Tom Wenstadt, our Door County correspondent, reports that the M/V BURNS HARBOR left the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding dock in Sturgeon Bay, Thursday morning March 21, 2024. The vessel went out ice free and up Green Bay toward Lake Michigan.  It is destined for Superior, Wis., to pick up its first load of taconite for the season.

The vessel was christened at Sturgeon Bay on May 24, 1980.  The name came from Bethlehem Steel’s new Burns Harbor plant.  She has carried her name though-out her life and has been owned and operated by The American Steamship Co. of Buffalo, New York, since 2005.          

Specifications:

            Length           1000 feet

            Beam (width) 105 feet

            Depth             56 feet

            Capacity        80,900 tons

            Power             4  3600 horsepower EMD V-20 diesel engines turning two propellers and a bow thruster

            Self-Unloading rate 8,930 tons per hour

Look for an aft pilot house and an aft self-unloading boom with a black hull and white upper works. Be sure to get the spectacular view from the Door County Lighthouse Tower.

——————————————

Tom Wenstadt, who lives in Sturgeon Bay, is a retired marine engineer, having worked in the Great Lakes area for thirty-seven years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and is the author of Freighters of Manitowoc. He is a member of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and the Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse Preservation Society. He is a volunteer archival assistant and docent for the JOHN PURVES.

Photo by Bob Kuhn: BURNS HARBOR dated March 26, 2019

This story was originally posted on March 23, 2024.