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Onward we go, even if I’ve lagged a bit behind our actual wake. I’ll reprise this account to fill in after I’m back on shore and enjoying fast . . . everything. It was after 2000 that we passed the water intake on Wednesday.
Ten minutes later the sun touched the waters to the west.
Nine hours later we passed this McKeil tanker as we were upbound in the approach to the Detroit River.
The new Gordie Howe Bridge rises high about Zug Island steel works.
A bit blurred because I had to shoot through a port light . . . it’s Tenacious, a 1960-built veteran.
Later I caught Gott, Edwin H. down bound on the Detroit River.
As I watched, the crewman lowered a bucket to crew on M S Westcott, exchanging mail or maybe Grey Poupon.
As darkness overcame us again, Iver Bright passed down bound.
The following sunrise found us on a track paralleling the US/CA border, well east of down bound traffic.
American Mariner greeted us as we approached our destination, Mackinac.
Welcome, back.
All photos, minimal commentary as I write this from Lake Michigan, WVD.
Gott‘s been here often enough, but with these pics, I’ll devote a whole post to this “footer.”
Given the photo above, you might not suspect you’re looking at the front of a vessel 1004′ loa with the capacity of 74,000 tons. And from boatnerd, source of all my info, Gott is powered by 19,5000 hp, the most powerful boat on the Lakes.
A beauty she is, IMHO.
Above Bois Blanc, Gott proceeds over to the Livingstone Channel, as we exit the Amherstburg Channel. For a USGS report on this traffic separation scheme, click here.
Down and over, she heads for Nanticoke.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
I’ll take a different tack here. From a design perspective, Kaye E. Barker illustrates what I understand as the unique lines of the classic laker, sometimes called a longboat. She was launched the same year I was born. Combing through the records of her various owners, it might be possible to calculate the tonnage of payload she has transported and the profits generated, these days at 25,900 tons per load although previously less than that.
Click here for a slideshow of this vessel under the name Barker as well as her previous names: Greene and Ford. She’s the only AAA-class laker with a triple level house forward.
What became of one of her sister vessels–J. L. Mauthe–can be read about here. I previously posted photos here of the sister boat that now barge Pathfinder.
Edwin H. Gott is one of the 13 “footers” aka “thousand-footers.” Great Lakes Fleet–a CN company– has the best paint scheme, in my opinion. Here’s an article on CN’s acquisition of GLF.
Cason J. Callaway is another GLF boat, but she has a cargo capacity of 25,300 tons versus 74,100 tons for Gott.
Although part of a different fleet than Barker above, Callaway embodies the same design referred to as AAA boats.
From this angle, you can see the long “skinny” hull.
In different light, time of day and a different lake, here’s Michipicoten on her last run of the season. She’s currently in winter layup at DonJon Shipbuilding in Erie PA.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. I’m back in the sixth boro and Tugster-Tower-tied for a spell.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Round Island is an uninhabited island between the islands of Mackinac and Bois Blanc. Big traffic passes through a relatively narrow passage between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
Edwin H. Gott transited recently. Gott, as I’ve read, has a self-unloader boom longer than standard.
Even at 280′ the boom looks small compared with the 1000′ hull.
No long afterward, Erie Trader and this sailboat transited in the opposite direction.
Pushing the Trader is
Joyce L. VanEnkvort.
The sailboat made the passage in Joyce and Trader‘s wake.
A bit over a century ago, this route was served by the oceanic North Land.
It’s possible this image was enhanced in this engraving. Sam Clemens was a big fan, it appears, of the Buffalo to Duluth run.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
“Motor city” is another name for Detroit, but “detroit” is only part of the name for the waterway given by the French explorer Cadillac when he led the first Europeans to settle “Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit” on a bank of “le détroit du lac Érié,” the strait of Lake Erie), linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie; historically, the strait included the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.
Some time after departing the Cuyahoga, we pass this mysterious site. Any ideas? I’ll identify it at the end of this post.
If you’re not at the helm, straits bring the treat of relatively close passage with other traffic, like Dorothy Ann and Pathfinder here.
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial is a 352′ monument we can all live with, sans controversy.
As we approach the center of the contemporary city of Detroit, traffic and industry intensify. I’d never noticed GLW’s glowing slag heaps, like crafted flows of lava.
On the Windsor side, Frontenac transfers payload . . not sure what. Salt maybe?
On the American side, 1000′ Edwin H. Gott is likely discharging Superior ore or taconite.
Sturgeon Bay-built Sam Laud watches from the Rouge. Laud, the namesake, moved from shop painter and riveter to CEO of GATX.
Folks on the bridge of Algoma Olympic, Port Weller-built and down bound here just south of the Ambassador Bridge, must be experiencing the frustration of having to worry about devil-may-care recreational boaters. Recently, a high profile meeting of stake holders was held at Port Huron to deal with difficult small boat operators, one in particular who decided to play chicken with a freighter .
Last year this China-built tug was called Victorious; now she’s know as Leo A. McArthur, and as then, she pushes hot asphalt contained in John J. Carrick.
Patricia Hoey (built 1949) is a good example of the extended life experienced by freshwater boats.
A McAsphalt unit like Leo A. McDonald, Everlast, matched as always with Norman McLeod, is Japan-built.
I’d love to learn more about this Windsor home, but the name on the facade is that of the Massachusetts-born founder of Canadian Club whisky.
Just north of Belle Isle, SS Ste. Claire, Boblo ferry sister of SS Columbia, marks Kean’s Marina.
And with night falling and work for me to do, we’ll leave this post only partway through the strait with Kaye E. Barker, once Benson Ford III. Notice the GMRenCen in the distance just forward of the front of the self-unloading arm? GMRenCen was built by Ford.
The return of daylight will find us in Lake Huron. To see the St. Clair River by daylight, click here. All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.
The sinuous structures in the top photo depict Cedar Point as seen from a few miles out in the lake.
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