As William Lafferty pointed out in the previous post in this series here, Robert Barnes Fiertz was not a tanker. I’ll have several more posts on Fiertz and her sisters including the one we now call Day-Peckinpaugh, but here we focus on a vessel launched two years later (in 1923) that builds on the same design and constraints of the Barge Canal. Appropriately called Twin Ports, operating for the Minnesota-Atlantic Transit Company, the vessel below was designed to carry refrigerated goods. My guess would be Great Lakes fish. Somone better versed in developments in refrigeration might explain what means were used to keep the cargo cold.
I’m thinking she’s arriving at lock E-9. This could be the maiden voyage, which would mean Duluth to New York via Superior, Huron, and Erie. She’d then enter the Barge Canal at Tonawanda, exit at Waterford, and travel the Hudson.
Note people in closeups of the same photo above and below. Seeing the two men in the lower righthand corner of the photo in relatively formal attire begs questions about the development of “work clothes.” Similarly, the middle person on the bow . . . is he supercargo or ship’s officer?
I’m surprised by the number of crew on deck here. Also, in the days before hand-held VHF radios, how did crew and bridge communicate?
Here the Erie Canal bulker, as she is classified here, transits a different lock. Her dimensions were 251′ x 42′ and built by Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ashtabula OH.
Closeups show again the large number of folks on deck. Also, in all the photos above, notice the disassembled ventilators flat of the deck. In other photos here, masts, davits, awnings, and other deck equipment lie flat on deck.
Here’s forward,
and midships.
And here she departs the lock.
All photos used with permission of the Canal Society of New York. I’m not sure who the photographer was, but these were taken before 1931, when she was sold to General Motorship Corporation and renamed Clevelander. Subsequently, she was sold to National Motorship Corp (1934), to Island dock Company (1946), and to Cleveland Tankers Inc (1947) for conversion to a tanker. That conversion was never made and she was sold to Moran Towing and Transportation for work off the Lakes but that never happened. In 1954 she was sold to A. Newman & Co. and scrapped in Port Colborne ON.
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February 21, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Bob
Fascinating pictures. Did vessels like these run at night through the canals? I’ve seen spotlights mounted at the bow in some of your other photos, but not on this one.
February 21, 2022 at 2:56 pm
tugster
Good question, Bob. Keep in mind that these pics were from before 1931 during the first decade of the Barge Canal. This may even have been a maiden voyage. Basically, if temporary lights were used–as with Blount passenger vessels until 2019–they would be left in place for the duration of the canal transit. With Blount boats, removing/installing the lights used for early morning and late evening runs was part of the transition process, which also included raising/lowering the wheelhouse, sundeck, masts, and radars.
February 21, 2022 at 4:02 pm
sleepboot
“This could be the maiden voyage”, This line in the story might explain all the wel dressed people on deck. A large crew larger than normal is not uncommon in those days. They were all needed.
In de late ’50 I sailed a 400 ton coaster with a crew of 10. It is only after the electronics that the crew the most expensive part for the company to cut the crew.
February 21, 2022 at 4:07 pm
William Lafferty
Great Lakes Engineering Works launched the Twin Ports on 3 July 1923 at its Ashtabula yard, the first of two sisters ships, the second the Twin Cities launched 31 July 1923, built for the Minnesota Atlantic Transit Company, Duluth. The McDougall interests, specifically the McDougall Terminal Warehouse Company, who built the five Interwaterways Lines Incorporated (“ILI”) boats two years earlier were the force behind these vessels, as well,. I’m sure this is its maiden trip since an article in American Shipping mentions the trip through the canal was “accompanied by a party of engineers and shipping men,” explaining, I guess, the ritzy garb. As for refrigeration (primarily for transport of upper midwest dairy products eastward), the sisters had twin 4-ton Brunswick-Kroeschel refrigeration units for each’s two refrigerated compartments, ducts and fans circulating chilled brine through them. Communication with the crew, I imagine, was by shouting, but there was no need to communicate with the engine room since the vessels’ twin Lombard six-cylinder Diesels driving generators and electric motors were controlled from the pilothouse, the Diesels non-reversing and run at a constant rpm. The Twin Ports had its trials on a trip from Ashtabula to Cleveland then on to Buffalo, 10-12 September 1923, and commenced its maiden voyage, or at least first paying voyage, on 12 October 1923, loading 60 thousand bushels of rye at Buffalo at the American Malting Company elevator for delivery to American Malt at New York.
February 21, 2022 at 4:11 pm
sleepboot
Thank you very much for the story behind the pictures.
Regards
John (Jan) van der Doe.