The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday evening that the Great Lakes cargo hobbled near Isle Royale over the weekend and experienced a 13-foot break in its steel skin. However, it was possible not an underwater collision as previously thought, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The almost 700- foot- much Michipicoten was en road from Two Harbors to Thunder Bay, Canada, on Saturday when it began taking on waters. Half of the ship’s crew was evacuated, and the vessel therefore limped on to Thunder Bay.
The Coast Guard initially reported the Michipicoten, which was carrying taconite collected on Minnesota’s Iron Range, had hit something under.
An underwater collision still ca n’t be” 100 percent” ruled out, but” there is no evidence to indicate]the ship ] struck a submerged object”, Lt. Joe Snyder, a spokesman for the U. S. Coast Guard in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., said Monday night.
The scar in the ship’s deck “is possible due to a tension fracture”, he said.
In the “general place” of the bow, divers discovered a 13-foot-foot hole below the liquid line. The hole ranged from one-half to one-half inches wide. The “centerline void,” an vacant space between the nest surface and the ship, was caused by the hole, as was the “centerline void,” Snyder said.
According to Snyder, the fleet in Thunder Bay is receiving momentary areas to improve its seaworthiness. The ship did then travel to another port for more intensive maintenance while operating independently.
The ship’s initial reports suggested an underground collision, but conversations with team members and an initial ship-level assessment after suggested that the cause might be something different, Snyder said.
As U.S. and Canadian researchers try to discover what went wrong, the broken Michipicoten is piled up at Keefer Terminal in Thunder Bay.
The ship began taking on water shortly before 7 a. m. Saturday about 35 km west 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 team members by boat. Few were injured.
” They needed some staff to maintain the vehicle moving”, Snyder said, while the remainder were evacuated “out of an abundance of prudence”.
The fleet, listing at 5 degrees, reached Thunder Bay under its own authority. It was accompanied part of the way by another large ship, the Edwin H. Gott, with the assistance of Coast Guard, U. S. Border Patrol and Park Service ships.
The Michipicoten, a coal-fired machine Elton Hoyt II, was constructed in 1952 as the coal-fired machine. When it was purchased by a business that is now a company of Rand Logistics in 2003, it was converted to oil propulsion and given the name” Micchipicoten.”
Rand Logistics, based in New Jersey, is a big operator for the Great Lakes fleet. Ten of Rand’s warships are U. S. flagged, another six, including the Michipicoten, float under the American flag.
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