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MARQUETTE — Efforts to recover a tug’s azipod propulsion unit from Marquette’s Lower Harbor were delayed until today by windy conditions on the lake Thursday afternoon.


 Lt. Caren Damon, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard Sault Ste. Marie Sector, said the effort was also delayed by the need to first retrieve a submerged rudder from the harbor. The tug Dorothy Ann was previously thought to have hit bottom, tearing off the 20-ton azipod unit, but Damon said divers found it had run into the rudder instead.


“It actually hit a rudder that was submerged and had been unreported. That’s what sheared off the azipod,” she said.


A marine crane lifted the 16-ton rudder out Thursday, but was unable to recover the propulsion unit. It did succeed in lifting the azipod enough that it was no longer half-buried in the sandy bottom, Damon said.


A heavier crane arrived in the harbor Thursday afternoon from Sheboygan, Wis., to recover the equipment. The progress crews make will depend on the weather, she said, since high winds Thursday kept the crane from starting the operation.


Damon added when the azipod was found by divers, it was intact with no breaches. It holds about 300 gallons of petroleum. While one flange was damaged, that part was buried, so no oil leaked from it, she said.


The harbor is still under safety zone restrictions for deep-draft vessels because the propeller unit poses a hazard to navigation.


The tug Dorothy Ann and its attached barge Pathfinder unloaded limestone at the Shiras Power Plant early Monday morning and was headed to the Upper Harbor ore dock to take on a cargo of iron ore bound for Detroit, according to its corporate owner, Interlake Steamship Company of Richfield, Ohio.


When departing the Shiras dock, the boat struck the rudder, causing the port propulsion unit to shear off and leak about 30 gallons of gear oil.


Cleanup efforts lasted until Wednesday, with workers from Marine Pollution Control and Mackinac Environmental Technology, of St. Ignace, mopping up the last spots of oil along the shoreline.


Brendan O’Connor, director of human resources and industrial relations for Interlake, said the Dorothy Ann had gone through a sea trial with the Coast Guard Thursday and left Marquette Thursday morning for Dearborn to deliver a load of iron ore.

 

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