De La Hunt Media - KK Radio Network

Workers are trying to recover a 1,000-gallon propane tank from a 120-foot-long barge that sank in a Duluth harbor slip early Thursday. The tank is nearly full, said Petty Officer First Class Lauren Jorgensen, U.S. Coast Guard 9th District spokeswoman. The 106-year-old barge will have to be removed if it is a hazard to navigation, negatively affects the harbor in some way or if it will cause pollution, Jorgensen said. The barge is owned by Duluth Timber Co., according to the Coast Guard. Company owner Max Taubert did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The Coast Guard doesn’t know why the barge sank. The Duluth Fire Department was called to the barge, located in the slip south of Railroad Street, shortly before 3 a.m. “Now there is a tug and a barge at the bottom of the slip,” he said, referring to the tugboat Essayons. The 85-foot-long Essayons sank nearby in about 20 feet of water on March 23, 2009, with only its smokestack and part of its cabin protruding from the harbor. A business partner of owner Hobart Finn theorized at the time that a strong northeaster and ice may have sunk the tug, The Essayons was built in Muskegon, Mich., in 1906 for the Army Corps of Engineers. Finn bought the boat from Zenith Dredge in 1994 and planned to convert it into a bed and breakfast. But his plans were set back by vandals. In 1997, the tug sustained $10,000 to $15,000 in damage at the hands of three 11- to 12-year-old vandals who lit several fires aboard the boat, spray-painted the interior and broke windows. In 2004, a second vandal attack caused about $10,000 in damage. In 2007, the vessel survived a fire at Finn’s neighboring business — True North Cedar, a manufacturer of cedar shakes and other building materials.