An interesting evening of comparisons at the Duluth Canal! The 50 year old ore freighter Robert S Pierson making arriving in her third visit of the season and the 2 year old Viking Octantis departing from her fourth visit of the season on 8/15/24. Honestly wasn’t expecting the Octantis to leave for another hour, so I’m glad I went over to watch the Pierson sailing through the harbor and noticed her starting to move! I love surprise 2-for-1s! Also for some reason there was a convoy of army vehicles crossing the lift bridge, not entirely sure why but it’s not the first time either. Perhaps going to the coast guard station or army corps of engineers, but I’ve also seen them go all the way to the end of the point to the small general aviation airstrip located there.
The Robert S Pierson has historically been one of the rarest lakers to sail through the Canal, but following a nearly 2 decade gap between visits, she may become a semi-regular visitor to the Twin Ports if Michipicoten remains out of commission. Built in 1974, the 630ft ship weighs over 20,000 tons with an additional 19,600 ton cargo capacity. She is a River Class vessel, designed specifically to fit in and out of incredibly tight channels and river-bends with just a few feet of clearance on all sides, and is highly maneuverable with multiple thrusters. Originally named the Wolverine, she was built for the Oglebay Norton company and served that fleet up until it went out of business in the 2008 recession following years of issues. She received her new name at that time, and up until this year had not been through the Duluth Canal since, although she did make one odd trip to the Superior side of the harbor in 2021. She has a crew of 16.
Viking Octantis is a completely different beast! Completed in very late 2021 and making her first trips in 2022, she was the first Polar Class Expedition Cruise ship Viking had ever built, and the first international cruise ship to ever be specifically designed with Great Lakes in mind. Measuring 670ft and weighing over 30,000 tons, the ship was the largest passenger vessel to ever sail the Lakes, a title which she now shares with her sister ship Viking Polaris. She can carry 378 passengers, a low number for her size, because of her larger, luxury cabin design. She also features over 200 crew members, a fully equipped scientific research laboratory, a fleet of over 20 deployable boats and a submarine on top of the more standard luxury cruise ship features, although because she also sails the roughest waters on Earth around Antarctica, she does not have cabin balconies, due to the fact that a bad storm in those waters would wipe them off the ship. Instead the windows can fully opened if desired, allowing the cabins themselves to be open air. Sadly on this particular trip to Duluth it was pouring rain with dense fog the entire day, clearing up only about an hour before they departed and resuming about 10 minutes after (thus why the video cuts off rather abruptly, could see it moving in!). Despite that, I hope they had a good time but I still feel kind of bad. These cruises are NOT cheap! After departing, they sailed up to their next port of call in Thunder Bay, Ontario. And no, the cabin lights were not flashing, it’s just a really weird camera thing.
The only thing the two vessels have in common is that fully fueled, loaded and provisioned, they most likely weigh about the same!
Hope you enjoy!
Информация по комментариям в разработке