Ship stuck in St. Lawrence River for two weeks could be freed today

A ship that had been stuck in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal since Christmas Eve was successfully refloated on Tuesday.

The Canadian Coast Guard says the MV Maccoa has been escorted by tugboats to a dock at Sorel-Tracy, Que.

The coast guard announced earlier in the day that a second attempt to refloat the ship was slated to begin at 8 a.m. A global marine traffic website on Tuesday morning showed three tugboats surrounding the Cyprus-flagged 185-metre bulk carrier, which ran aground in the early hours of Dec. 24 near Verchères, Que., after a power failure.

A first attempt to free the vessel late last month, using water jets to remove sediment accumulated along the ship’s wall, ended in failure. Authorities then decided to lighten the vessel by unloading 3,000 metric tonnes of the ship’s cargo of corn onto two barges.

The unloading operation was set to begin last week but was postponed until the weekend because it took longer than expected to prepare the barges in Quebec City. The coast guard announced Monday that 1,250 tonnes of corn had been transferred to the first barge, and the unloading onto the second barge was completed overnight.

The ship will now be inspected and repaired if necessary, before being reloaded and continuing on its way to Europe. Transport Canada is taking over from the coast guard to oversee the next steps.

Twenty crew members remained on board the vessel while it was stuck, and no injuries were reported. The coast guard has also said that no pollution was detected in the area.