Mqt.’s first shipping vessel of the year

The 2013 Great Lakes shipping season is underway.

The Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie opened for the year on Monday.

The upbound Paul R. Tregurtha was the first ship to end its winter layup in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, bound for Duluth, Minnesota.

And the first shipping vessel to arrive in Marquette this year is the H. Lee White.

That vessel motored into the Upper Harbor at Presque Isle this morning.

It pulled into the Cliffs Natural Resources LS&I ore dock at about 11 am.

This afternoon, the crew was greeted with a key to the city.

The arrival of the great lakes shipping season also means another arrival, but with all the snow, the other arrival may not be readily apparent just yet.

It’s the spring season.

The locks were closed on January 15th.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs routine repairs and maintenance each winter while the locks are shut down.

The MacArthur Lock will undergo maintenance for several weeks.

The Corps of Engineers Detroit District maintains 94 harbors and the various connecting channels that join Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair.