MANITOWOC – Fans of the “Big Blue” cranes made in Manitowoc should get their binoculars and camera phones ready: another crane is tentatively scheduled to leave Manitowoc Harbor on Friday, May 29.
Crane P-82 is expected to leave around 7 a.m., assisted by the Ocean Tower tugboat, according to a Facebook post from Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels.
The giant crane is headed to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oahu, Hawaii.
Ocean Tower tug returns to Manitowoc for another crane shipment
The Ocean Tower tug has returned to Wisconsin after towing Crane 70 from Manitowoc to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state.
The boat left Manitowoc on Nov. 18, 2025, and arrived on the West Coast a few months later.
The tug traveled through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic Ocean during the first few weeks of the trip, then moved down the coastline. The Ocean Tower stopped at the Port of Norfolk in Virginia before leaving for the Panama Canal on Dec. 19, according to the MarineTraffic app. According to the app, it then made its way up the West Coast, arriving in San Diego on Feb. 6 before heading to the Port of San Francisco on Feb. 9.
It is expected to make a similar journey through the Panama Canal with the second crane before heading to Hawaii.
Manitowoc crane will travel through the Panama Canal to Hawaii
Officials from Wisconsin Heavy Fabrication estimated in November that the overall trip would take about 120 days, depending on the weather. The U.S. Navy decides when the cranes will ship.
The cranes were finished in late 2023 and parked in the Wisconsin Heavy Fabrication docking area while they waited to travel by barge to U.S. Navy shipyards. They are part of a U.S. Navy contract and will be used to service submarine fleets.
Their departure was delayed after they were originally expected to ship in 2024.
At 200 feet tall, the cranes are about 20 stories high and have been nicknamed “Manitowoc’s skyscrapers.” The cranes were designed and contracted by the Finnish company Konecranes, and components were made by Broadwind, now renamed Wisconsin Heavy Fabrication.
These are the third and fourth cranes built in Manitowoc after the first, Big Blue, was constructed in 2021.
The second was a gray crane shipped in 2022 for the Army Corps of Engineers to Louisiana. The crane was disassembled, loaded onto a barge and taken south to Chicago, where it linked to the Mississippi River for its trip to its final destination.
The massive cranes reflect Manitowoc’s long shipbuilding history. During World War II, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. built 28 submarines for the U.S. Navy.
Contact reporter Patti Zarling at pzarling@usatodayco.com or call 920-606-2575.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Big Blue crane to depart Manitowoc Harbor for Hawaii
Reporting by Patti Zarling, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter / Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
