North Carolina

Photo by Isaac Pennock

This tug was built in 1952 in Bay City, MI by Defoe Shipbuilding as the Limestone for U.S. Steel’s Michigan Limestone division. In 1982 the tug was sold to the Gaelic Tugboat Company of Detroit, MI, who renamed the tug Wicklow the following year. The Wicklow was purchased by the Great Lakes Towing Company of Cleveland, OH in 1990, and the tug was then renamed North Carolina. Today the North Carolina is based in Duluth, MN, where she works primarily as an icebreaking tug in the Winter and Spring.