First saltie to load in Superior

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The first oceangoing vessel (“saltie”) of the 2010 navigation season – the Cyprus-flagged Federal Elbe – is expected to arrive around 11 a.m. today and anchor just outside the Duluth ship canal. It is anticipated the vessel will make its way into the harbor beneath the Aerial Bridge late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning to begin loading grain at Cenex-Harvest States in Superior. Her arrival will mark the first full transit of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System this year – 2,342 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Port of Duluth-Superior.

The Federal Elbe began her voyage in Italy and heads back to that country loaded with nearly 21,500 metric tons of durum wheat for pasta production. It’s is arriving on the heels of the J.W. Shelley, a Canadian laker that docked at CHS on Sunday evening to load the port’s first grain shipment of the season – approximately 25,600 metric tons of spring wheat.

An official welcoming ceremony for the captain of the Federal Elbe is planned; details to follow once loading times have been finalized. This year’s “first saltie” arrives about a week earlier than the MV Medemborg last year (April 12); the Port’s earliest recorded arrival of an oceangoing vessel was April 1, 1995, the Indian ship LT Argosy.

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