Emily Chan
Deep beneath the waters of Lake Superior, there lurks a mysterious object that caused damage to the hull of a large cargo ship. After the ship hit the object, water started leaking into the vessel. It was partially flooded and listed to one side.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the Michipicoten, a 689-foot Canadian bulk carrier, had been transporting low-grade iron ore taconite when it ran into trouble on the morning of June 8. At this time, the reason behind the flooding is still unknown.
Taconite is mined from the Mesabi Iron Range near Hibbing and transported to different ports around the Great Lakes region from Duluth, as stated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
During the incident, half of the crew—which consisted of 22 members—were evacuated for their safety. No one was harmed, and the freighter is now at Thunder Bay, Ontario. When it’s safe to do so, the ship will be moved to undergo repairs.
Currently, an investigation is being conducted to find out what struck the vessel. Lorne Thomas, the external affairs division chief for the Ninth Coast Guard District stated that investigators will look into whether the hull’s damage was due to the ship running aground, hitting a fixed or floating object, or experiencing a hull failure.
However, the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes had posted on social media, saying that the freighter collided with a stationary object underwater, approximately 35 miles southwest of Isle Royale, and island located in Lake Superior.
The ship had taken off from Two Harbors, Minnesota, and was on its way to Thunder Bay in Canada. Early in the morning of June 8, shortly before 7 a.m., the Michipicoten reported flooding to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes.
The crew used water pumps to expel some of the floodwater. By 9:15 a.m., they had managed to reduce the listing from 15 degrees to five degrees.
“Fortunately, the vessel was able to control the flooding enough to get safely to Thunder Bay…fortunately, none of its cargo entered the water, and there’s been no report of pollution of any kind,” said Lt. Joseph Snyder, a public affairs officer for the Coast Guard. “The spaces that were being flooded, essentially empty spaces, they were not spaces where the crew lived or worked and they were not areas where the cargo was.”
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