30-Aug-16 – The Viking ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean this year with relative ease only to become mired in American red tape has left the Great Lakes.

“A new journey has begun as we just left the lakes today heading down Erie Canal,” posted the Draken Harald Hårfagre on Facebook on Monday. “It has been two intense months that feels more like two years, with so many memories we can’t tell them all.”

One memory they will arguably be trying to forget is how close they came to being detained by Canadian authorities for alleged non-payment of pilotage fees.

Lakes Pilots Association, one of three United States organizations providing pilotage service to ships crossing the Great Lakes, says that as of last Wednesday, Viking Kings A/S, the non-profit organization behind the Draken expedition, still owed an undisclosed amount to both United States and Canadian authorities for two months of pilotage service.

In both countries, a ship can be detained for significant bills or claims against it, as well as any environmental violations or damage it may have caused. The ship is not allowed to leave port and the crew is not allowed to leave their ship. (Right) Recent photo of the Draken by Peder Jacobsson.

“It’s an old legal procedure to get a vessel owner to pay their bills before they sail away where nobody will ever see them again and it would be impossible to ever receive our compensation,” says Captain George Haynes, vice president of Lakes Pilots Association, whose pilots helped the Draken get as far as Green Bay, Wisconsin, before the expedition decided it could not afford to continue to Duluth, Minnesota.

According to Haynes, the pilotage authority in Canada had a warrant to “arrest” the Draken when it arrived at Port Colborne, Ontario, which is on the Lake Erie side of the Welland Canal, the ship canal that connects Lake Erie with Lake Ontario but avoids Niagara Falls.

Once Lakes Pilots Association had been paid, it arranged to have a pilot on board the Draken on August 23 to help the Viking ship get to the Welland Canal.

Had the Draken got through the canal, onto Lake Ontario, and to its next stop in Oswego, New York, Haynes says, “We knew and the Canadians knew…we will never collect payment.”

(Above) Map of the area. (Below) Route of Erie Canal, which flows east to Hudson River at far right.

After spending a few days in Erie, Pennsylvania, where maintenance work was done to the Draken, the ship left Erie at 3 p.m. on Friday and sailed northeast to Port Colborne and then onto the Welland Canal.

On the other side, a new pilot boarded the Draken at Port Weller on Saturday evening. The Draken then sailed all night and arrived early Sunday morning at H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, New York, its last stop on the Great Lakes. By late Monday evening, the Draken had taken down its mast and is headed south on the Oswego Canal toward the Erie Canal, where it will go east until hooking up with the Hudson River, which will lead them south to New York City.

Based in Haugesund, Norway, Viking Kings is owned by Sigurd Aase (right), Chairman of Crudecorp, an international company that acquires, develops, and operates oil and natural gas properties. On May 31, Crudecorp reported a net loss of $1.1 million during the first quarter of 2016, an improvement from the net loss of $1.7 million a year earlier.

Lisa Johansson, Expedition Manager for the Draken Harald Hårfagre, could not be reached for comment.