Two Ships, Five Salutes, and a Bad Day to Try and Cross the Muted Lift Bridge

I just know the lift bridge operator was a bit sad for this one! While the horns were silent on the Bridge, they certainly weren’t in the water! Two decently uncommon ships for this season making their presence known in Duluth, Presque Isle and Joseph L Block sounding off 5 salutes between them and putting on a show for the crowd! Presque Isle lead the way, coming in for fuel and ultimately to load on the Superior side of the harbor, while Joseph L Block happened to depart at the same time from the Duluth ore dock and made her way out. Meanwhile, small boats and Vista Star also passed by, taking advantage of the long bridge raise and even more after the ships were done, as if it wasn’t up long enough! All said and done, the bride was raised from 10:33 to 11:06 and I felt so bad for the people wanting to cross! Presque Isle was built in 1973, measuring 1000ft long with a carrying capacity of 57,000 tons, she was second thousand footer built. She is the world’s last true ITB (Integrated Tug/Barge), an experimental ship design that can detach the stern “tug” section that houses the engines, pilothouse and living quarters, while still being a full-fledged ship in every other respect, including legally. Only 7 were ever built, 6 for the ocean, 1 for the Great Lakes. Her final oceangoing sister was retired in 2011, leaving her the last of her kind. The experiment failed after it was shown the design provided no significant benefits over a traditional ship, while costing far more to build and maintain, a “tug” that is not rated as seaworthy without its “barge”, plus with solid, no flexibility connections between the two hulls, it creates a lot of strain on the connectors while sitting empty. The idea lived on however, going on to evolve into the highly successful ATB design, pushed by immense but more traditional tugs that are fully capable of sailing independently, flexible connections, and have different, beneficial political classifications. Despite those challenges, Presque Isle has had an extremely successful career on the Great Lakes, one pf the largest freshwater vessels in the world, she hauls iron ore, initially for US Steel, now for Great Lakes Fleet after the fleet was separated from the company in 1992. Curiously, she retained her US Steel paint scheme until 2012, two decades after every other ship in the fleet received their paint jobs. She’s had a few incidents in her career, in 1995 she hit the Poe Lock’s upper gate while entering the lock, which briefly shut down all between lakes for any vessel more than 740ft long until it was repaired, while the ship itself needed to return to Duluth for shipyard repairs. Then in mid 2025 she grounded in the St Marys River, breaching her hull and was out of commission for nearly 5 months of repairs. She usually operates a Two Harbors based route but on occasion makes a trip to Duluth or Superior, making her a special sight! Joseph L Block was one of our most regular ships up until the 2025 season when she got shifted to a Marquette route, and has only been back a handful of times since, so it was good to see her! Measuring 727ft long, she was built in 1976 with a capacity of 37,200 tons. She entered service as the flagship of the Inland Steel fleet, just three ships strong, the third of four nearly identical ships, just different lengths, the other three being ASC’s American Mariner, John J Boland and H Lee White. Unlike the other three vessels however, she features a distinctive striped paint scheme, a modified bow and an additional flagship stern cabin meant for VIP guests. She operated for Inland Steel until they sold their small fleet to Central Marine Logistics in 2008 for the Cleveland Cliffs Company, an irony for many ship-watchers since Cleveland Cliffs had discarded their previous fleet in 1992. The only incident in the ship’s history came in 2024, when a boom on the Duluth ore dock mistakenly got the all-clear to lift, and destroyed 50ft of the ship’s self unloading boom, which took about a month and several million dollars to rebuild. Following that she got a full refit and new paint over the winter. An interesting note about this arrival is her fleetmate Wilfred Sykes is here finishing up a refit of her own at Fraser Shipyards, and Edward L Ryerson is of course here in long-term layup, meaning the entire three ship fleet was in town at the same time. Hope you enjoy!