U.S. regulations lead to rough sailing for Viking ship re-created in Norway
When a Viking ship, meticulously re-created in Norway, crossed the Atlantic Ocean last month, the feat captivated history buffs in the United States. They could hardly wait to get a look at the vessel, which was scheduled to visit a series of ship festivals along the Great Lakes this summer.
But as the ship, called the Draken Harald Harfagre, glided into American waters this month, it collided with an unexpected foe: modern-day safety regulations.
After making stops at Canadian ports, the Draken’s crew was told by U.S. Coast Guard officials last week that if it wanted to sail through the Great Lakes, it had to hire a certified pilot, paid at an hourly rate that would amount to about $400,000 by the trip’s end. If unable to pay, the vessel would be forced to turn back.
“The crew has been devastated,” Woody Wiest, a watch leader on the Draken, said at the time. Many of the team are volunteers, he added. “They changed their lives to be on the ship.”
The standoff set off a frantic campaign by supporters. A petition calling for the Coast Guard to rescind the requirement drew more than 10,000 signatures, festival organizers vowed to find money to help and online fundraisers pleaded for donations from the public.
By Wednesday, the Draken crew said enough money had been raised to sail as far as Chicago, the ship’s third U.S. destination on the Great Lakes. But stops scheduled for August in Green Bay, Wis., and Duluth, Minn., remained in doubt.
“The struggle is not yet over,” a statement from the ship said.
Lorne Thomas, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said the agency was bound by a 1960 law requiring that all foreign vessels, except for recreational ones, have a pilot while on the Great Lakes. It couldn’t grant a waiver even it wanted to, he said.
“Unfortunately the law is what it is,” Thomas added. “That’s not to say there couldn’t be a discussion about maybe it could be changed. But that needs to happen at the congressional level.”
Representatives of the Draken have portrayed their troubles as a result of an impenetrable maze of regulations on the Great Lakes, which straddle the border between the United States and Canada, while also sharply criticizing the cost that vessels of its kind — small and nonprofit — must bear to ply its waters.
In a Facebook video last week, the ship’s captain, Bjoern Ahlander, said the Canadians had told the Draken that the pilot requirement would be waived because the ship fell under a height cutoff. But, he added, “when we came here, they changed their minds.”
The Canadian exemption, however, has no bearing on waters where the U.S. Coast Guard has jurisdiction, said Robert Lemire, chief executive officer of Canada’s Great Lakes Pilotage Authority. His office was clear with the Draken about this, he said.
Representatives of the Draken “are just making a lot of things up,” Lemire added. “It’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing and how to deliver the message. So it was quite a surprise.”
The binational management of the lakes can be confusing for foreign visitors. Asked to explain whose rules apply where, John Swartout, the president of the Western Great Lakes Pilot Association, talked about shared boundaries, “gray areas” and rules that vary by district.
Finally, he said: “I wish I knew how to cut and dry it for you perfectly, but it is complicated.”
The Draken’s ordeal has also drawn attention to questions about the costs of pilotage, an ancient profession that exists around the world to ensure safe steering in unfamiliar waters.