Capt. Andrzej Lasota has sailed freighters in and out of the Great Lakes for 20 years, but Friday marked the first time the Fednav captain's ship has opened a port for the season.
"This is the first ceremony for me," Captain Lasota said after representatives of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, city of Toledo, and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) welcomed him and his ship, the M.V. Federal EMS, as the first overseas visitors to the Port of Toledo in 2012.
Commemorative gifts bestowed during the ceremony, he said, will be a source of pride for him and his crew.
Deputy Mayor Tom Crothers read a celebratory proclamation, after which city Councilman Mike Craig gave the captain the city's traditional gift of a bottle of Wholly Toledo water and a goblet.
Jane Ruvolo, an aide to Miss Kaptur, presented a U.S. flag that had flown over the Capitol in Washington.
Then William Carroll, chairman of the port authority's board, handed the captain a bag of Toledo Mud Hens memorabilia for him and his crew, including a Toledo baseball jersey for the captain, who hails from Solec Kujawski, Poland.
Opening day of baseball season marks the start of spring "except at the port authority, the first day of spring for us is when the first ship comes in from across the ocean," Mr. Carroll said.
The Federal EMS arrived early Friday to deliver 10,700 tons of calcium nitrate, a fertilizer product, from Norway to Toledo's port.
It is expected to finish unloading its cargo Sunday.
The 2012 Great Lakes shipping season had already opened in Toledo, and a Canadian lake freighter, the M.V. Algobay, was docked at the International Cargo dock near the Federal EMS to load petroleum coke for shipment to Nova Scotia from the BP refinery in Oregon.
The port authority's first-ship ceremony traditionally honors the first oceangoing vessel, or salty, to arrive in Toledo after the late-March reopening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Seventeen salties called at Toledo's port during 2011, five fewer than in the year before, but overall cargo tonnage was up by nearly 6 percent, port authority statistics show. Iron ore made up 4.7 million of the 11.5 million tons that crossed the local docks last year, 3.6 million tons of coal transited Toledo, and 2 million tons of dry bulk cargoes -- the category that includes most of the calcium nitrate aboard the Federal EMS -- flowed through the port.
Of the 10,700 tons aboard the Federal EMS, 8,000 were in bulk, and 2,700 tons were bagged, port officials said. The ship also carried a load of steel to be delivered to Detroit after the Toledo visit.
Captain Lasota said that because navigating the Great Lakes requires specialized knowledge, oceangoing ship captains whose companies assign them to lakes service tend to stay in that job for a long time.
"I hope I'll be back" to Toledo, the captain said.
Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.
First Published April 13, 2012, 6:36 p.m.
