Tom Wenstadt, our Door County correspondent, reports that the M/V PAUL R. TREGURTHA arrived at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay early Monday morning January 20th, after a long battle with ice on the bay of Green Bay assisted by the USCGC MACKINAW. With assistance from the tugs DONALD J. SARTER, JIMMIE L. as well as the USCGC MACKINAW, the vessel pivoted and backed up the bay to within a mile of the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding yard where it spent the night. Later the next evening, the vessel was towed into the FBS graving dock for winter inspection and maintenance.
The PAUL R. TREGURTHA has been the Queen of the Lakes from its christening as the WILLIAM J. De LANCEY on April 25, 1981. The De LANCEY was built by American Shipbuilding in Lorain, Ohio, for the Interlake Steamship Co. The vessel was re-christened May 25th, 1990, as the PAUL R. TREGURTHA in Sturgeon Bay at Bay Shipbuilding in honor of the Chairman and CEO of Interlake Steam Ship Co.
Specifications:
Length 1013 feet
Beam (width) 105 feet
Depth 56 feet
Capacity 78,850 tons
Power 2 MaK I-6 8040 horsepower diesel engines turning two propellers and a bow thruster
Self-Unloading rate 10,000 tons per hour
Come see the Queen of the Lakes this winter at Fincantierri Bay Shipbuilding, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, along with a few of her 1000 foot friends. Look for a long iron ore colored hull and an iron ore colored unloading boom with a white pilot house. Be sure to get a spectacular view from the Door County Maritime Museum Lighthouse Tower where you can also check out the shipyard’s two new big buildings that are being used for the construction of large subassemblies for new US Navy Frigates. The vessels are being built across the bay by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin.
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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 dated January 12, 2018
