Erika Kobasic

Photo by Scott Best

This icebreaking lake tug was built in 1939 by Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works as the USCGC Arundel for the U.S. Coast Guard. The icebreaker was initially stationed at Boston during World War II, moving to New York in 1945. Two years later she was transferred to Portland, and then the Bedford, MA in 1948. She came to the Great Lakes in 1952, stationed in Chicago. The Arundel was retired by the Coast Guard in 1982. The former cutter was sold civilian the following year, being renamed Karen Andrie by Canonie Transportation. Andrie Inc. acquired the tug in 1988. The Karen Andrie was sold to Basic Marine of Escanaba, MI in 1990, where she was renamed Erika Kobasic.

A very busy tug, the Erika Kobasic works out of Escanaba, often towing barges or breaking ice around the Bay of Green Bay. She is one of a handful of 110′ former USCG tugs in commercial service around the Great Lakes, and the oldest of that bunch.