Wilfred Sykes - Thrilled to Leave Dry Dock and Sail Again, Blows 5 Salutes in Celebration!

If you are interested in supporting this channel to keep new videos coming, I gratefully accept tips and donations. They are used solely towards my travel expenses and equipment purchases. Click the following link if interested in helping out: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/1long... Note: No AI-generated content is used for these videos. Everything you see and hear has been recorded on location specifically for this channel. No shortcuts were taken! ____________________ Here is the steamer Wilfred Sykes returning to service early on the afternoon of July 18, 2026. The Sykes had a normal start to her season, but had a grounding near Drummond Island, Ontario in early June as she was preparing to load limestone. The grounding left her hull bottom with damage that required repair, so she made her way to Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, arriving on June 6. After six weeks in the graving dock (dry dock), she was now repaired and ready to resume her season. She was departing empty to make her way to Marquette, Michigan to load taconite pellets. This video covers the Sykes departure from the graving dock, her passage through Howard's Bay, and her departure through the Duluth shipping canal. The tugboat Missouri was on hand to help pull her out of the graving dock and escort her all the way to the lake. Clearly the crew on the Sykes was happy to sail again. The captain gave five salutes. Two master salutes were blown shortly after leaving the graving dock and a third was blown as she approached the Aerial Lift Bridge. The captain then blew the fleet salute and the vessel's salute for good measure, with the Aerial Lift Bridge responding to two of the salutes. For a minute or two, it seems like it was non-stop horn action! The Sykes is one of the most beautiful ships on the Great Lakes, with her classic lines and attractive paint job. Perhaps the only contender for most beautiful laker is her fleet mate, the Edward L. Ryerson. The Ryerson can be seen in the background as the Sykes backs through Howard's Bay, sitting in long-term layup. (Note: There has been no recent news of what her eventual fate will be.) The 678-foot Wilfred Sykes was built in 1949 by the American Shipbuilding Company of Lorain, Ohio. She was the first American lake carrier built after World War II and was in many ways she signaled a new age in Great Lakes shipping. Her two steam turbine engines produce a combined 7,700 horsepower, burning "bunker C" heavy fuel oil instead of coal, making her the first laker to do so. (Several lakers would later be retrofitted to burn fuel oil, but the Sykes was the first laker designed to do so from her conception.) She has 18 hatch covers that access six cargo holds capable of holding 21,500 tons of cargo. The Sykes was converted to a self-unloader in 1975 and given a 250-foot self-unloading boom. She is one of two steam-powered lake carriers still in service, with the other being the Alpena. (Two others, the Arthur M. Anderson and Philip R. Clarke are currently in long-term layup with an uncertain future.)