Duluth Welcomes A Fresh Built Saltie on her First Great Lakes Trip with Icy Horns

The all new Polsteam Rudno, saluting the Lift Bridge for the very first time in subzero weather! They went for a master’s salute, and halfway through froze up which was kind of funny. Not surprising though, air temps were around 3 degrees (-16C) with wind chills around -10 (-23C). The ship gave relatively little warning for her arrival, coming off the anchorage area after sitting for a day and a half, waiting for another saltie, Jessica B, to vacate the dock: she didn’t enter immediately after the other ship left however, remaining at anchorage for over 14 hours after for some reason before making her move. Despite that and the cold, she had a decent Sunday crowd on the piers waiting for her, all things considered! With the help of the tugs Missouri and Helen H she docked at Riverland Ag to lead wheat. It was a fast load, departing just 50 hours later bound for Gibraltar.

Polsteam Rudno measures 656ft long with a capacity of 37,600 tons. As near as I can tell, her entire career so far has been: Her maiden voyage saw her loading steel in Korea, transporting it to Mexico, then heading for Egypt with unknown cargo, loading salt there which she took to Hamilton ON, then traveling empty to Duluth for this grain load. A busy start to a hopefully productive career!

She is one of many new vessels entering service for the Polsteam fleet in the last two years, replacing the 5 old ships of the I-Class ships as well as expanding their fleet. This is the 4th of the new generation ships we’ve seen visit here, the others being Polsteam Koprowo last year, and Polsteams Dabie and Pile this year. 4 more have entered service or are currently in sea trials that we have yet to see, and four more are under construction for a total of 12 planned ships.

Hope you enjoy!