No Sleep Allowed For Duluth! A Tuned Up James R Barker and American Century Make a Late Double Show

If you were asleep in Duluth before this pair came through, you probably weren’t by the end of it! James R Barker delivered perhaps her best sounding salute in years, making even the American Century’s powerful horn sound downright wimpy in comparison! The two thousand footers departed in close formation, Barker in the lead, followed by the Century less than 5 minutes behind, the two ships finishing at the same time by pure chance, a fairly rare occasion! Made some new friends at the piers and have an overall wonderful time!

James R Barker was departing with iron ore from the CN6 dock in west Duluth, and despite the time of 10:30pm unleashed a nearly 80 second long super salute from her famous twin horns with the cleanest sound I’ve heard from them in a very long time, she seems to have gotten some attention! The blast was enough to shake up the spectators and the piers underfoot! The 1004ft long, 63,300 ton capacity ship was built in 1976 as the longest and heaviest ship on the Great Lakes, the last ship to claim both titles, although she has lost both in the years since she is still in a 5-way tie for 2nd longest. She has operated under the same name and company her entire career. As legend has it, in 2008 she was scheduled to have her old stern horns removed and replaced with new ones, but due to some error the new ones were installed and the old weren’t removed. Upon hearing the sound it created, any thoughts of correcting the error were abandoned and the two toned blasts have become world famous since. In 2016 her original twin funnels were removed and replaced with a single large one equipped with a diesel scrubber, creating the large plume.

American Century departed with a load of coal, and again saluted despite the hour because why not? Everyone was already awake! She was built in 1981 as the Columbia Star, the flagship of the Columbia Transportation Company and their first purpose-built flagship since the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald 6 years earlier. The 1000ft ship can carry a theoretical maximum cargo of 80,900 tons but due to depth restrictions rarely exceeds 70,000 and has never exceeded 75,000. Soon after her construction, Columbia was folded into Oglebay Norton, and she operated with them until their bankruptcy in 2006. At that time she and most of her fleetmates were sold to American Steamship Company, where she was given her current name.

Hope you all enjoy!