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Heavy November Weather: Another Freighter Ran Aground in the Detroit River…

December 4, 2025

By Roger Renaud

Last issue, our Windsor correspondent,  Roger Renaud, sent along a shot of the Hon Paul Martin running aground in the Detroit River

Last week there was a second grounding when huge winds hit Lake Erie draining the river that feeds it. The 629-foot vessel Robert S. Pierson, which is hauling some 18,000 tons of stone from Windsor to Lorraine, Ohio, became stuck in the river offshore of the William G. Milliken State Park overnight Wednesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It was reported tugboats from Ohio and Minnesota were dispatched to assist, and by noon on Thursday, Nov. 27, the freighter was successfully refloated. “There have been no reports of injuries, pollution or impact to vessel traffic”.           

The Robert S. Pierson was the second Canadian freighter this month to run aground in the Detroit River. A 739-foot vessel, the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin, got stuck on Nov. 7 near the Renaissance Center. That vessel was freed the following day with the help of four tugs, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

During the most recent grounding, the area experienced 40-50+ knot winds for almost three days straight, virtually emptying the west part of Lake Erie, dropping the water levels by 6 – 8 feet. All the water was pushed to the west end of the lake. The Wave height was predicted to be 24+ feet in the long stretch towards Buffalo!

Huge waves formed on the shallow lake

Lake St Clair and the Detroit River continued to flow/empty into Lake Erie, creating a low water risk up-river. This extraordinary event was not a tidal movement, as oceans experience, but a powerful “seiche.” A seiche occurs when strong winds and rapid changes in atmospheric pressure push water from one end of a lake to the other.

More evidence of the seiche in Lake Erie. A Lake Erie shipwreck was spotted off Kingsville Ontario during this shallow water anomaly.
After the high winds subsided on Friday, November 28, the first vessel to lead the pack up the Detroit River off of Lake Erie was the 83-year-old 826′ long Lee A. Tregurtha.  She only draws 39 feet.
A current “Queen of the Lakes” is the 1013.5-foot Paul R. Tregurtha. She requires 56 feet of water depth.

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