DULUTH, Minn. — The first oceangoing ship of the 2025 season arrived in the Duluth-Superior harbor early Monday morning carrying sugarbeet manufacturing equipment bound for North Dakota.
Built in 2018, the Federal Nagara travels under the flag of the Marshall Islands. It is 200 meters long, 24 meters wide and among 120 carriers in Canadian company Fednav’s fleet. Jayson Hron, spokesperson for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said the ship delivered several large pieces of machinery; some pieces are nearly 20 feet wide and weigh 60,000 pounds.
Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Port Authority, said the ship’s cargo was manufactured in Germany. It will be transported to North Dakota’s Red River Valley, where a mill will use it in the sugarbeet refining process. DeLuca noted that a byproduct of that process, beet pulp pellets, are then sent back to the port and exported. The pellets are used to feed livestock.
It was likely the last First Ship ceremony for DeLuca, the eighth executive director of the Port Authority and first woman to serve in the position. She is set to retire in May.
The winner of the Port Authority and Visit Duluth’s 42nd annual First Ship Contest, Kristi Osheim, made a possible record-setting guess to earn the honor: 6:06 a.m. Monday, just 38 seconds after the Federal Nagara’s arrival at 6:05:22 a.m. She was awarded a Canal Park Lodge stay and gift cards to local restaurants and attractions valued at around $1,000.
Another saltie, the Federal Yoshino, arrived in the port earlier than the Federal Nagara, on April 8. However, the Federal Yoshino, which also travels under the flag of the Marshall Islands, did not start its journey from the ocean, so it doesn’t qualify for the First Ship Contest.
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