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The Ontario Venture passes the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum and U.S. Coast Guard Station Ludington as it departs Monday morning.
This MCP Boat Blog is presented by Manistee Harbor Tours, operator of the Princess of Manistee, and the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum, www.masoncountymihistory.org.
Story and photos by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
LUDINGTON — One of the Great Lakes’ newest bulk carriers made its first known visit to Ludington Monday morning, delivering aggregate to the Great Lakes Materials terminal on Pere Marquette Lake, operated by Rieth-Riley Construction Co.
The Canadian-flagged MV Ontario Venture arrived after making a stop Sunday at the Verplank Dock Co. terminal on Muskegon Lake, where it discharged part of its cargo before proceeding north to Ludington. The MarineTraffic app, which lists expected arrivals, had not indicated that the ship was scheduled to visit Ludington.
After unloading at the Rieth-Riley dock, Ontario Venture departed at about 10:45 a.m. Monday, bound for Bruce Mines, Ontario, where it will load another cargo of aggregate.
The Badger leaves for its morning crossing while the Ontario Venture unloads aggregate.
Ontario Venture is among the newest self-unloading bulk carriers on the Great Lakes. The vessel began life in 2004 as the double-hulled saltwater tanker Patrona I, built at Qixin Shipyard, part of China State Shipbuilding Corp., in Shanghai, China. McKeil Marine purchased the tanker in 2025 and undertook an extensive conversion, transforming it into a modern self-unloading bulk carrier before placing it into service this year under the Canadian flag.
The conversion follows a growing trend on the Great Lakes of giving oceangoing tankers a second life as bulk carriers. Ludington-area ship watchers are familiar with the concept through McKeil Marine’s Northern Venture, which has made previous aggregate deliveries here in recent years. Like Ontario Venture, Northern Venture began its career as an oceangoing vessel before being rebuilt for Great Lakes service. While Northern Venture has become a familiar visitor to Ludington, it has not yet called at the port during the 2026 shipping season.
According to the book “Know Your Ships,” Ontario Venture was originally 472 feet, 7 inches long with a beam of 75 feet, 6 inches, a molded depth of 40 feet, 8 inches and was powered by a single MAN-B&W 6L48/60B diesel engine rated at 9,790 brake horsepower. Following its conversion, the vessel now measures 679 feet, 10 inches overall with a beam of 78 feet and has a carrying capacity of 24,000 metric tons at Seaway draft. Its 265-foot self-unloading boom allows it to discharge cargo without shoreside unloading equipment, making it well suited for aggregate, grain, coal, iron ore and other bulk commodities.
McKeil Marine, headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, traces its roots to 1956, when founder Evans McKeil began the company with a single workboat supporting construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Today, the company operates one of Canada’s largest privately owned fleets, including tugs, barges, tankers, bulk carriers and specialized project vessels serving the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, Atlantic Canada and the Arctic.
Ontario Venture was headed to Bruce Mines, a community in Algoma District on the north shore of Lake Huron’s North Channel, about 40 miles east of Sault Ste. Marie along the Trans-Canada Highway. Although home to fewer than 600 residents, Bruce Mines has long played an important role in Great Lakes industry. It was the site of Ontario’s first major copper mining operation in the 1840s and later became Northern Ontario’s first incorporated town in 1903. Today, the community is home to Ontario Trap Rock, a major aggregate operation owned by R.W. Tomlinson Ltd., where dense trap rock is quarried and shipped throughout the Great Lakes for use in highways, asphalt and railroad ballast. The company is expanding its marine loading facilities with a new conveyor system designed to increase shipping capacity and improve efficiency.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol escorts the Ontario Venture out of the Ludington channel.
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