Algoma Compass the New “Michipicoten”? (Plus a Lesson for Me)

Until last year Michipicoten was long the most common visitor to Duluth, making the “Soo Express” run as often as twice a week, but the crack that nearly sank her put an end to that. Now, due to a twist of fate, one of Duluth’s rarest seen ships may end up being our most common sight. After being almost completely absent from the harbor for nearly a decade, we now may have the potential to see her every three days. Algoma Central seems to have picked up the Algoma Steel contract from Lower Lakes Towing following last year’s troubled season (which makes perfect sense given the name lol) and Algoma Compass seems to be the ship chosen for the role, at least for now. Algoma has a huge fleet, so it’s possible they won’t keep a single ship consistently on it like Lower Lakes did, but we’ll have to see! Either way, we’ll probably see a lot more of their vessels this season, which I’m not complaining about.

As for Michipicoten herself, well not much is known for sure about her future, she still sits in Fraser Shipyards with her lights on. Rumor has it her return is bogged down in bureaucracy and the legal system but you know how reliable rumors are. I’m still keeping my ears and eyes open for further info, but I’m not surprised the steel mills got tired of waiting for her, they need ore.

This video was a bit of a kick in the pants though, and it was entirely my own fault. Managed to lock my keys in my car, and I knew it. The key fob had broke the day before and am waiting on parts to fix it. In the meantime I got out of the car, locked with the door button, took the first couple shots then realized my keys were not in pocket. Ran back and sure enough they were sitting on the seat, apparently I had missed my pocket when I tried to put them in. So wandered back to the Canal, rather dejectedly filmed the ship (what else could I do?) then called around to see if anyone could break me in (was very expensive and took over an hour). So, lesson learned.

Enjoy!