All I Ask is a Tall Ship… Tiberborg Arrives Off a Choppy Lake

For a relatively small 565ft vessel, the saltie Tiberborg certainly feels massive! Absolutely towering over the Duluth Piers, she arrived for grain at Superior’s CHS Elevators. With a carrying capacity of around 20,000 tons and just under a million cubic feet of cargo space, she makes up for her small length in a big way! Built in 2013, she is owned by the Dutch Wagenborg company, historically a regular customer for Duluth, but have been less common this season with the Gavalon Elevator moving away from Beet Pulp Pellets, their typical cargo. Instead of Beets, she came for wheat, destination not clear yet, it looks like she’s making a pit stop in Montreal before setting out overseas, therefore her ultimate destination is unknown until she’s done there, but it’s likely to be in Europe or Africa.

Not much information is available about her history other than she is named after Rome, Italy’s Tiber River, and she can carry a massive variety of different cargo types including grain, turbine parts, industrial equipment, containers, other boats, and much more. She has been a frequent visitor to the Great Lakes region since her construction. Equipped with four small cranes, she can load and unload nearly any cargo at any location. She is currently about halfway through the standard service life of a saltie, and her smaller size has allowed her to remain virtually unblemished by the tight Welland Locks, which can absolutely shred the paint off of larger and wider vessels.

Also featured is the Vista Star, which bailed on their normal route around the lake after getting tossed around an uncomfortable amount for the passengers by the choppy waters. She quickly turned about and surfed into the canal going faster than I’ve ever seen her go before, then taking a longer harbor cruise in calmer waters. While it was very mild for the larger ships, she just isn’t built for that!

Sorry about the wind noise in this video (and others recently), the small plastic cover I used to hold the wind noise foam over my microphone broke, and was starting to make more noise than the actual wind, so I took it off. Trying to find a new one!