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Photo by Rob Alway, Mason County Press
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
LUDINGTON — The SS Badger is expected to depart Ludington between 6 to 8 a.m. on Tuesday, April 29 for Sturgeon Bay, Wis. where it will undergo pre-season repairs. The Badger will make the approximately 12 hour trip under its own power.
The 410-foot-long Badger will be placed in dry dock at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (FBS) where it will undergo a propeller shaft bearing repair.
“This trip is being made under our own power instead of under tow because we are so close to our sailing season we will already have a crew getting the boat ready to sail,” said Badger Chief Engineer Andrew VerVelde. “It takes two to three weeks of ‘fit out’ prior to the season, which involves getting her engines and machinery ready. Since the crew is going to be aboard anyway we might as well steam her over. It has been done before, but not recently.”
VerVelde said the repairs to the propeller shaft bearing requires taking the ship out of the water and removing its 13-foot, 10-inch starboard propeller. This repair is different than the Badger’s routine five-year dry dock inspection which last took place over the winter of 2021-2022.
Rather than traveling through the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the vessel will take a northern route to the tip of the Door Peninsula and Washington Island from Lake Michigan into Sturgeon Bay. It will then travel south back to the city of Sturgeon Bay.
The repairs are expected to take approximately 10 days. The Badger is tentatively scheduled to return to Ludington on May 10. Its official 2025 sailing season will begin on Friday, May 16 when it departs Ludington for Manitowoc, Wis.
The Badger, which is owned by Interlake Maritime Services of Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was built by Christy Corporation in Sturgeon Bay in 1953, located at the same facilities now owned by FBS.
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