Tuesday, April 14, 2009

First Saltie of the Season



This article about the first saltie (ocean-going vessel) appeared on boatnerd.com. If the Medemborg leaves Duluth on Thursday, it will be passing the Locks sometime on Friday. What do you do with beet pellets? That is listed at their cargo. The Vessel Passages on boatnerd.com listed the Federal Welland as in the Locks at 1:15 AM and the Medemborg at 3:00 AM. Obviously the Medemborg made up that 1.75 hours while crossing Lake Superior.

Dutch vessel first saltie in Twin Ports

4/14 - Duluth, Minn. - "I was surprised, and very impressed," said Capt. Luis Jardin on Monday morning. The captain of the Dutch vessel the Medemborg was honored at the annual first ship's ceremony. He was given gifts from city and port officials.

The Medemborg arrived Easter Sunday morning. It was followed by the Federal Welland.

"It was great seeing a dogfight race like there was 50 years ago," said Adolph Ojard, Executive Director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

50 years ago, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened, linking the ocean to the Great Lakes. It forever changed the shipping industry.

In Duluth, the first saltie arrived on May 3, 1959. The Ramon deLarrinaga was racing three other vessels to be the very first.

Now, five decades and $350 billion dollars worth of cargo later, the maritime highway continues to provide jobs for tens of thousands of people.

Ojard says, there is light at the end of the recession tunnel. "There are slow signs of things picking up, in the third quarter or year end," he said.

The Medemborg will bring beet pellets from the General Mills dock to Morocco. It was expected to sail around noon on Tuesday.

WDIO

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know we use refined beet pulp as cow feed. It is the by produst after the beets are shredded and boiled to remove the suger content from the beets. It is then piled out side and loaded into trucks to be hauled to dairy farms from Michigan to Indiana. I would think the pellets would be used for the same thing over seas. I could be wrong... Hopefully I was some help. Tom

Soo Boat Watcher said...

That makes sense Tom. Thanks for the comment. I was recently in California and toured an almond farm. They use the almond hulls to add to cattle feed. It is probably the same idea. Nothing goes to waste.