The Presque Isle heads out...two boats in one!

The Presque Isle headed out onto Lake Superior this morning from the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge. It's eerie to watch these ships emerge from behind the ice dunes that still line the beach. 

Presque isle is French for "almost an island." The boat is really "almost a boat." It's a combination of a barge and a "push tug," both with the same name. The tugboat part fits very neatly into the stern of the barge part, and both add up to a single unit over 1000 feet long. There are pictures of the two parts at Boatnerd.

Presque Isle is also the name of a town in Maine and one of the main rivers at Porcupine Mountains State Park on the Michigan shore of Lake Superior. 

Just another interesting bit of Lake Superior shipping!