The oceangoing freighter that ran aground in the Duluth harbor Sunday has been freed, but it created quite the spectacle and a few anxious moments while it was stuck just feet from a break wall near the city's famed Lift Bridge.
A video on the website duluthharborcam.com shows the moment the 1,000-foot American Spirit was dislodged around 10 p.m. Sunday.
"The American Spirit was set free late last evening with a little help from her friends," the posting reads.
The ship was leaving the harbor with a load of taconite on its way to Indiana when it became stuck, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Heavy rains and fast currents in the canal had made things treacherous, but it was not known if that is what made the Spirit make an abrupt left turn into the muck, according to duluthharborcam.com.
The Coast Guard on Monday said it was still trying to determine what made the carrier veer off course.
Heavy rainfall Sunday raised water levels just enough in the harbor to allow tugs to pull the freighter free, a Coast Guard spokesman said
"The boat was refloated and is on its own power," the spokesman said.
There was no apparent damage and the ship did not actually hit the wall, but it came mighty close. No one was injured.
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
