The Algoma Guardian powers through the Duluth canal being pelted by 90-100 mph winds in the early morning hours of Thursday, July 21. (YouTube screenshot)
Here’s an exciting display of the power of the Thursday morning storm that has many in Duluth still without power three days later.
Dennis O’Hara posted this YouTube video of the 729-foot Algoma Guardian entering the Port of Duluth through the canal. This Lisa Kaczke story in the Duluth News Tribune tells the story, but you should also view at least part of this video to set the scene:
The captain of the Algoma Guardian, an experienced Newfoundlander named Monford Organ, turned his ship nearly sideways just outside the mouth of the canal. Using the full power of his engines, he managed to whip against the wind and thread the needle of the Duluth canal, under the Aerial Lift Bridge, just in time. The ship’s equipment recorded wind speeds reaching 100 mph.
“I gave her lots of engine and steered her in the opposite way of the wind and got her in fast enough before she set in too much in the wind,” Organ, who has captained the Algoma Guardian for five years, recounted Friday. …
“As soon as I started to come through the piers, bang, she just hit — 80, 85 knots of wind, rain, couldn’t see nothing. The ship started to go sideways. … We got her in, we got her in OK, but it was quite interesting,” he said.
The article is worth a read, if only to see a sea captain try to act cool about a story he’ll probably tell over and over the rest of his life. You also get the point of view of the lift bridge operator who was in a little control room hovering over the scene in the middle of this soup.
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