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Yesterday’s post covered some of the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan. Today it’s the Straits of Mackinac and part of the top of Lakes Huron.
Mesabi Miner headed for the mills at the south of Lake Michigan.
Great Republic passed between Mackinac Island and Round Island.
The following morning’s sunrise put golden colors on John J. Boland.
Hon. James L. Oberstar followed Boland to the Staits.
Algoma Compass followed shortly behind.
Here was a surprise . . . . Highland Eagle heading for some more core sampling in the Straits.
Off Alpena, we crossed paths with Baie Comeau and
Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin.
More to come, provided that I find WIFI . . .
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Last winter I planned a trip along the southern shore of Lake Erie, hoping to catch photos of lakers in ice. The results were here, a week after ice out, a schedule that depended on someone else’s time off. It was a fun trip, but the photos I hoped for eluded me. Well, Brian caught them in the photos below. GL New York (1913) and Rhode Island (1930) are frozen in, and Oberstar is so deep in hibernation that her shutters are pulled down.
Between the stern of Oberstar and the bow of Presque Ile in the distance, that’s Dorothy Ann, half the ATB with . . .
barge Pathfinder, launched in 1953 as the ore boat J. L. Mauthe. The stern of the newly-renamed barge Maumee clearly shows the deep notch. Maumee also started life as a 1953-launched ore boat.
erTug Victory, which worked in salt water for her first 25 years, is laid up here between her barge Maumee, until recently called James L. Kuber, and J. S. St John.
Many thanks to Brian for letting me share these photos on tugster.
Because of a cold brisk wind, I shot some of these through glass, which is never a good idea. But looking at this set, taken between Belle Isle and Sarnia, illustrate the variety of lakers, all in a context of not a single recreational vessel, something you’d never see in summer.
Select info from the excellent boatnerd site says this: launched in 1943! from American Shipbuilding in Lorain OH, Cuyahoga was sold to Canadian interests in 1995, cargo capacity of 15, 675 tons, 620′ x 60′ and converted from steam to diesel between the 1999 and 2000 seasons. She’s the second oldest Canadian vessel on the Lakes, younger only by a month than Mississagi.
Note the house forward and boom pointing aft.
Tecumseh (641′ x 78′) is also a Lower Lakes Towing Ltd. boat, also built in the US . . . in Seattle at Lockheed Shipbuilding in 1972. Because she has no self-unloader, she discharges her maximum 29,510 tons of cargo using shore gear. For more info, click here at boatyard. [Autocorrect always wants to replace my “boatnerd” with “boatyard.”]
Robert S. Pierson is the last Lower Lakes boat in this post. It too was built in Lorain OH, in 1973 and was sold and registered Canadian in 2008. At 630′ x 68′ she has a capacity of 19,650 tons. Of course,by now you’ve noticed her house is aft with her self-unloader pointing forward. Much more detail can be found here.
Hon. James L. Oberstar was launched in 1959. At 710′ loa, only a handful of boats on the Lakes were longer, including the Edmund Fitzgerald at 729.’ She was lengthened to 806′ between the 1970-71 seasons. A self-unloader was added between the 1980-81 seasons. In 2008, she was repowered, replacing a steam turbine with a diesel. Her cargo capacity is 31,000. Again, much more info can be found here. Notice that in contrast with Cuyahoga above, Oberstar has house forward and self-unloader boom pointing forward.
The white steam is evidence of the emissions scrubbers pioneered on Oberstar in 2016, and now visible on other Interlake Steamship boats like Paul R. Tregurtha and James R. Barker.
CSL Tadoussac, already in winter layup and light here, has the same basic configuration as Oberstar, but is less curvaceous. She was launched in 1969 in Collingwood ON but extensively rebuilt before the 2001 season. Currently she is 730 x 77′ and has cargo capacity of 30,151 tons. Her namesake is an early settlement dating from before Jaques Cartier on the St. Lawrence downstream from Quebec City. Boatnerd has her complex her here. Alice Oldendorff is part of the very diverse CSL fleet.
To round out this post, let me add a tanker. Truth be told, I include this photo here partly because of the dramatic difference in scale between the ship and the tanker truck alongside. I’m not sure what product the trailer tank is there to deliver or receive.
Algoma Hansa was built in Mobile AL in 1998. She entered Canadian waters for the first time in 2013, and for the past few years has worked mainly in Algoma’s domestic fleet. Is it correct to assume the Canadian fleet relies more on tankers for what in the US is transported by large ATBs?
Let’s leave it here. I hope you’ve enjoyed these comparisons as much as I have.
All photos and information interpretation by Will Van Dorp, who is solely responsible for any errors.
Oh, and if the Tugster Tower internet wizards sent you a puzzling 404 error message in lieu of yesterday’s URL, try this: https://tugster.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/late-season-lakers-1/
To start, these are boats, I’m told, not ships. I first saw the type as a kid, reading a book that made an impression and crossing the St Lawrence on the way to the grandparents’ farm.
I’ve posted Great Lakes photos a fair number of times in the past few years, so I continue CYPHER series here with Manitowoc –a river-size self unloader–departing Cleveland for Milwaukee.
Alpena–1942–with the classic house-forward design transports cement. I was thrilled to pass her late this summer on a magnificent Lake Huron afternoon.
Although you might not guess it, Algoma Harvester was built here half a world away from the Lakes. To get to her trading waters, she crossed two oceans, and christened less than four years ago. The selling point is that she carries more cargo than typically carried within the size parameters of a laker (Seawaymax), requires fewer crew, and exhausts cleaner. I took the photo on the Welland.
Thunder Bay hails from the same river in China as Algoma Harvester and just a year earlier. The photo was taken near Montreal in the South Shore Canal.
Tim S. Dool was built on a Canadian saltwater port in 1967. I caught her here traversing the American Narrows on the St. Lawrence.
American Mariner was built in Wisconsin in 1979. In the photo below she heads unbound on Lake St. Louis. I’ve seen her several times recently, here at night and here upbound St. Clair River.
Baie St. Paul is a slightly older, nearly identical Chinese built sister to Thunder Bay.
Algolake, launched 1977, was among the boats built in the last decade of the Collingwood Shipyard.
Lee R. Tregurtha, here down bound in Port Huron, has to have among the most interesting history of any boat currently called a laker. She was launched near Baltimore in 1942 as a T-3 tanker, traveled the saltwater world for two decades, and then came to the lakes. I also caught her loading on Huron earlier this year here.
Mississagi is another classic, having worked nearly 3/4 of a century on the Lakes.
Buffalo, 1978 Wisconsin built, and I have crossed paths lots recently, earlier this month here. The photo below was taken near Mackinac; you can see part of the bridge off her stern. Tug Buffalo from 1923, the one going to the highest bidder in five days, now stands to go to the bidder with $2600 on the barrelhead.
I’ll close this installment out with lake #12 in this post . . . . Hon. James L. Oberstar, with steel mill structures in the background, has been transporting cargo on the lakes since the season of 1959. She is truly a classic following that steering pole. See Oberstar in her contexts here, here, and really up close, personal, and almost criminally so for the diligent photographer, here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp. More to come.
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 Spirit
Burns Harbor
Edgar B. Speer
Indiana Harbor
Paul R. Tregurtha
Stewart J. Cort
For an alphabetical listing of these Great Lakes-locked vessels, check out Dick Lund’s page.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
* here means . . . in freshwater. Actually there’ve been 50 posts under this title, but this is different. And note the color of the water, brown in the case of Isolda below because it’s steaming out of the muddy, clay-suspended Maumee.
In the blue waters of the St. Clair River with Sarnia on the far side, it’s Lee A. Tregurtha.
Headed unbound not far from the same location, it’s Victoriaborg.
Down in an ocean port along the Indiana coast and shot from a speeding Amtrak, it’s James R. Barker.
Over in East China–East China Michigan, that is–it’s Lubie making her way to the ocean, well over a week away.
Upbound out of Detroit, it’s Hon James L. Oberstar,
a downbound Algonova,
and to close it out today . . Philip R. Clarke.
Clarke (Ohio) was launched 1951; Algonova (Turkey) in 2007; Oberstar (Ohio) , 1958; Lubie (China) 2011; Victoriaborg (Netherlands), 2001; Lee A. Tregutha (Maryland), 1942, as USS Chiwawa–and you need to click here to see her initial configuration!!; and finally Isolda (Japan) in 1999.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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