Rod Burdick
Mar­quette, Michi­gan, Low­er Har­bor Ore Dock, Jan­u­ary 1, 2017
Tug HURON Pri­or to Being Repo­si­tioned in Duluth, Minnesota

The ded­i­cat­ed and depend­able har­bor fleet in Duluth now includes Tug HURON in addi­tion to Tugs ARKANSAS, KENTUCKY and NORTH CAROLINA, giv­ing the fleet “fresh legs” for the upcom­ing ice break­ing bat­tle. This ensures the first-class har­bor assist, tow­ing, and ice break­ing ser­vices that com­mer­cial ship­pers expect in the Port of Duluth will con­tin­ue for years to come.

Tug HURON Specifications

• ex-YTB-833
• ABS Load Line
• Length: 102’
• Breadth: 29’
• Draft: 13’
• Main Engines: Fair­banks Morse 38D‑8–1/8X10
• Horse­pow­er: 2,000
• Pro­peller: Sin­gle Screw, 4‑blade, 144” x 89”
• Fire­fight­ing: 2,000 GPM Diesel Pump, with (2) Mon­i­tors @ 1,500 gal each

Pho­to Cap­tured by Ken­neth Newhams, Duluth Ship­ping News
The Arrival of Tug HURON in the Port of Duluth, Jan­u­ary 2, 2017

“The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny offers 365/24/7 ser­vice with expe­ri­enced full-time crews, so that our cus­tomers always receive con­sis­tent and depend­able ser­vice. With a Full-Ser­vice Lakes-Wide Tow­ing Con­tract, includ­ing ice break­ing and our oth­er ancil­lary ser­vices, our cus­tomers gain an added lev­el of safe­ty and sea­man­ship to pro­tect their crew, equip­ment, and the envi­ron­ment; wher­ev­er their ves­sels may call on the Great Lakes. It’s added insur­ance,” says Joseph P. Star­ck, Jr., Pres­i­dent, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company.

The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny plans to bring two (2) more for­mer YTBs into ser­vice dur­ing 2017. These addi­tion­al tugs will be strate­gi­cal­ly sta­tioned in oth­er ports where ice break­ing ser­vices are nor­mal­ly required.

The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny pro­vides tug­boat and tow­ing ser­vices, ship assist, logis­tics and car­go trans­porta­tion, ice break­ing, and emer­gency assis­tance of every kind of ves­sel, barge, and marine struc­ture in 40 U.S. Great Lakes ports from Buf­fa­lo, New York to Duluth, Min­neso­ta. The Tow­ing Company’s tugs per­form com­mer­cial ice break­ing ser­vices dur­ing the win­ter months of the Great Lakes Nav­i­gat­ing sea­son with the capa­bil­i­ty of break­ing ice up to three feet thick and windrows up to six feet high. In addi­tion to har­bors and in dock areas and slips, The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny also pro­vides ice break­ing ser­vices in nav­i­ga­ble waters across the lakes in Fed­er­al Chan­nels and ship­ping lanes when U.S. Coast Guard or Cana­di­an ice break­ers are not available.

To learn more, vis­it www.thegreatlakesgroup.com

About the Port of Duluth

The Duluth Sea­way Port Author­i­ty is an inde­pen­dent, pub­lic agency cre­at­ed by the Min­neso­ta State Leg­is­la­ture to fos­ter region­al mar­itime com­merce, pro­mote trade devel­op­ment, facil­i­tate indus­tri­al devel­op­ment and serve as an advo­cate for port inter­ests here and around the world.

The #1 vol­ume port on the Great Lakes, the sec­ond largest dry bulk port in the U.S. and mid-Amer­i­ca’s gate­way to glob­al trade. Locat­ed at the head of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Sea­way Sys­tem, the Port of Duluth-Supe­ri­or is a mul­ti-modal hub for domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al cargo.

About The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny & Great Lakes Shipyard

Great Lakes Ship­yard is a full-ser­vice ship­yard for new ves­sel con­struc­tion includ­ing new work­boats and barges, truck­able prod­ucts, cus­tom fab­ri­ca­tion, ship main­te­nance and repairs, in a world-class facil­i­ty that includes state-of-the-art equip­ment such as a 770-ton mobile Trav­elift and a 300-ton float­ing dry­dock. GLS facil­i­ties are locat­ed at the Company’s head­quar­ters on the Old Riv­er Chan­nel of the Cuya­hoga Riv­er in Cleve­land, Ohio. GLT’s ship­yard exper­tise includes design­ing, build­ing and main­tain­ing its own fleet, as well as an exten­sive list of com­mer­cial and gov­ern­ment tug­boats, sup­ply boats, fer­ries, barges, cruise boats, large yachts, and many oth­er types of ves­sels, includ­ing larg­er domes­tic and for­eign car­go ves­sels. The ship­yard is a major con­trac­tor for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, EPA, and many oth­er fed­er­al, state and local gov­ern­ments, attest­ing to its high-qual­i­ty work­man­ship, on-time per­for­mance, and com­pet­i­tive pric­ing. Learn more at www.greatlakesshipyard.com.

Great Lakes Ship­yard is a divi­sion of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, an indus­try leader since 1899, pro­vid­ing essen­tial, com­mer­cial tug­boat ser­vices such as har­bor assist and tow­ing, ice break­ing and car­go trans­porta­tion in more than 35 U.S. ports, in all 8 U.S. Great Lakes’ states, includ­ing Ohio, Michi­gan, Illi­nois, Indi­ana, Min­neso­ta, Wis­con­sin, Penn­syl­va­nia, New York, and the St. Lawrence Riv­er. Learn more at www.thegreatlakestowingcompany.com