Michipicoten Emergency: U.S. Coast Guard Was Ready For ‘Worst Case Scenario’

The 689-foot Michipicoten safely arrived in the harbor of Thunder Bay Saturday afternoon after the ship starting taking on water 35 miles southwest of Isle Royale Saturday morning.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the ship struck something underwater just before 7 a.m.

Saturday near Isle Royale

Pumps were used to displace “some water entering spaces,” according to the USCG.

The vessel is carrying taconite.  At last report, there were no signs of spillage, and no injuries reported according to officials.

Around 8:15 a.m., “Pumps operating onboard M/V MICHIPICOTEN have reduced the listing of the vessel from the initial reported 15 degrees to 5 degrees,” USCG reported.

“So their intention was to continue their route to Thunder Bay,” said USCG Lieutenant Joseph Snyder. “But they wanted the Coast Guard on standby, basically, just in case the worst happened, because the rapidity of the amount of water they were taking on at the time, we definitely wanted to be prepared for the worst.”

A Coast Guard helicopter and small boat arrived to the initial call, remaining with the ship during its journey to the port of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Other crews were also on standby.

Michipicoten arrives at port of Thunder Bay. Credit: Michael Hull

“The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR in Duluth, recalled their crew and were fueled up and ready to go if we needed them,” said Lieutenant Snyder. “Also in Duluth, we had our Marine Safety Detachment out there that were very closely involved with this since it was so close to their area. In addition to that close collaboration, close coordination, with the Canadian Coast Guard, other Canadian authorities, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, who was helping us look at some scientific modeling if worst case scenario, if the vessel were to sink, and really seeing all those people, especially on a Saturday morning, coming together, and helping everybody pulling together to get a good result.”

Half of the 22-person crew was removed from the vessel as a safety precaution, before it began its journey to Thunder Bay.

Michipicoten arrives at port of Thunder Bay. Credit: Michael Hull

“I’m sure everybody involved will be very interested to see what the results of that investigation are and what we can learn from this particular situation, because we always want to go from great to greater, and you never know, you can have the best plan in the world, but once you put it into action with a with an incident like this, inevitably, you’re going to find some lessons learned and some things that you know you could do better should the next one ever come,” said said Lieutenant Snyder.

The U.S Coast Guard is assisting Canadian authorities with the investigation into what exactly went wrong during this rare shipping emergency.