Algoma Bear - Brand New Ship! The Youngest Bear Visits Two Harbors

We welcome a new ship to this channel as we watch the Algoma Bear maker her arrival in Two Harbors, Minnesota on the morning of June 30, 2024. She was arriving empty to load taconite pellets at the Canadian National dock, which were scheduled to be delivered to Nanticoke, Ontario. The Bear is the newest Great Lakes freighter to enter service, replacing the Algoma Transport which retired in January 2024 and is currently being scrapped.

This was the third visit the Bear made to Two Harbors in her career so far, but the previous visits occurred at hours that weren't good for recording her arrival (and didn't work out with my schedule). I made a special 7-hour round trip to catch this visit, seeing no other ships on my trip north. But it was worth it to catch a new ship for the channel. I tried to capture some closeup details on the Bear, as this was my first time seeing her.

I admit to really liking the name chosen for this ship, as I often referred to Algoma ships as “bears” in my previous videos over the past few years. It's certainly a more playful name than Innovator or Conveyor. Unfortunately, the Bear didn't growl on this visit to Two Harbors... unless you count the deep rumbling sound her bow thruster made as she maneuvered into port. The noise was enough to cause a young child at the end of the breakwater to start screaming. To me it sounded like an elephant running on a treadmill. Not that I've ever heard an elephant on a treadmill...

The Bear made a less-than-gentle contact with the CN dock on her arrival. Perhaps the captain is just trying to accumulate enough scrapes and dents to make her match the appearance of the rest of the Algoma fleet. Joking aside, I think this is the first docking in Two Harbors that where I could audibly hear contact along with seeing a puff of dust.

The 740-foot Algoma Bear in an Equinox-class Great Lakes bulk carrier built at the Jiangsu Yangzi-Mitsui Shipbuilding Company and launched in early 2024, entering service on the Great Lakes in Spring 2024. She is owned and operated by Algoma Central, named for the bear logo that is the symbol of her owners. Her five cargo holds are accessed by 14 hatch covers. She has a mid-summer cargo capacity of 35,840 metric tons. Her self-unloading system consists of a two-belt gravity system with a loop belt elevator. Her 268-foot self-unloading boom is capable of swinging 90 degrees either port or starboard. She can discharge her cargo at a rate of 5,450 metric tons per hour.
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