December 14, 2006

ASHLAND, Wis. -- The gales of November can be vicious on Lake Superior, but sudden storms of December can be just as bad or worse, a tugboat crew has learned.

The crew with the Zenith Tugboat Co. out of Duluth, Minn., was towing the firm's vintage tug, the Seneca, in the southeastern end of the lake when the relatively mild weather suddenly changed the evening of Dec. 3.

Within an hour, the seas built from about 4 feet to 14 feet and higher, said Franz VonRiedel, at the helm of the Susan Hoey as it towed the Seneca toward Grand Marais, Mich.

''It was an incredible sight looking back and seeing the huge tug Seneca climb right out of a sea fully exposing her rusty bottom to the night sky. It was like a house falling from the sky,'' VonRiedel said.

The strain on a 3-inch-thick tow rope was too much. It cut, freeing the Seneca.

The Coast Guard found the Seneca partially sunk offshore of Upper Michigan's ''Shipwreck Coast.''

''We're just so happy nobody was hurt. The equipment we can replace, the men we cannot,'' VonRiedel said.

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