MV ''Tecumseh'' was a

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

owned and operated by Canadian shipping firm

Lower Lakes Towing Lower Lakes Towing is a Canadian shipping firm, operating on North American Great Lakes. {{cite news , url = http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2012/04/10/ship-at-anchor-headed-for-colborne , title = Ship at anchor headed for Colb ...

. It was built in 1973 as ''Sugar Islander'' in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

for the Bankers Trust Company, which sold the but later was purchased and operated by other companies. In 1995, the ship was renamed ''Islander'', followed by ''Judy Litrico'' in 1996. In 2008, the name changed again to ''Trina Litrico'' before being sold to Lower Lakes Towing in 2011. The ship operated on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

primarily transporting grain. In 2019, ''Tecumseh'' suffered an engine fire that left the ship out of control on the Detroit River.

Description

As built, the

was

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

and between perpendiculars with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . The ship has a midsummer draught of and a

depth of hold Depth(s) may refer to: Science and mathematics * Three-dimensional space * Depth (ring theory), an important invariant of rings and modules in commutative and homological algebra * Depth in a well, the measurement between two points in an oil w ...

of . As built, the ship measured and a . The ship is powered by two SEMT Pielstick 12PC-CV-400

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s turning one

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

. The ship has a maximum speed of , and a cruising speed of . In 2012, the ship underwent conversion to a lake freighter and was remeasured and . The vessel has capacity for and carries a crew of between 13 and 15.

Construction and career

The ship was constructed by

Lockheed Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Lockheed (originally spelled Loughead) may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Lockheed Corporation, a former American aircraft manufacturer * Lockheed Martin, formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta ** Lockheed Mar ...

for the Bankers Trust Company and was launched on 22 August 1972. Named ''Sugar Islander'', the vessel was completed in August 1973 and registered in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. In 1995, the ship was acquired by Islander Shipholding and renamed ''Islander'', before they changed it to ''Judy Litrico'' the following year. In 1998, ''Judy Litrico'' was acquired by US United Ocean Services LLC. They renamed the ship ''Tina Litrico'' in 2006. When purchased by the

Company in 2011, it was renamed ''Tecumseh'' and re-registered at Port Dover, Ontario. The ship underwent a refit at

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, Mexico before sailing to the

. ''Tecumseh'' arrived at

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

on 29 December 2011 where it was fitted with Port Colborne

fairleads A fairlead is a device to guide a line, rope or cable around an object, out of the way or to stop it from moving laterally. Typically a fairlead will be a ring or hook. The fairlead may be a separate piece of hardware, or it could be a hole in ...

from the

scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

. Since entering service on the Great Lakes, the bulk carrier is primarily used to transport grains. On 15 December 2019, the 16 crewmembers aboard ''Tecumseh'' were taken off the ship after a fire broke out in the engine room. The ship had been travelling from

Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

carrying a load of canola. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

responded to the fire, which happened off

Zug Island Zug Island is a heavily industrialized island within the city of River Rouge at the southern city limits of Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located where the mouth of the River Rouge spills into the Detroit River. Zug Island is n ...

in the Detroit River, on the United States side. The vessel, out of control, then drifted over to the Canadian side of the river. The ship was anchored on the Canadian side near Windsor. On 29 July 2023, it was announced that ''Tecumseh'' was going to be scrapped in Port Colborne, Ontario after being laid up in Ashtabula since 2020.

Citations

Sources

* * * {{cite web , url=https://www.randlog.com/tecumseh/ , title=M/V Tecumseh , publisher=Rand Logisitics , access-date=12 January 2020 , ref={{sfnref, Rand Logistics Great Lakes freighters 1972 ships Ships built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Merchant ships of Canada Merchant ships of the United States Tecumseh