Cargo ship stuck in St. Lawrence River for two weeks refloated on Tuesday [Video]

A ship that had been stuck in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal since Christmas Eve was successfully refloated on Tuesday.

The Canadian Coast Guard said the MV Maccoa was being escorted by tugboats to Sorel-Tracy, Que.

The coast guard announced earlier in the day that a second attempt to refloat the ship was slated to begin at 8 a.m. A global marine traffic website on Tuesday morning showed three tugboats surrounding the Cyprus-flagged 185-metre bulk carrier, which ran aground in the early hours of Dec. 24 near Verchères, Que., after a power failure.

A first attempt to free the vessel late last month, using water jets to remove sediment accumulated along the ship’s wall, ended in failure. Authorities then decided to lighten the vessel by unloading 3,000 metric tonnes of the ship’s cargo of corn onto two barges.

The unloading operation was set to begin last week but …