Season's first laker departs

The Duluth News Tribune announces the start of the 2006 shipping season:

Warm weather and power producers' keen appetite for coal meant an early start to Twin Ports shipping this year. When the 1,004-foot James R. Barker set off Tuesday from Superior, loaded with 58,000 tons of coal destined for Taconite Harbor, it logged the earliest departure in the Twin Ports' recent history.

"We'll already have three trips in by the time the (Soo) Locks open and most of the other vessels begin to stir," said Capt. Joe Buonocore of the James R. Barker. The Soo Locks will open at midnight March 25; shipments before that date will be restricted to ports within Lake Superior.