Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Guest wrote:Towed Dump Scows to Buffalo for a new owner.

Thank you all very much for answering my curiosity question.. A very unique trip, it seems, for that tug.

woofan11k wrote:She assisted in towing American Victory to get scrapped.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.duluth ... end%3fampm

She only assisted with getting the American Victory on a stern line out of the harbor and into the open lake. Returned under the bridge (i.e. Duluth entrance) less than an hour after the scrap tow went out. Only one tug towed the American Victory across Lake Superior, wasn't the Helen H.

woofan11k wrote:She assisted in towing American Victory to get scrapped.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.duluth ... end%3fampm

Nevermind. I'm incorrect. My apologies

Towed Dump Scows to Buffalo for a new owner.

We met it on the St. Clair River when it was heading downbound during the summer. It was pushing a couple of small barges, I believe they were scows. This was the same time, I believe, that both the Nancy J. and Nels J. were in drydock at Fraser, leaving the Helen to do this long tow.

She assisted in towing American Victory to get scrapped.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.duluth ... end%3fampm

Tristin,
I photographed the Helen H pushing Barges 16 and 17 on August 13, 2018 about midday entering the MacArthur Lock downbound, headed for Buffalo. She dropped the barges in Buffalo and returned back to the Soo, where she spent considerable time at the shipyard there. I do not know when she left there and headed back to Duluth.

I was hoping to find some information about some traveling activity that I noticed from Heritage Marine’s tug, Helen H, last season. I understand this is quite a while afterwards, and I don’t have very specific dates, as this is just something I was curious about, and thought I’d ask.

At some point last summer(?), I noticed that the tug, which usually does harbor work in Duluth-Superior, had left the port and started heading across Lake Superior. I thought it was unusual, so I followed her progress for the coming days, and she made a voyage all the way down to Buffalo, at which point her AIS stopped showing up.

It was for several weeks (maybe even months) that her signal was nowhere to be found, until one day (perhaps late summer/early fall), she randomly showed back up on AIS in Lake Huron, heading back for Duluth.

Does anyone have any information about this trip? What was the reason she headed that far away for so long? Was she towing a barge, etc?

Thanks in advance