• Monday-What'sUP September 23 - 07:33 pm

There was a flurry of activity on the Portage Canal here in the Houghton/Hancock area late last week, that Brian Rendel and Dan Kemp both captured just a short time apart. Both of these gentlemen shared the sequence of events as they were approaching the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, going under it and then passing each other along their way.

Brian Rendel, was actually out on his own pleasure boat and snapped his shots from there, so in the first three photos, we get a view close-up, of the Bill Maier tug, towing the Army Corps of Engineers barge that is hauling some of their dredging equipment and at the tail end of the 'parade of boats' is the Hammond Bay, a small tug that had actually sunk in the St. Mary's River back in July. Brian wasn't sure what the story on the little tug is now, but it sure made an impressive line of boats going under the bridge.

In the meantime, Dan Kemp was near the Houghton Beach, watching the parade of tug/barges making its way along the canal. He began snapping photos, when along comes the Ranger III and these working boats pass each other as they both go on their way to wherever they're working day is taking them.

Then Brian is still there on the other side of the Bridge as the Ranger III makes her way under and heads toward her dock on the Houghton side of the canal.

You don't often see that much activity taking place all at once on the Portage like that and then to have TWO photographers there snapping pictures to share with us is pretty unique in itself. Viewing Brian and Dan's sequence of photos is almost as good as a video of the whole event. Thanks guys!

Quite the picture!!!

Great shots, Brian and Dan. Thanks for sharing

Awesome photos, guys! I wish I could have been there to see it, but your photos allow us to see what we missed. That's a lot of traffic at once for the Portage!

A boat bouquet!

Word of mouth brought to tale to me as this: The COE tug/barge train were transiting the St. Mary's in fog, so the crew weren't able to see all the pieces at once. One crewman went back to check on the string, to find that the Hammond Bay had come loose at some point. A further search found her on the bottom of the river. Articles (links below) show that she went down on July 1, and was quickly salvaged on July 3.

http://www.dvidshub.net/image/965745/tug-hammond-bay-salvaged-st-marys-river

http://coastguardnews.com/sunken-tug-hammond-bay-successfully-salvaged-from-st-marys-river/2013/07/03/

One more article:

http://gcaptain.com/army-corps-engineers-tug-sinks-upper-st-marys-river/

Watching the ships roll in, then I watch them roll away again. (O. Redding)