UAL Fortitude - A New Chapter in Cargo Trade

Here is the UAL Fortitude departing Duluth, Minnesota on the afternoon of May 15, 2023. This was the first of a planned monthly series of cargo exchange runs from Spleithoff shipping between Antwerp, Belgium and Duluth, Minnesota. During these runs, mixed cargoes are to be off-loaded at Port Terminal, with other cargoes loaded for the trip back to Belgium. On this trip, the UAL Fortitude brought in containers filled with minerals, a power generation station, and agricultural machinery. Before departing, she was loaded shipping containers and machinery.

What makes these runs of interest is that multiple companies can have their cargoes hauled without the need to fill up the entire ship. They only pay for the portion of the cargo hold they fill, allowing several smaller loads from different companies to be shipped together.

The ship UAL Fortitude was enlisted for the first monthly run. She is 450 feet in length and is a general purpose dry cargo ship, sailing for UAL (Universal Africa Lines) Shipping, based of out the Netherlands. She was built in 2008 and sailed under the name Fortitude before being acquired by UAL shipping in 2018. She sails under the flag of Madeira, Portugal. She is powered by a single MAK 6M43C diesel engine which gives her a top speed of 14 knots. She has three cargo holds and two deck cranes to assist with loading and unloading of cargo. The cranes can each lift 180 metric tons, but can also be combined to lift 360 metric tons together. She has 15,952 cubic meters of hold capacity for hauling of grain.

Sadly, the lighting conditions for this departure weren't ideal with the late afternoon sun backlighting the Fortitude's departure. And being such a short ship, she passed by before I knew it... on her way out onto Lake Superior. But we got a nice captain's salute, which the Aerial Lift Bridge answered in kind. I'm hopeful that other vessels of the UAL fleet will make future visits to Duluth, as some of them have fairly interesting designs and hull shapes. The Fortitude appears to be the most "conventional" vessel compared to her fleet mates.

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