LL Mackinac to Escanaba

Let’s start with a 1000-footer, MV Burns Harbor.  For all the particulars, click here. 

I’m amazed that someone would approach to that point in a kayak.

 

 

Fishing anyone?

After we’d crossed over in Lake Michigan, 

we passed James R. Barker.  For her particulars, click here. 

 

Both Burns and Barker are among the largest.

Twelve hours later, we entered Escanaba MI, and the Basic yard, or at least used to be that. 

Biscayne Bay awaited the dry dock.

And Nickelena stood by for its next job.

Siscowet is named for an indigenous trout, but that’s all I know. 

Greenstone is intriguing.

I don’t know the story here, but there is only some resemblance to a Point-class USCGC.  Maybe I’m missing something else entirely.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who could do a whole other post about Escanaba.

Lake Loop 7: West Across the Top

American Integrity is one of 13 ore boats on the Great Lakes called the “thousand-footers,” whose length ranges from 1000′ to 1013′.  They represent the most recent upgrade in ore boat capacity.

She was launched in 1977.  The newest 1000-footer was Paul R. Tregurtha, launched in 1981.  As the fleet ages, are there discussions of building the next 1000-footer or another upgrade in capacity?  Maybe the next large investment should be in a super lock at the Soo.

Calumet, a boat I’ve crossed paths with an uncanny number of times recently, headed south after negotiating the Straits.

On the hard in St. Ignace, it’s an unidentified blue trap net boat and fish tug Richard E. 

I had to get a photo of this log truck northbound on the Mac.

A few miles west of the Bridge is St. Helena Light. 

Burns Harbor left White Shoal Light behind as

it headed for the Bridge and then Lake Superior.

 

Lansing Shoals Light is about halfway between the Bridge and the Garden Peninsula.

Closing out this post is Seul Choix (pronounced “say shwah”) Light.  This light appeared–with the gentleman who paints it and othersr–in this post from last December. 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Ships *6

Off in the distance, I believe those lights are Greys Reef and Skillagalee . . . and the

ship is another 1000-footer named for an Indiana port.  Maybe it’s the time of day, but I think I see the iron ore dust on the white paint.

Getting back to my invented  TTT unit (twenty-ton trailer), she has the capacity of 3942.5 trucks off the road.

Algoway (1972) is another appropriate -sized laker, serving ports otherwise possibly inaccessible, and replacing 1200 trucks.

Here she passes through the Round Island Channel, eastbound.

Notice the hatch in the hull below the stack?

An engineer taking some fresh air?

American Spirit . . .  another 1000-footer . .. has a capacity equal to 3120 TTT.  Imagine having all those trucks on the highways between the mines and the steel mills 500+ to the south!

Anyone know how many tons of cargo these boats lug in a season?

Philip R. Clarke, 1265 TTTs.

I do love the paint scheme of USS Great Lakes fleet.

James R. Barker, 3165 TTT.

She’s been running for 41 years on the lakes.

 

And as James R. Barker disappears in the direction of the Soo and Lake Superior, Hon. James L. Oberstar (1550 TTT) heads for the steel mills.

Here’s a list of the 1000-footers on the Great Lakes

American Century

American Integrity

American Spirit

Burns Harbor

Edgar B. Speer

Edwin H. Gott

Indiana Harbor

James R. Barker

Mesabi Miner

Paul R. Tregurtha

Presque Isle ITB

Stewart J. Cort

Walter J, McCarthy Jr.

For an alphabetical listing of these Great Lakes-locked vessels, check out Dick Lund’s page.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.