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The Manitoulin passes the S.S. Badger as it enters Pere Marquette Lake.
This Great Lakes Boat Blog is presented by House of Flavors Restaurant, 402 W. Ludington Ave., Ludington; houseofflavorsrestaurants.com
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
LUDINGTON — The Canadian-flagged M.V. Manitoulin arrived at the Port of Ludington about 8:20 p.m. Thursday evening, unloading half its cargo at the Rieth-Riley Construction Dock along Maritime Drive. The ship left Ludington early this morning and was en-route to Ferrysburg to deliver the remainder of its load at the Verplank Trucking Co. dock.
The Manitoulin is 662 feet long, 77 feet wide and has a depth of 44 feet, 11 inches. It is operated by Lower Lakes Towing LTD. of Port Dover, Ontario, a division of Rand Logistics, Inc. of Jersey City, NJ. Rand also operates Grand River Navigation of Traverse City.
The Manitoulin navigates the Ludington channel, passing the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum.
The vessel was built in 1991 as a saltwater tanker at Uljanik Shipyard, Pula, Croatia and was named the Trelsi until 2001. It was then named the Euro Swan from 2001 to 2011 and the Danish-flagged Lalandia Swan from 2011 to 2015. Its bow section was rebuilt with a 265-foot self-unloading boom from 2014 to 2015 at Chengxi Shipyards, Jiangyin, China (source, “Know Your Ships”). It began Great Lakes service on Dec. 1, 2015 and was the first new river class self-unloader to be introduced into Great Lakes service in over 40 years. That record was broken with the introduction of Interlake Steamship Company’s MV Mark W. Barker, built by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, Sturgeon Bay, Wis. in 2022.
The Manitoulin can carry 27,550 tons at maximum seaway capacity and has an operating speed of 14.2 knots per hour (16.34 mph). According to Rand Logistics’s website, it has an average size crew of 17 to 18.
The name Manitoulin is derived from the Native American Ojibway language and means “spirit island”. Manitoulin Island, located in northern Lake Huron in Ontario, is the largest freshwater lake island in the world and is home to a major limestone quarry.
The Manitoulin’s fleet sister, M.V. Calumet, is expected to arrive in Ludington today at 4 p.m., also destined for the Rieth-Riley Construction Dock. The Calumet is an American-flagged vessel operated by Grand River Navigation.
See more photos of the Manitoulin at www.greatlakesboatblog.com.
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