American Integrity Performing with the Band

Well, they tried to both please the crowd at the canal without disrupting the concert at Bayfront by saluting very early, but I think they forgot about the bridge response! Props to the musicians though, I don’t think they missed a beat! The thousand foot ship arrived tall and proud, coming for iron ore at the Duluth ore dock.

Built in 1978 in Sturgeon Bay as the second vessel of her class constructed. She was originally intended to be named Burns Harbor and had that name on her hull at launch, but for reasons lost to time she was renamed Lewis Wilson Foy before her maiden voyage, and the Burns Harbor name was given to the next ship, which started construction immediately after. That vessel still carries the name today. Both vessels originally sailed as the flagships of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, along with Stewart J Cort.

Her first four years were rocky, first hitting an unknown object in Lake Erie in 1979, which resulted in several weeks of repairs. In 1981 she collided the 1953 Canadian Laker EB Barber, an Algoma vessel, in Sault Ste Marie. The Foy suffered 3 hull breaches in her side, while the much smaller Algoma ship was worse off, and ultimately and after another 4 years of light duty was scrapped. Then in 1982 she grounded in Taconite Harbor hard enough to require drydocking following the incident. From that point on however, the ship’s luck turned around and she has not had a single incident serious enough to be noted since (knock on wood).

In 1991 she was sold to Columbia Transportation company and renamed Oglebay Norton, joining another sister ship, Columbia Star as the flagship vessels of that fleet, a title which had once belonged to the Edmund Fitzgerald during her career. In the 2000s Columbia/Oglebay started suffering from mismanagement and other issues, (the first time I saw this ship in 2002 as a little kid she was belching black smoke, thick enough to choke out the bridge for a few minutes from low maintenance engines) and ultimately sold off the two thousand footers and several other vessels to American Steamship Company in 2006. Oglebay Norton and Columbia Star were renamed American Integrity and American Century respectively, rejoining with her old fleetmate Burns Harbor, which had also been purchased by ASC the year before. The Columbia/Oglebay company ultimately folded two years later when the 2008 recession hit.

Since then she’s had a solid and unblemished career, sailing weekly coal and iron ore runs across the lakes. She’s held freshwater cargo records several times during her career. One of the most common visitors to Duluth so far this season, the ship has visited on a weekly or at longest, biweekly basis. As of the release of this video, she is sitting at Superior’s Pipeline dock waiting for the BNSF dock to open up (currently occupied by G3 Marquis) and for some minor maintenance. Hope everyone enjoys!