- IMO
- 7620653
- MMSI
- 316036228
- Call Sign
- VDBA
Technical Specifications
Key Figures
Live Tracking
Current Position
Where it waited most
Most time stopped at Port Colborne — 16 h across 4 stays.
- 1Port Colborne16 h · 4×
- 2Saint-Catharines9 h · 2×
- 3Bruce Mines1 h
Derived from the AIS track — runs of near-zero speed (anchored, moored or drifting) snapped to the nearest port. Builds up as we observe the vessel.
Resolved from the live AIS destination. Distance is the real sea route (around land and through canals); the computed ETA is at the vessel’s passage speed. A destination is the crew’s stated intent, not a confirmed fixture.
Intelligence
Risk & Sustainability
- Bruce Mines0.3 dJun 30, 2026
- Grand Haven0.3 dJun 29, 2026
- Port Colborne0.0 dJun 24, 2026
- Welland0.0 dJun 24, 2026
- Saint-Catharines0.1 dJun 24, 2026
AIS-derived from our live feed.
Compliance
Safety Record
- COLLISION - With another vessel or other floating objectSeriousAug 27, 2020Cleveland, OH, USA, Outside Provincial Boundaries
On 27 August 2020, the bulk carrier "ALGOMA BUFFALO" collided with a floating dock, a road bridge, and 2 moored open boats whilst manoeuvering in Cleveland, OH, USA with the assistance of the tugs "PENNSYLVANIA" and "MICHIGAN".
- TOTAL FAILURE OF ANY MACHINERY OR TECHNICAL SYSTEMMinorDec 31, 2019White Rock, MI, Outside Provincial Boundaries
On 31 December 2019, the bulk carrier "ALGOMA BUFFALO" reported being disabled 4.75 nautical miles E of White Rock, MI due to a hydraulic leak on its CP propeller system. The vessel anchored and the crew carried out repairs. The vessel resumed its voyage once clearance from the US Coast Guard was received.
- TOTAL FAILURE OF ANY MACHINERY OR TECHNICAL SYSTEMMinorDec 11, 2018Lock No 8 in Port Colborne, ON., ONTARIO (ON)
On 11 December 2018, the bulk carrier "ALGOMA BUFFALO" sustained a main engine failure while the vessel was approaching the wall at Lock No. 8 of the Welland Canal. The vessel was secured alongside and the crew made repairs. There were no injuries, no pollution, or damage to the dock as a result of this occurrence.
Recorded marine occurrences naming this vessel.
Operational Status
Activity
Making way at sea speed on its latest broadcast.
Read from the single most-recent AIS broadcast we hold for this hull — we keep no position history, so this is a point-in-time posture, not a dwell inference. Derived in-house from our own AIS feed; weight it by the broadcast age above.
Port calls
3 recent · AIS-detectedArrivals, time in port and the load/discharge inferred from the draught change — detected from AIS track history. An open call means the vessel is still in port (no departure observed yet).
- no cargo change→ · 6 h in port· draught 7.4→7.4 m· medium confidence
- no cargo change→ · 5 h in port· draught 7.4→7.4 m
- no cargo change→ · 15 h in port· draught 7.4→7.4 m
Method: each call is a run of fixes inside a port’s geofence confirmed by a stop (or an AIS gap); load/discharge is the sign of the draught delta over the call. Indicative — arrivals before our AIS history began read from the first observation.
Where it waits
2 ports · 26 h totalTime-in-port summed by port from the AIS-detected port-call history — the ports this vessel has spent the most time at, longest first.
- Port Colborne· Canada20 h2 calls · 10 h avg
- Grand Haven· USA6 h1 call · 6 h avg
Based on 3 completed calls observed since — open calls (no departure yet) are excluded. The distribution sharpens as AIS history accrues.
Composite Risk
Risk Score
Multiple adverse factors, or a hard ship-specific signal, lift this hull above the fleet norm.
A coverage-weighted blend of the 2 components we could read for this hull — the weights renormalise over only the components present, so a thin read is never inflated and a hull is never credited a “safe 0” for a signal it has no row for. This headline is flagged low-confidence (a thin or structural-only read) and should not be treated as a verdict. Higher means riskier. Derived in-house from government-open port-State-control, flag, sanctions and our own vessel data; weight it by the coverage above.
Estimated
Capacity & Classification
Bulker · summer draught 7.1 m · 32.8 t per cm immersion
Estimate only — modelled from deadweight (deadweight regression) using a first-principles hydrostatic model, not measured hydrostatic tables. The design draught it is anchored to is unreliable across the fleet.
density DWT/GT=2.02 is consistent with declared bulker
Declared type is consistent with the class implied by the vessel’s size signals. Inferred via our shared size-based classifier.
Commercial
Voyage Estimate
Overview
About This Vessel
Algoma Buffalo, formerly Buffalo, is a diesel-powered lake freighter acquired by Algoma Central Corporation in 2018. This vessel was built in 1978 by Bay Shipbuilding Company at their yard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for the American Steamship Company and included self-unloading technology. The ship is 634 feet 10 inches (193.50 m) long and 68 feet (21 m) wide, with a carrying capacity of 24,457 tons deadweight (DWT) (at midsummer draft), and is primarily used to ship road salt and construction goods. The vessel is currently in service.
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