The UAL Fortitude has called at the Port of Duluth-Superior’s Clure Public Marine Terminal as the first of Spliethoff’s new Antwerp-Duluth monthly liner service.

The vessel, which arrived last Saturday, carried containers filled with super-sacked minerals, power generator pieces, and a large tractor from Germany making its North American debut, port spokesman Jayson Hron told Maritime Magazine.

The Duluth Cargo Connect crew completed the cargo discharge in a single day and went to work loading the vessel with outbound export cargo that included containerized goods and machinery destined for Europe, he added.

It marks the first time in decades that a regular liner service is calling at the biggest U.S. Great Lakes port.

“Not only does this new service provide an efficient, consistent import-export option between Antwerp and Duluth, it also significantly reduces carbon emissions and land-based congestion, so this is also a win from an environmental standpoint,” said Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. “It expands the viability of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System as a routing alternative for moving cargoes into and out of the Upper Midwest and far beyond.”

(Photo from Jennifer Bahl Hron)