Classic Ship Oberstar Crushing Ice Like It’s Nothing

There’s ice in the water and Oberstar just doesn’t care at all! She came in at speed with an impressive amount of noise from her hull until she completely drowned that out with her horn. For once I almost wouldn’t have minded no salute to hear that all way through! The 806ft vessel was arriving with a full load of limestone, and although it was only 5pm it might as well have been midnight for how light it was outside. She carried her load to Greymont, unloaded, and is currently loading coal, likely for Greymont again since they get a shipment of that every now and then, and it’s a lot easier just to have a ship transport it to their front door than building an entire train unloading system, even if the coal dock is less than a mile away. Once she’s done with that the ship will either load again here in Duluth or sail to Marquette, her usual loading spot, and take a load from there.

Built in 1959, the Oberstar has been a regular in Duluth since her construction, named Shenango II at the time. Measuring 714ft in length she was among the largest ships of the day. In the early 60s she was sold to Interlake Steamship and renamed Charles M Beeghly. In 1972 she was lengthened to her current size, and entered service just a few days late to be crowned Queen of the Lakes, with Stewart J Cort taking the title. She did however complete her first trip before the Cort, giving her a very briefly lived world record for freshwater cargo at 31,000 tons. In 1978 she grounded in the St Mary’s River and spent time here in Duluth for bottom repairs. Two years later she was converted to a self unloader here in Duluth, her cargoholds were rebuilt and the 250ft boom added over her stern. An economic downturn while undergoing the work meant she didn’t return to service for another 4 years. Upon finally being reactivated, she loaded up but didn’t even make it out of the harbor before grounding and ripping open her bottom, sending her straight back to the shipyard another 2 months. Following that she became one of the most reliable ships in the fleet, setting records and receiving awards for low downtime and incident free sailing. In 2008 her steam engines were replaced with new diesels. In 2007 she was briefly renamed James L Oberstar, but her new namesake heard about it and refused, having them restore her old name and requesting it stay until he passed away. That came in 2011, and she was renamed Honorable James L Oberstar in a ceremony near the Lift Bridge here in Duluth, Oberstar’s home city, but doing a good deal of damage to the Convention Center dock upon departure, discovering structural flaws leading to its rebuilding that completed this year. In 2015 the ship was equipped with exhaust scrubbers. She was refitted here over this last winter. Then in June of this year she grounded in the St Mary’s River yet again, this time breaching her hull on a rock in unusually low water level and after a week of hasty work sailed to Duluth under the escort of the cutter Spar, spending another 4 months in dry dock, returning to the water in early October. This is her second trip back since departing, and seemed to be pretty happy about it!

Hope you all enjoy!