A new ship is expected to arrive in the Twin Ports around 6 p.m. Saturday, wrapping up her maiden voyage through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway.
Also on Saturday, a familiar Coast Guard cutter vessel will return after a long time away.
Built in the Mingde shipyard in Nantong, China, near Shanghai, the Miedwie was launched in March and is the first ship in a series of eight new vessels ordered by Polsteam USA for Great Lakes/Seaway service.
Captained by Tamasz Molenda, the 623-foot, Bahama-flagged 30,000-ton vessel entered the St. Lawrence Seaway at the end of August and has made stops to discharge steel at several ports along the Great Lakes including Cleveland, Indiana-Burns Harbor and Milwaukee en route to the Port of Duluth-Superior.
The ship will load approximately 20,000 metric tons of durum wheat at Gavilon Grain in Superior, bound for Italy for pasta-making.
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The local vessel agent is Guthrie Hubner.
Polsteam, the largest Polish shipowner and one of the largest in Europe, operates 75 ships, including 67 bulk carriers, four sulfur carriers and four ferries. The company has announced plans to build 34 new bulk cargo carriers by 2015.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard Cutter Alder will return to Duluth about 9 a.m. Saturday after a 56-day deployment in the Canadian Arctic, a Coast Guard news release said.
The Alder left Duluth July 12 to participate in a Canadian exercise to improve the collective capacity of Arctic allies to respond to safety and security threats or emergencies in the Arctic. The Alder participated along with forces from the U.S. Navy, the Canadian navy and coast guard and the Danish navy.
The exercise took place in the northernmost region of the high Arctic in Lancaster Sound (Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay) about 1,800 miles northeast of Duluth.
Coast Guard divers participated in the exercise's finale, which involved responding to a simulated oil pollution incident.
Lt. Cmdr. MaryEllen Durley, the Alder's commanding officer, said, "Alder safely navigated more than 8,500 miles through lots of fog, rain and heavy seas amongst many icebergs and whales while also witnessing beautiful fjords and a quick glimpse of a polar bear."
The Alder is a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender that conducts aids to navigation and ice-breaking missions in Lake Superior.
