ANOTHER VESSEL ARRIVES FOR LAYUP

Bay ice is unsafe for ice fishermen this afternoon after another vessel arrived for layup last night. The MICHIPICOTEN, after unloading iron ore in Nanticoke, Ontario, sailed across the lake and arrived in Erie last night for winter layup. The steamer is the first member of the Lower Lakes Towing/Grand River Navigation fleet to ever spend a winter in Erie.

MICHIPICOTEN broke through ice a couple of inches thick and slowly made her way through the channel and Presque Isle Bay to the West Slip. This morning the crew was hard at work, pumping ballast off and performing other tasks necessary before they can leave the vessel for the winter. Over the coming winter crews from Erie Shipbuilding will be performing work on the MICHIPICOTEN.

The MICHIPICOTEN's arrival is the vessel's second visit to the port under that name, with the first having been last June. The vessel has wintered in Erie before, however. During the winter of 1994/95, as Interlake Steamship's ELTON HOYT II, the vessel spent part of the winter at the Sassafras Street Dock (now the site of the Bayfront Convention Center) before going into drydock during March. Thanks probably to the weak American dollar, the Nanticoke, Ontario-registered MICHIPICOTEN is also the first Canadian vessel to spend the winter in Erie since the LOUIS R. DESMARAIS spent the winter of 1997/98 at Metro Machine.

Meanwhile, within Erie Shipbuilding, work continues on the KAREN ANDRIE and A-397. East of there, crews from Great Lakes Electrical Services, Erie Shipbuilding and O-N Minerals are hard at work on the Steamer CASON J. CALLAWAY and tug/barge PRESQUE ISLE. Lakeshore Towing's skilled professionals are tentatively scheduled to join them on Saturday, when they sink the cofferdam under the starboard side of the PRESQUE ISLE, exposing the vessel's starboard propeller and rudder for work. Cranes at the Mountfort Terminal will drop Lakeshore's barge 502 into the water to serve as the dive platform for that work.

Lakeshore's barge 401 will also be busy later this winter. Lakeshore Towing in December purchased a CAT excavator and mounted it on 401, and will be using that to replace the bow thruster on the CALLAWAY.

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MICHIPICOTEN secured for the winter at the West Slip.


CALLAWAY at the Old Ore Dock.


The view from the parking lot at Erie Shipbuilding, with the J.S. St. JOHN. Note the change in the weather in the five minutes since the photo above this one was taken.


Bow view of the CALLAWAY.


PRESQUE ISLE at the Mountfort Terminal.