Boat Hits Cargo Ship in Lake St. Clair

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to reports of a collision between a 17-foot recreational boat and a 406-foot cargo vessel in Lake St. Clair approximately two miles offshore east of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, Sunday morning.

The master of the involved cargo vessel, the Esta Desgagnes, a Canadian-flagged vessel home-ported in Quebec, Canada, immediately hailed the Coast Guard on VHF channel 16 to report the collision and that the operator of the recreational vessel was in the water.

A rescue crew from Coast Guard Station St. Clair Shores launched a response boat and found the operator of the recreational boat clinging to a buoy. He was uninjured, but his boat was damaged and sank just outside the channel.
U.S. Coast Guard investigators are currently investigating the cause of the collision.

“We were relieved to be able to recover the small boat operator unharmed,” said Lt. Ben Chamberlain, a command duty officer for Coast Guard Sector Detroit.