Late Season Lakers 3

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.

 

Port Colborne Pics 4

At this point in my life, I have a solid list of projects yet to undertake.  One of those is scratch-building a ship or boat model.  Nothing screams “build me” more than this classic laker style.  Enjoy a lot of photos here, curvaceous details to render in a model.

Like the dead ship Paul H. Townsend to the far left, Michipicoten was built in salt water, i.e., Sparrows Point, MD.

 

If you’re wondering how to pronounce Michipicoten, it’s five syllables with emphasis on PI.

That spar mounted on the bow of “house-forward” lakers is called a steering pole, a guide for the helmsman.

Note the crewman watching the camera from the port light above the “M”?

Half the Lower Lakes Towing fleet has the traditional “house-forward” design:  Cuyahoga, Mississagi, Saginaw, Ojibway, and Manitoba.

Note the many large windows on the lee side of the forward superstructure.

The base machinery of the self-unloaders intrigues me.

 

Note the rounded stern and exposed top of the rudder.

The curves on these boats never quit.

 

Into Welland lock 8 she goes.

Yup . . . this winter I need to play around with scratch-building a model, and I’ll see if I can make it eight feet long.

All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp, who wants to remind you of the NYS Canal Conference happening on Staten Island next week.  I will show Graves of Arthur Kill and speak on a panel about the hidden places of the sixth boro.