Go West 12

We had a long transit from Detroit to Mackinac, so here are a lot of photos, starting with Federal Kumano and Ambassador Bridge in the distance;

passing steel operations,

 

 

and the mailboat Westcott.

Near central Detroit a pilot boards Federal Kumano from Huron Maid.

Entering Lake St. Clair, we pass Philip R. Clarke, 

followed by Lubie in China township,

Radcliffe R. Latimer, 

Great Lakes Maritime Center,

lightship Huron,

and as we headed unbound into Lake Huron, we passed Arthur M. Anderson . . . the last vessel in contact with the Fitzgerald before she was taken by Superior.

This was sunrise nearing the end of this leg, and in the night and distractions, I missed Alpena.

This post closes with Buffalo, as she leaves the Mackinac Bridge behind her.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Road Fotos 12

Harold Tartell and Jan van der Doe were 100% correct in their identification of the white-striped red self-unloading vessel in Road Fotos 11.  It is the Arthur M. Anderson.  I didn’t get to see it close up, but through the magic of YouTube, it’s rubbing-or-scrapping distance here.  At about a minute into the video, you learn how the can be that close.

One of the joys of gallivanting is meeting new folks;  this was especially true here.  One person on this waterfront had a focus I recognized;  he carried a zoom camera and looked at the same things I did.  Seeing me take a foto of Arthur M. Anderson, he said its name (which I’d not been thinking of).  Then he added, “And farther down there, it’s American Integrity.”    Check out Ken’s blog here.  Here are some highlights of Ken’s blog:  American Century, the Westcott delivering mail to a passing vessel, Stephen B. Roman, a 1000-footer dwarfed by “big mac“, and check this one . . . the Huron Lightship . . . which I spotted from the Blue Water Bridge but couldn’t quite figure out.  When I have more time, I plan to digest Ken’s archives, now added to my blog roll.

Here are my shots of Westcott and Hogan.  I’d love this job although it has risk.

My zoom camera quit as this vessel approached, frustrating because I’d recognized the Algoma bear logo.  And I’d assumed it was a bulk carrier too, as I thought that was Algoma’s only business, but Algosar is a tanker.  See her history here.

Just south of the Ambassador Bridge, Dutch-flagged Moezelborg transfers cargo near the now-abandoned Boblo Island Detroit dock building.  Boblo lives on but only in the way that this whole list of defunct amusement parks does.  When Moezelborg left the international port of Detroit, she headed north, west, and south for the next international port of Chicago.

Here’s another shot of the two steamers that served Boblo Island, SS Columbia and SS Ste Claire.  I wanted to get better shots but even as I got this–along with my anonymous partner–we were threatened with arrest for trespassing, which I firmly believe we were NOT doing.  Here and here are more links for Ste Claire.  The second one is a video of a tour of Ste Claire, interesting video but unfortunate audio.

I hope to return to Detroit in August, and at that time, hope to arrange for a boat tour of the waterfront, possibly to get better shots of these vessels.

I have returned to the sixth boro, but part of my heart got left behind in Detroit, a place of both rust and new molten steel.

Here, fun but otherwise a propos of nothing except a post on the official end-of-hurricane-season, check out “bone in its teeth” blog.