by Guest » May 28, 2025, 10:38 am
The incident involving the American Spirit on May 27, 2025 when it almost went up against the seawall at Port Huron brought back memories of the Lewis Wilson Foy doing almost the same thing at the same spot back in October of 1989. If I recall correctly, the incident with the Foy involved the thousand-footer having to veer around some pleasure craft that did not give way in the shipping channel. I don't know if there was anything similar involved in the American Spirit incident yesterday. It is amazing how close these ships managed to sail along the seawall and not strike it or hit the bottom, both were in ballast at the time so that may have factored in the successful outcome of these events.
On a side note, I wonder what the clearance is on the arches reaching beneath the spans of the two Blue Water Bridges as they come up from the pillars to the underside of the span. I would assume that the clearance is much less than at mid-span but it does not appear that there was much clearance between the superstructure of the American Spirit and these arches, although that could be somewhat misleading dependent upon the angle of the footage. When the Foy had its troubles, there was only the original span in existence at that time but I believe that ship has a much higher superstructure than that of the American Spirit. Photographs I have seen do not show the stern of the Foy as it actually passed under the span but rather as its forward section was passing, but I would assume that it was close. It also appears that the arches of the original span are somewhat lower and extend further over the water than that of the second span, but then, again, this could be due to the perspective of the images.
The incident involving the American Spirit on May 27, 2025 when it almost went up against the seawall at Port Huron brought back memories of the Lewis Wilson Foy doing almost the same thing at the same spot back in October of 1989. If I recall correctly, the incident with the Foy involved the thousand-footer having to veer around some pleasure craft that did not give way in the shipping channel. I don't know if there was anything similar involved in the American Spirit incident yesterday. It is amazing how close these ships managed to sail along the seawall and not strike it or hit the bottom, both were in ballast at the time so that may have factored in the successful outcome of these events.
On a side note, I wonder what the clearance is on the arches reaching beneath the spans of the two Blue Water Bridges as they come up from the pillars to the underside of the span. I would assume that the clearance is much less than at mid-span but it does not appear that there was much clearance between the superstructure of the American Spirit and these arches, although that could be somewhat misleading dependent upon the angle of the footage. When the Foy had its troubles, there was only the original span in existence at that time but I believe that ship has a much higher superstructure than that of the American Spirit. Photographs I have seen do not show the stern of the Foy as it actually passed under the span but rather as its forward section was passing, but I would assume that it was close. It also appears that the arches of the original span are somewhat lower and extend further over the water than that of the second span, but then, again, this could be due to the perspective of the images.