Tom Wenstadt, our Door County correspondent, reports that the integrated tug barge PRENTISS BROWN/ST. MARYS CONQUEST left Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding around noon, Monday, May 5th. The vessel proceeded out of the bay of Green Bay and headed to its destination of Charlevoix, Michigan for a load of cement.
The articulated pusher tug BETTY CULBREATH was built by Gulfport Shipbuilding of Port Arthur, Texas, in 1967 for Gulf Coast Transit. The tug was refit with a Bludworth ATB coupler at Bay Shipbuilding and renamed PRENTISS BROWN in 2009.
The ST. MARYS CONQUEST was built as the powered tanker RED CROWN by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. in 1937. The vessel was converted to numerous configurations ending as the cement barge ST. MARYS CONQUEST in 2014.
Specifications:
Length 560 feet
Beam (width) 55 feet
Depth 28 feet
Capacity 8,500 tons
Power 1 3,900 horsepower GM EMD – 12-645 V12 diesel engine
Look for an aft tug pilot house, forward cement unloading house and a light blue hull and white and gray upper paint.
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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 credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society
