A 112-year-old tugboat with connections to Great Lakes maritime history will become a permanent fixture in Toledo’s Glass City Riverwalk. The tugboat Superior served as the lead tug when the freighter S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was launched in June 1958. The Fitzgerald later became the most famous Great Lakes vessel after its tragic 1975 sinking.
The 97-foot-long, 22-foot-wide tug was built in 1912 by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company and operated under various names before being acquired by Great Lakes Towing in 1946.
Great Lakes Towing donated the Superior to Metroparks Toledo, delivering the vessel from Cleveland to Toledo in 2024. The tugboat will be relocated near the lighthouse and Imagination Station on downtown Toledo’s Maumee River waterfront as part of the Riverwalk’s next phase, scheduled for completion this spring…