Lake freighter
Encyclopedia
Lake freighters, or Lakers, are bulk carrier
vessels that ply the Great Lakes
. The best known was the , the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the Lakes, but by the early 21st century there were fewer than 140 active lakers. Due to the Saint Lawrence Seaway
, Lakers have access to the ocean, and ocean-going vessels have access to the Lakes. Visiting ocean-going vessels are called "salties." Due to their additional beam
, very large salties are never seen inland of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Because the smallest of the Soo Locks
is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Because of their deeper draft and the lower buoyancy
of fresh water, salties may accept partial loads on the Great Lakes, "topping off" upon exiting the Seaway. Similarly, the largest Lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes (Superior
, Michigan
, Huron
, Erie
) because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal
that bypasses the Niagara River
.
Lakers carry bulk cargo
es of materials such as limestone, iron ore, grain, coal or salt from the mines and fields to the highly populated industrial areas down the lakes. The 63 commercial ports handled 173 million tons of cargo in 2006. Because of winter ice on the lakes, the navigation season is not usually year-round. The Soo Locks and Welland Canal close from mid-January to late March and most boats are laid up for those months for maintenance and repair. Crewmembers spend these months ashore.
Depending on their application, lakers may also be referred to by their type, such as oreboats (primarily for iron ore), straight decker
s (no self-unloading gear), bulkers (carry bulk cargo), sternenders (all cabins aft), self unloaders (with self unloading gear), longboats (due to their slender appearance), or lakeboats, among others.
Lakers are generally bulk carrier
s; that is, they carry cargoes of rock, ore, salt or grain in large contiguous holds, not packed in containers. The earlier ships required unloading machinery
at the docks, but modern Lakers are self unloaders, allowing them to unload faster and in more ports.
The most common cargoes on the Great Lakes are taconite
(a type of iron ore), limestone
, grain
, salt
, coal
, cement
, gypsum
, sand
, slag
and potash
. Much of the cargo supplies the steel mills of the auto industry, centered around the Great Lakes because of the ease of transport. Other destinations include coal-fired power plants, highway department salt domes and stone docks, where limestone is unloaded for the construction industry. US-flag freighters carried the largest portion of the trade, accounting for two-thirds of all cargo by weight. US boats carried most of the iron, limestone and cement while Canadian boats carried most of the potash and almost all of the salt and grain moved on the lakes.
Destination harbors, boat sizes and legal restrictions greatly affect the pattern of haulage. US boats hauled almost all of the iron ore on the lakes (79%) - from US mines to US mills on large US ships. This reflects the requirement of the Jones Act, as well as the industry using large volumes of material while being concentrated in a few large harbor locations. Salt and Canadian grain can be hauled to numerous smaller ports of either country on smaller, mostly Canadian, boats which can also enter the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Canadian ports of Montreal and Quebec City.
The largest vessels on the lake are the 1000-footers (300 m). These vessels are between 1000 and 1013.5 feet (305 and 309 m) long, 105 feet (32 m) wide and of 56 feet (17 m) hull depth. They can carry as much 78,850 long ton
s of bulk cargo although their loading is dependent on lake water levels especially in the channels and ports. A dozen of these giant ships were built, all constructed between 1976 and 1981, and all are still in service today. The most powerful of these, the Edwin H. Gott, carries two Enterprise DMRV-16-4 diesel engines driving twin propeller
s and is rated at 19,500 brake horsepower, making the Gott the most powerful lake boat on the seaway. (14.5 MW). This allows a top speed of 16.7 mph (27 km/h). The is the largest boat on the lakes, at 1013'6" and 68,000 gross ton capacity. The Stewart J. Cort, which is not only the first 1000-footer to be put into service on the Lakes, but also the only one built in the traditional wheelhouse-forward Great Lakes style (although all accommodations are forward, and the stern deckhouse is occupied by self unloading equipment and the engines), is another notable vessel. The Cort started life in Mississippi, and was sailed as a much smaller vessel consisting of only the bow and stern sections (appropriately nicknamed "Stubby"), to Erie, Pennsylvania
, where she was cut in half and an additional 800+ feet of hull were added. Another interesting 1000-footer is the Presque Isle, an integrated tug and barge combination. The Presque Isle is the largest tug / barge composite in the world.
All of the 1000-footers are United States vessels. The Canadian fleet needs to travel to and from its major cities along the St. Lawrence Seaway, so the standard length for the Canadian vessels is around 730 feet (Seawaymax
-size). The reason for this standard length is the Welland Canal
, which bypasses Niagara Falls. The locks here are only about 800 feet (243.8 m) long, and for safety reasons, the vessels must be at most 730 feet (222.5 m). Because of the Jones Act, Canadian ships cannot carry ore from American mines to American mills; this ore is the usual cargo of the largest ships.
More common are lake boats in the 600 and 700 foot (183 and 213 m) classes, due to the limitations of the Welland Canal. These vessels vary greatly in configuration and cargo capacity, being capable of hauling between 10,000 and 40,000 tons per trip depending on the individual boat. The latest major vessel built for bulk cargoes on the lakes is the articulated tug/barge combo Samuel De Champlain/Innovation. The 460 feet (140.2 m) barge Innovation and the 149 feet (45.4 m) tug Samuel de Champlain entered service in 2006 hauling cement for LaFarge, operated by Andrie, Inc.
Tug/barge combination (ITB)
Presque Isle (1000'x104'7") Only 1000 foot tug/barge unit
Because these vessels must traverse the locks of the Great Lakes Waterway
, they all have features in common, and their appearance differs from similarly sized ocean-going freighters
. For instance, they are narrower and generally longer. An early variation of the type (designed by Alexander McDougall and built from 1887 through 1898) was the "whaleback
" design, which featured significant tumblehome
in the sides of the hull and a rounded bow, looking rather like the back of a whale
. Where the superstructure of an ordinary freighter used to have the bridge in the center of the vessel, lake freighters typically have the bridge and associated superstructure on the bow. Traditionally they had a second island, over the engine room in the stern. These dual cabined boats were constructed between 1869 and 1974. The R. J. Hackett premiered the style and the second Algosoo was the final vessel designed this way. More recently built lakers, like the CSL Niagara, have a single large superstructure island right astern.
Lakers differ from most salties in having bluff bows instead of raked or clipper bows and in rarely having bulbous bow
extensions, although a few Canadian Lakers are fitted with ice-breaking bulbous bows. The narrow, raked bow of a saltie allows it more speed, while a bluff bow allows for more cargo capacity at a given draft, while pushing more water. Vessel speeds are not as important on the Lakes as on the ocean. Ports are often closer together than in ocean trade, so cargo capacity is more important than speed. Lake vessels are designed with the greatest box coefficient to maximize the vessels size in the many locks within the Great Lakes/St Lawrence Seaway system. Therefore, ship designers have favored bluff bows over streamlined bows. After World War II
, several ocean freighters and tankers were transported to the Great Lakes and converted to bulk carriers as a way to acquire ships cheaply. Several of them served well in the role and continue to sail today (American Victory (fmr. Middletown), Lee A. Tregurtha, and a few others).
Another distinguishing feature of Lake vessels versus Ocean vessels is the cargo hatch configuration. On the Lake vessels, the hatches are traditionally spaced 24 feet (7.8m) apart. This configuration was needed to match the hatches to the loading facilities. At the turn of the 19th century, most ore loading facilities had loading chutes spaced every 12 feet (3.8m). The ship designers used this pattern for their hatch configuration. This pattern continues today, even with modern Lake vessels. A Lake vessel has many more hatches than an Ocean vessel of equal length.
The largest deep lock at the Soo
is the Poe Lock which is 1,200 feet (370 m) long and 110 feet (34 m) wide. Because of size restrictions, thirty vessels on the lakes can only pass between Lake Superior
and Lake Huron
using the Poe lock although none approaches the lock's size. Many Lakers are restricted to the Lakes, being unable to navigate the St Lawrence Seaway whose locks allow a maximum vessel size of 740 feet (226 m) in length or 78 feet (24 m) in breadth. The shallow draft imposed by the rivers (typically dredged to about 28 feet (8.5m) by the United States Army Corps of Engineers
) restricts the cargo capacity of Lakers, but that is partially recovered by their extra length and box design. Since Great Lakes waves never achieve the great length or period of ocean waves, particularly compared to the waves' height, ships are in less danger of being suspended between two waves and breaking, so the ratio between the ship's length, beam and its depth can be a bit larger than that of an ocean-going ship. The Lake vessels generally have a 10:1 length to beam ratio, whereas the Ocean Vessels are typically 7:1. The dimension of locks is the determining factor in Lake vessel construction.
Since the freshwater
lakes are less corrosive to ships than the salt water
of the oceans, many of the Lakers remain in service for long periods and the fleet has a much higher average age than the ocean-going fleet. The average lifespan of a laker is 40–50 years.Welcome to Great Lakes Shipping, Know Your Ships. Boats older than 50 years are not unusual. The St. Mary's Challenger, built in 1906 as the William P. Snyder (552 ft), is currently the oldest boat in active duty on the Lakes. She is managed by HMC Ship Management, LTD. and owned by St. Mary's Cement, a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos
. The E. M. Ford had one of the longest careers, having been built in 1898 (as the Presque Isle - 428 feet) and still sailing the lakes 98 years later in 1996. In 2007 she was still afloat as a stationary transfer vessel at a riverside cement silo in Saginaw. She went to the scrap yard in November 2010 at Pervis Marine, yet still awaits possible preservation. The J. B. Ford, built in 1904, last sailed in 1985 and in 2007 served in the same capacity as the E. M. at a different cement silo in Superior, Wisconsin
. Several decorated World War II
veteran ships are still in active, although civilian, use such as the tankers Chiwawa and Neshanic, now the bulk freighters Lee A. Tregurtha and American Victory, respectively, and the Landing Craft Tank
203, now the working vessel Outer Island.
. The following are new freighters in use or will be launched for use in the Great Lakes
:
, China
, and schedule for delivery in August 2011 for Algoma Central Corporation.
, China
) and expected to enter service in 2013-2014 for Seaway Marine Transport. The ships will be used as dry-bulk lake freighters (two gearless bulk freighter and three self-unloading vessel).
with its cargo of furs to the 1975 loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, thousands of ships and thousands of lives have been lost; many of these losses involved vessels in the cargo trade. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
uses the approximate figures of 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost. David D. Swayze has compiled a list which details over 4,750 well-documented shipwrecks, mostly of commercial vessels and a list of known names of over 5,000 victims of those sinkings. Maritime historian Mark Thompson reports that based on nautical records, nearly 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes occurred between 1878 and 1994, with about a quarter of those being listed as total losses with a total of 1,166 lives lost.
The most recent losses of modern lakers were (with their causes):, May 11, 1953, Lake Superior, 14 of 31 crew died, (flooded after cargo hatch covers lost during storm), November 18, 1958, Lake Michigan, 33 of 35 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm), May 7, 1965, Straits of Mackinac, 10 of 35 crew died, (collision with the saltie Topdalsfjord), November 29, 1966, Lake Huron, 28 of 29 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm), November 10, 1975, Lake Superior, 29 of 29 crew died, (unknown cause during storm)
The salties Prins Willem V and Monrovia also sank in the Great Lakes during the 1950s; both in collisions with other ships. The saltie Nordmeer grounded on Thunder Bay Island Shoal in November 1966 but before it could be refloated was further damaged in the same storm that sank the Morrell and it was declared a total loss.
Ships on the Lakes have been involved in many lesser incidents. Lakers have been subject to frequent groundings in port and canals due to varying lake levels and silting, collisions with objects (such as the 1993 collision of the Indiana Harbor with the Lansing Shoal Lighthouse), icing in during winter trips and shipboard fires (including the unusual case in 2001 where a drawbridge ran into the Canadian grain carrier Windoc
causing a fire). To prevent collisions and groundings, the Great Lakes are well-served with lighthouse
s and lights, floating navigation aids, and LORAN
stations. The U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard
maintain stations around the Great Lakes including icebreaker
s and rescue helicopters. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies maintain the harbors and seaways to limit groundings by dredging and seawall
ing.
November was the traditional last month of shipping before the winter layup (and lake freeze-up). This month sees much of the worst weather of the navigation season and has seen a disproportionate number of accidents. Dana Bowen mentions that over half of all strandings and one-third of all vessels lost to foundering between 1900-1950 were lost during November.
The most famous laker was the (popularized by Gordon Lightfoot
's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
" in 1976), which sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The Fitz was the first boat with a length of 729 feet (222.2 m) and the flagship of the Columbia Steamship Division of Oglebay Norton Co. The MV Stewart J. Cort was the first of the 1000 feet (304.8 m) oreboats.
The first laker with self-unloading equipment was the Hennepin (formerly the George H. Dyer) a small wooden laker that was refitted with the equipment in 1902. The first laker built as a self-unloader was the Wyandotte launched in 1908. Before these, all boats were unloaded with shoreside equipment. Self-unloading equipment worked well for cargoes that could "flow" out of the holds onto belts, such as coal and limestone. It did not work well for grain, which flowed too readily and would spill off the conveyors, or iron ore, which wouldn't flow well and would hang up in the hold. Because the predominant cargo for lakers was iron ore, self-unloaders did not become common until higher grade ores were depleted and taconite
pellets were developed in the 1970s. Steam power first appeared in the 1860s and became the standard source of power for over a century. The Canadian grainboat Feux Follets of 1967 was the last laker to be built with a steam turbine
and thus was the last steamer
built on the lakes. Ford Motor Company
's Henry Ford 2nd and Benson Ford of 1924 were the first lakeboats with diesel engine
s. Diesel powerplants did not become standard until the 1970s. The last active ships of 1920s vintage, and the oldest ships still operating in non-specialized bulk trades is the motor vessels Maumee of Lower Lakes Transportation. She was built as the William G Clyde for US Steel. The S. T. Crapo, inactive since 1996, was built to haul cement for Huron Cement Co. back in 1927 and was the second ship of that design, the first being the John G Boardman of the same company. The Crapo was the last coal burning freighter on the Great Lakes.
The classic design of cabins fore-and-aft with open decks over the hold started with the 208 feet (63.4 m) long R. J. Hackett, designed and built by Elihu Peck in 1869. The first iron-hulled laker was the Brunswick, launched at Detroit in 1881. The Brunswick sank after a collision later that year and was apparently little known. Many follow the lead of the contemporary Cleveland press and credit the Onoko as the first iron-hulled laker, launched in 1882. The Onoko’s higher center section did become a standard for later lakers. At 302 feet (92 m), the Onoko was the first bulk carrier to hold the unofficial title of Queen of the Lakes
(longest vessel on the lakes). The (1927 – 640 feet) held the title for 22 years, longer than any other laker of the classic design. The Bradley is also known for breaking her back and foundering in a Lake Michigan
storm in 1958. There were only two survivors.
Currently that title is held by the modern stern-ender Paul R. Tregurtha. Launched in 1981 as the William J. Delancy, and measuring 1013.5 feet (308.9 m), the Paul R. Tregurtha has held the title since her launch. The Wilfred Sykes (1949 – 678 feet) is considered to be the first of the modern lakers, and when converted to a self-unloader in 1975 was the first to have the equipment mounted aft. Since then all self-unloading equipment has been mounted aft. The Algoisle (formerly the Silver Isle) (1962 – 715.9 feet) was the first modern laker built with all cabins aft (a “stern-ender”), following the lead of ocean-going bulk carriers and reprising a century old form used by little river steam barges and the whaleback
s. The Stewart Cort (1971) was the first 1,000 footer and the only “footer” built in the classic cabins-fore-and-aft style. The Algosoo (1974 – 730 feet) was the last laker built in the classic style.
Also of note is the steamer Edward L. Ryerson, widely known for her artistic design and being the only remaining straight-decked (without self unloading machinery) freighter still in active service on the US side of the Great Lakes (the only other US straight decker still listed is the John Sherwin, has not sailed since 1981 and is currently docked in Detour, Michigan after conversion to a self unloader and repowering was halted in November 2008). In the summer of 2006, the Ryerson was fitted out and put into service following a long-term lay-up that began in 1998. The Ryerson has been meticulously maintained, and was often used as a museum boat for tours. She was put back into service due to a lack of reliable hulls on the Lakes, and a need for more tonnage. (The Canadian fleet retains a number of active straight-deckers for use in transporting grain, which is not well suited for self-unloading equipment. Most US grain is currently transported by rail.)
In film, the W. W. Holloway (since scrapped) is famous for being the lake freighter that the Blues Brothers
jump their 1974 Dodge over when Elwood jumps the open 95th Street Draw Bridge.
, a laker built in 1925 and a former flagship for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, has been turned into a maritime museum
and is open to the public in Cleveland, Ohio in the North Coast Harbor
.
was named for the president of U.S. Steel
at the time of its launching and served as the flagship of US Steel's Great Lakes fleet from her launch in 1938 to 1975. It was the first laker to incorporate welding in its design and is open for tours at the Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum
in Duluth, Minnesota
. Another museum ship
, the , is the last surviving ship of the whaleback
design, and is a museum in Superior, Wisconsin
, which was the location of the American Steel Barge Company, where the whalebacks were built.
resides at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes as a display and as a bed & breakfast. Launched in 1958, it and the former USCGC Mackinaw serve as the Great Lakes two surviving large red hulled icebreakers.
The Mackinaw was homeported in Cheboygan, Michigan
, during active service. Due to the Mackinaw's age and expensive upkeep, the cutter was decommissioned and replaced with a smaller multipurpose cutter , which was commissioned in Cheboygan the same day.
The old Mackinaw moved under its own power on June 21, 2006, from the port of its decommissioning to a permanent berth at the dock at the ship's namesake port, Mackinaw City, Michigan
where she now serves as the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
. Built in 1931 to replace a previous ferry, the , lost in 1929 with all hands. She sailed for this company for 40 years and another 5 for the Ann Arbor Railroad before laying up in Frankfort in 1982. She sat there until being sold for a museum. Later moved to her present berth in Manistee, she is open for tours as the last unmodified classic railroad ferry. The older paddlewheel steam railroad ferries , built in 1884, was modified to support a restaurant in antique railcars in Erie, Pennsylvania
; and the Huron, built in 1875, was stripped of her cabins and sank at a pier in Detroit. The hull of the Landowne was raised and towed to Buffalo. The mayor and daily newspaper have inveighed against the Lansdowne, calling it an eyesore. She has since been scrapped.
, another passenger steamer. Built in 1904, she served as a passenger/package freighter for the Pennsylvania Railroad marine division called the Anchor Line as the Stmr. Juniata. In 1940, after several years in layup, she was sold and converted to an excursion steamer between Muskegon & Milwaukee. Laid up in the 1970s, she lingered for 30 years before returning to Muskegon as a museum. Also in Muskegon is the USCGC McLane, a 1920s vintage Coast Guard cutter used to combat the rum-runners in Detroit during Prohibition
. Located alongside the McLane is the , a Gato-class World War II submarine and museum. The sub is known as the most decorated World War II sub still in existence. Additionally, the USS LST 393, a World War II tank landing ship launched in 1943, is available for tours at West Michigan Dock & Market in downtown Muskegon. Sporting the camouflage livery she wore at the end of the war, the ship worked as an automobile ferry between 1947 and 1973, under the name MV Highway 16 (after US Route 16 which was bridged by the ship between Muskegon and Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
, and Port McNicoll
for over 50 years until being sold for scrap in 1967. Saved from the wrecker's torch, the Keewatin was towed to Saugatuck, Michigan
use as a museum in 1968. She is the last unmodified Great Lakes passenger liner in existence and a wonderful example of Edwardian luxury. Keewatin is one of the world's last coal-fired steamships. A Toronto Star article (June 24, 2007) documents a Canadian effort to see the venerable steamer returned to Dominion waters as a museum ship at Port McNicoll.
was built in 1917 and served the National Steel Corporation
, the Republic Steel Corporation, and Wilson Transit Co. during her 1917-1966 working life. She became a museum ship on the waterfront of the 'American Soo', east of the Soo Locks
, in 1968. She holds many relics of the sinking of the including two of the Fitz's mauled lifeboats.
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The Col. James M. Schoonmaker is a former Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company vessel that sailed from 1911 to 1980. She was originally owned by the Shenango Furnace Company, but renamed the Willis B. Boyer under Cleveland Cliffs ownership. The Schoonmaker was the largest bulk freighter in the world when commissioned. In one of the most ambitious Great Lakes ship restorations to date, the Schoonmaker was re-christened July 1, 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the ship's launching in Toledo. She is open to the public as a museum at International Park in Toledo, Ohio
.
is in retirement as a floating display. Built in 1896, it was one of the last operating steam tugboats on the Great Lakes. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
has been preserved ashore as a static display on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. Launched in 1932, the tug is one of three preserved steamtugs on the Great Lakes, the other being the James Whalen and the Edna G.
, where she serves as the floating cocktail lounge.
launched in 1952, is still running. She is famous for having had the last contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald before the latter sank. She was also the first would-be rescue vessel to search for the Fitzgerald.
Bulk carrier
A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...
vessels that ply the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. The best known was the , the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the Lakes, but by the early 21st century there were fewer than 140 active lakers. Due to the Saint Lawrence Seaway
Saint Lawrence Seaway
The Saint Lawrence Seaway , , is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal...
, Lakers have access to the ocean, and ocean-going vessels have access to the Lakes. Visiting ocean-going vessels are called "salties." Due to their additional beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
, very large salties are never seen inland of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Because the smallest of the Soo Locks
Soo Locks
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario...
is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Because of their deeper draft and the lower buoyancy
Buoyancy
In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...
of fresh water, salties may accept partial loads on the Great Lakes, "topping off" upon exiting the Seaway. Similarly, the largest Lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes (Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
, Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
, Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
) because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal
Welland Canal
The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Canada that extends from Port Weller, Ontario, on Lake Ontario, to Port Colborne, Ontario, on Lake Erie. As a part of the St...
that bypasses the Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...
.
Lakers carry bulk cargo
Bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...
es of materials such as limestone, iron ore, grain, coal or salt from the mines and fields to the highly populated industrial areas down the lakes. The 63 commercial ports handled 173 million tons of cargo in 2006. Because of winter ice on the lakes, the navigation season is not usually year-round. The Soo Locks and Welland Canal close from mid-January to late March and most boats are laid up for those months for maintenance and repair. Crewmembers spend these months ashore.
Depending on their application, lakers may also be referred to by their type, such as oreboats (primarily for iron ore), straight decker
Straight decker
A straight decker is a ship built with its pilothouse forward and engines aft to provide continuous hold between. This design originated to meet the navigational demands on lake freighters on the U.S./Canadian Great Lakes routes...
s (no self-unloading gear), bulkers (carry bulk cargo), sternenders (all cabins aft), self unloaders (with self unloading gear), longboats (due to their slender appearance), or lakeboats, among others.
Cargo
| Average yearly cargoes — 2002-2007 (million tons) |
|
|---|---|
| Iron ore | 60.0 |
| Coal | 41.3 |
| Limestone | 37.7 |
| Grain | 12.0 |
| Salt | 8.8 |
| Cement | 5.2 |
| Potash | 0.6 |
| Total | 164.6 |
| Source: Great Lakes Dry-Bulk Commerce, 2007 Statistical Annual Report, Lake Carriers’ Association |
|
Lakers are generally bulk carrier
Bulk carrier
A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...
s; that is, they carry cargoes of rock, ore, salt or grain in large contiguous holds, not packed in containers. The earlier ships required unloading machinery
Hulett
The Hulett automatic ore unloader was invented by George Hulett of Ohio in the late 19th century; he received a patent for his invention in 1898. The first working machine was built the following year at Conneaut Harbor in Conneaut, Ohio...
at the docks, but modern Lakers are self unloaders, allowing them to unload faster and in more ports.
The most common cargoes on the Great Lakes are taconite
Taconite
Taconite is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate...
(a type of iron ore), limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
, salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
, gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
, sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
, slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
and potash
Potash
Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...
. Much of the cargo supplies the steel mills of the auto industry, centered around the Great Lakes because of the ease of transport. Other destinations include coal-fired power plants, highway department salt domes and stone docks, where limestone is unloaded for the construction industry. US-flag freighters carried the largest portion of the trade, accounting for two-thirds of all cargo by weight. US boats carried most of the iron, limestone and cement while Canadian boats carried most of the potash and almost all of the salt and grain moved on the lakes.
Destination harbors, boat sizes and legal restrictions greatly affect the pattern of haulage. US boats hauled almost all of the iron ore on the lakes (79%) - from US mines to US mills on large US ships. This reflects the requirement of the Jones Act, as well as the industry using large volumes of material while being concentrated in a few large harbor locations. Salt and Canadian grain can be hauled to numerous smaller ports of either country on smaller, mostly Canadian, boats which can also enter the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Canadian ports of Montreal and Quebec City.
Size
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
s of bulk cargo although their loading is dependent on lake water levels especially in the channels and ports. A dozen of these giant ships were built, all constructed between 1976 and 1981, and all are still in service today. The most powerful of these, the Edwin H. Gott, carries two Enterprise DMRV-16-4 diesel engines driving twin propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
s and is rated at 19,500 brake horsepower, making the Gott the most powerful lake boat on the seaway. (14.5 MW). This allows a top speed of 16.7 mph (27 km/h). The is the largest boat on the lakes, at 1013'6" and 68,000 gross ton capacity. The Stewart J. Cort, which is not only the first 1000-footer to be put into service on the Lakes, but also the only one built in the traditional wheelhouse-forward Great Lakes style (although all accommodations are forward, and the stern deckhouse is occupied by self unloading equipment and the engines), is another notable vessel. The Cort started life in Mississippi, and was sailed as a much smaller vessel consisting of only the bow and stern sections (appropriately nicknamed "Stubby"), to Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
, where she was cut in half and an additional 800+ feet of hull were added. Another interesting 1000-footer is the Presque Isle, an integrated tug and barge combination. The Presque Isle is the largest tug / barge composite in the world.
All of the 1000-footers are United States vessels. The Canadian fleet needs to travel to and from its major cities along the St. Lawrence Seaway, so the standard length for the Canadian vessels is around 730 feet (Seawaymax
Seawaymax
The term Seawaymax refers to vessels which are the maximum size that can fit through the canal locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway.Seawaymax vessels are in length, wide, and have a draft of and a height above the waterline of . A number of lake freighters larger than this size cruise the Great...
-size). The reason for this standard length is the Welland Canal
Welland Canal
The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Canada that extends from Port Weller, Ontario, on Lake Ontario, to Port Colborne, Ontario, on Lake Erie. As a part of the St...
, which bypasses Niagara Falls. The locks here are only about 800 feet (243.8 m) long, and for safety reasons, the vessels must be at most 730 feet (222.5 m). Because of the Jones Act, Canadian ships cannot carry ore from American mines to American mills; this ore is the usual cargo of the largest ships.
More common are lake boats in the 600 and 700 foot (183 and 213 m) classes, due to the limitations of the Welland Canal. These vessels vary greatly in configuration and cargo capacity, being capable of hauling between 10,000 and 40,000 tons per trip depending on the individual boat. The latest major vessel built for bulk cargoes on the lakes is the articulated tug/barge combo Samuel De Champlain/Innovation. The 460 feet (140.2 m) barge Innovation and the 149 feet (45.4 m) tug Samuel de Champlain entered service in 2006 hauling cement for LaFarge, operated by Andrie, Inc.
List of 1000-footers on the Lakes
- Bulk freighters (self unloaders)
Design
Great Lakes Waterway
The Great Lakes Waterway is a system of channels and canals that makes all of the Great Lakes accessible to oceangoing vessels. Its principal civil engineering components are the Welland Canal, bypassing Niagara Falls between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and the Soo Locks, bypassing the rapids of...
, they all have features in common, and their appearance differs from similarly sized ocean-going freighters
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
. For instance, they are narrower and generally longer. An early variation of the type (designed by Alexander McDougall and built from 1887 through 1898) was the "whaleback
Whaleback
A cargo steamship of unique design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal leaving, when fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull above the waterline, was unofficially called a "whaleback". With sides curved in towards the ends, it had a...
" design, which featured significant tumblehome
Tumblehome
In ship designing, the tumblehome is the narrowing of a ship's hull with greater distance above the water-line. Expressed more technically, it is present when the beam at the uppermost deck is less than the maximum beam of the vessel....
in the sides of the hull and a rounded bow, looking rather like the back of a whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
. Where the superstructure of an ordinary freighter used to have the bridge in the center of the vessel, lake freighters typically have the bridge and associated superstructure on the bow. Traditionally they had a second island, over the engine room in the stern. These dual cabined boats were constructed between 1869 and 1974. The R. J. Hackett premiered the style and the second Algosoo was the final vessel designed this way. More recently built lakers, like the CSL Niagara, have a single large superstructure island right astern.
Bulbous bow
A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability...
extensions, although a few Canadian Lakers are fitted with ice-breaking bulbous bows. The narrow, raked bow of a saltie allows it more speed, while a bluff bow allows for more cargo capacity at a given draft, while pushing more water. Vessel speeds are not as important on the Lakes as on the ocean. Ports are often closer together than in ocean trade, so cargo capacity is more important than speed. Lake vessels are designed with the greatest box coefficient to maximize the vessels size in the many locks within the Great Lakes/St Lawrence Seaway system. Therefore, ship designers have favored bluff bows over streamlined bows. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, several ocean freighters and tankers were transported to the Great Lakes and converted to bulk carriers as a way to acquire ships cheaply. Several of them served well in the role and continue to sail today (American Victory (fmr. Middletown), Lee A. Tregurtha, and a few others).
Another distinguishing feature of Lake vessels versus Ocean vessels is the cargo hatch configuration. On the Lake vessels, the hatches are traditionally spaced 24 feet (7.8m) apart. This configuration was needed to match the hatches to the loading facilities. At the turn of the 19th century, most ore loading facilities had loading chutes spaced every 12 feet (3.8m). The ship designers used this pattern for their hatch configuration. This pattern continues today, even with modern Lake vessels. A Lake vessel has many more hatches than an Ocean vessel of equal length.
The largest deep lock at the Soo
Soo Locks
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario...
is the Poe Lock which is 1,200 feet (370 m) long and 110 feet (34 m) wide. Because of size restrictions, thirty vessels on the lakes can only pass between Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
and Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
using the Poe lock although none approaches the lock's size. Many Lakers are restricted to the Lakes, being unable to navigate the St Lawrence Seaway whose locks allow a maximum vessel size of 740 feet (226 m) in length or 78 feet (24 m) in breadth. The shallow draft imposed by the rivers (typically dredged to about 28 feet (8.5m) by the United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
) restricts the cargo capacity of Lakers, but that is partially recovered by their extra length and box design. Since Great Lakes waves never achieve the great length or period of ocean waves, particularly compared to the waves' height, ships are in less danger of being suspended between two waves and breaking, so the ratio between the ship's length, beam and its depth can be a bit larger than that of an ocean-going ship. The Lake vessels generally have a 10:1 length to beam ratio, whereas the Ocean Vessels are typically 7:1. The dimension of locks is the determining factor in Lake vessel construction.
Lifespan
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
lakes are less corrosive to ships than the salt water
Seawater
Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% . This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts . The average density of seawater at the ocean surface is 1.025 g/ml...
of the oceans, many of the Lakers remain in service for long periods and the fleet has a much higher average age than the ocean-going fleet. The average lifespan of a laker is 40–50 years.Welcome to Great Lakes Shipping, Know Your Ships. Boats older than 50 years are not unusual. The St. Mary's Challenger, built in 1906 as the William P. Snyder (552 ft), is currently the oldest boat in active duty on the Lakes. She is managed by HMC Ship Management, LTD. and owned by St. Mary's Cement, a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos
Votorantim Cimentos
Votorantim Cimentos is the largest cement company of Brazil and one of the 10 largest in the world, the company was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in São Paulo.In February of 2010 the Votorantim Cimentos acquired 17,28% of the portuguese cement company Cimpor....
. The E. M. Ford had one of the longest careers, having been built in 1898 (as the Presque Isle - 428 feet) and still sailing the lakes 98 years later in 1996. In 2007 she was still afloat as a stationary transfer vessel at a riverside cement silo in Saginaw. She went to the scrap yard in November 2010 at Pervis Marine, yet still awaits possible preservation. The J. B. Ford, built in 1904, last sailed in 1985 and in 2007 served in the same capacity as the E. M. at a different cement silo in Superior, Wisconsin
Superior, Wisconsin
Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...
. Several decorated World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran ships are still in active, although civilian, use such as the tankers Chiwawa and Neshanic, now the bulk freighters Lee A. Tregurtha and American Victory, respectively, and the Landing Craft Tank
Landing craft tank
The Landing Craft, Tank was an amphibious assault ship for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the British Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "Tank Landing Craft" by the British, they later...
203, now the working vessel Outer Island.
Newest freighters
Some shipping companies are building new freighters to ply the waters of the Great LakesGreat Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. The following are new freighters in use or will be launched for use in the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
:
Jiangyin
Jiangyin is a city in China's Jiangsu province on the Yangtze River. It has population of 1.2 million . The total GDP reached RMB 171.3 billion yuan in 2009, an increase of 11.6% from 2008. The GDP per capita reached RMB 142,572 yuan...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and schedule for delivery in August 2011 for Algoma Central Corporation.
Nantong
Nantong is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth, Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north, Taizhou to the west, Suzhou and Shanghai to the south across the river, and...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
) and expected to enter service in 2013-2014 for Seaway Marine Transport. The ships will be used as dry-bulk lake freighters (two gearless bulk freighter and three self-unloading vessel).
Ship losses and accidents
The Great Lakes have a long history of shipwreck, groundings, storms and collisions. From the 1679 sinking of Le GriffonLe Griffon
Le Griffon was a 17th century sailing ship built by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in his quest to find the Northwest Passage to China and Japan....
with its cargo of furs to the 1975 loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, thousands of ships and thousands of lives have been lost; many of these losses involved vessels in the cargo trade. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located at the Whitefish Point Light Station north of Paradise in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The light station property was transferred to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society , the Michigan Audubon Society , and the United States...
uses the approximate figures of 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost. David D. Swayze has compiled a list which details over 4,750 well-documented shipwrecks, mostly of commercial vessels and a list of known names of over 5,000 victims of those sinkings. Maritime historian Mark Thompson reports that based on nautical records, nearly 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes occurred between 1878 and 1994, with about a quarter of those being listed as total losses with a total of 1,166 lives lost.
The most recent losses of modern lakers were (with their causes):, May 11, 1953, Lake Superior, 14 of 31 crew died, (flooded after cargo hatch covers lost during storm), November 18, 1958, Lake Michigan, 33 of 35 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm), May 7, 1965, Straits of Mackinac, 10 of 35 crew died, (collision with the saltie Topdalsfjord), November 29, 1966, Lake Huron, 28 of 29 crew died, (split in half due to hogging during storm), November 10, 1975, Lake Superior, 29 of 29 crew died, (unknown cause during storm)
The salties Prins Willem V and Monrovia also sank in the Great Lakes during the 1950s; both in collisions with other ships. The saltie Nordmeer grounded on Thunder Bay Island Shoal in November 1966 but before it could be refloated was further damaged in the same storm that sank the Morrell and it was declared a total loss.
Ships on the Lakes have been involved in many lesser incidents. Lakers have been subject to frequent groundings in port and canals due to varying lake levels and silting, collisions with objects (such as the 1993 collision of the Indiana Harbor with the Lansing Shoal Lighthouse), icing in during winter trips and shipboard fires (including the unusual case in 2001 where a drawbridge ran into the Canadian grain carrier Windoc
Windoc
Windoc was the name of two Great Lakes freighters owned by Canadian shipping company N.M. Paterson & Sons Ltd., with the second ship named in memory of the first in 1986. Both ships suffered similar accidents with lift bridges on the Welland Canal....
causing a fire). To prevent collisions and groundings, the Great Lakes are well-served with lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
s and lights, floating navigation aids, and LORAN
LORAN
LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters in multiple deployment to determine the location and speed of the receiver....
stations. The U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard
Canadian Coast Guard
The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...
maintain stations around the Great Lakes including icebreaker
Icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...
s and rescue helicopters. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies maintain the harbors and seaways to limit groundings by dredging and seawall
Seawall
A seawall is a form of coastal defence constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides and waves...
ing.
November was the traditional last month of shipping before the winter layup (and lake freeze-up). This month sees much of the worst weather of the navigation season and has seen a disproportionate number of accidents. Dana Bowen mentions that over half of all strandings and one-third of all vessels lost to foundering between 1900-1950 were lost during November.
Famous vessels
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song written, composed and performed by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. It was inspired by the Newsweek article on the event, "The Cruelest Month", which...
" in 1976), which sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The Fitz was the first boat with a length of 729 feet (222.2 m) and the flagship of the Columbia Steamship Division of Oglebay Norton Co. The MV Stewart J. Cort was the first of the 1000 feet (304.8 m) oreboats.
The first laker with self-unloading equipment was the Hennepin (formerly the George H. Dyer) a small wooden laker that was refitted with the equipment in 1902. The first laker built as a self-unloader was the Wyandotte launched in 1908. Before these, all boats were unloaded with shoreside equipment. Self-unloading equipment worked well for cargoes that could "flow" out of the holds onto belts, such as coal and limestone. It did not work well for grain, which flowed too readily and would spill off the conveyors, or iron ore, which wouldn't flow well and would hang up in the hold. Because the predominant cargo for lakers was iron ore, self-unloaders did not become common until higher grade ores were depleted and taconite
Taconite
Taconite is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate...
pellets were developed in the 1970s. Steam power first appeared in the 1860s and became the standard source of power for over a century. The Canadian grainboat Feux Follets of 1967 was the last laker to be built with a steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
and thus was the last steamer
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
built on the lakes. Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
's Henry Ford 2nd and Benson Ford of 1924 were the first lakeboats with diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s. Diesel powerplants did not become standard until the 1970s. The last active ships of 1920s vintage, and the oldest ships still operating in non-specialized bulk trades is the motor vessels Maumee of Lower Lakes Transportation. She was built as the William G Clyde for US Steel. The S. T. Crapo, inactive since 1996, was built to haul cement for Huron Cement Co. back in 1927 and was the second ship of that design, the first being the John G Boardman of the same company. The Crapo was the last coal burning freighter on the Great Lakes.
The classic design of cabins fore-and-aft with open decks over the hold started with the 208 feet (63.4 m) long R. J. Hackett, designed and built by Elihu Peck in 1869. The first iron-hulled laker was the Brunswick, launched at Detroit in 1881. The Brunswick sank after a collision later that year and was apparently little known. Many follow the lead of the contemporary Cleveland press and credit the Onoko as the first iron-hulled laker, launched in 1882. The Onoko’s higher center section did become a standard for later lakers. At 302 feet (92 m), the Onoko was the first bulk carrier to hold the unofficial title of Queen of the Lakes
Queen of the Lakes
Queen of the Lakes is the unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada. It is also the name of an annual festival in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland, and the winner of a scholarship competition held in connection with...
(longest vessel on the lakes). The (1927 – 640 feet) held the title for 22 years, longer than any other laker of the classic design. The Bradley is also known for breaking her back and foundering in a Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
storm in 1958. There were only two survivors.
Whaleback
A cargo steamship of unique design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal leaving, when fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull above the waterline, was unofficially called a "whaleback". With sides curved in towards the ends, it had a...
s. The Stewart Cort (1971) was the first 1,000 footer and the only “footer” built in the classic cabins-fore-and-aft style. The Algosoo (1974 – 730 feet) was the last laker built in the classic style.
Also of note is the steamer Edward L. Ryerson, widely known for her artistic design and being the only remaining straight-decked (without self unloading machinery) freighter still in active service on the US side of the Great Lakes (the only other US straight decker still listed is the John Sherwin, has not sailed since 1981 and is currently docked in Detour, Michigan after conversion to a self unloader and repowering was halted in November 2008). In the summer of 2006, the Ryerson was fitted out and put into service following a long-term lay-up that began in 1998. The Ryerson has been meticulously maintained, and was often used as a museum boat for tours. She was put back into service due to a lack of reliable hulls on the Lakes, and a need for more tonnage. (The Canadian fleet retains a number of active straight-deckers for use in transporting grain, which is not well suited for self-unloading equipment. Most US grain is currently transported by rail.)
In film, the W. W. Holloway (since scrapped) is famous for being the lake freighter that the Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
jump their 1974 Dodge over when Elwood jumps the open 95th Street Draw Bridge.
Cleveland, Oh
The William G. MatherSteamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum
The Steamship William G. Mather is a retired Great Lakes bulk freighter now restored as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four in the Great Lakes region...
, a laker built in 1925 and a former flagship for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, has been turned into a maritime museum
Maritime museum
A maritime museum is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water...
and is open to the public in Cleveland, Ohio in the North Coast Harbor
North Coast Harbor
North Coast Harbor is a district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie. It includes the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Steamship William G...
.
Duluth-Superior, Minn-Wis
The William A. IrvinWilliam A. Irvin
The SS William A. Irvin is a lake freighter which sailed as a bulk freighter on the Great Lakes as part US Steel's lake fleet. She was flagship of the company fleet from her launch in the depths of the depression in 1938 until 1975 and then as a general workhorse of the fleet until her retirement...
was named for the president of U.S. Steel
U.S. Steel
The United States Steel Corporation , more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central Europe. The company is the world's tenth largest steel producer ranked by sales...
at the time of its launching and served as the flagship of US Steel's Great Lakes fleet from her launch in 1938 to 1975. It was the first laker to incorporate welding in its design and is open for tours at the Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum
Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum
The Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum is located in Duluth, Minnesota.The historic vessels USCG Buoy Tender Sundew,US Army Corps of Engineers tugboat Lake Superior,and the lake freighter SS William A. Irvin are moored there, and open for tours....
in Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. Another museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
, the , is the last surviving ship of the whaleback
Whaleback
A cargo steamship of unique design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal leaving, when fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull above the waterline, was unofficially called a "whaleback". With sides curved in towards the ends, it had a...
design, and is a museum in Superior, Wisconsin
Superior, Wisconsin
Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...
, which was the location of the American Steel Barge Company, where the whalebacks were built.
Kewaunee, Wi
Former Army Corps of Engineer tugboat Ludington. Built as an Army tug in 1943, it partook in the D-Day Invasion at Normandy.Kingston, Ont
Former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS Alexander HenryCCGS Alexander Henry
CCGS Alexander Henry is a former Canadian Coast Guard Light icebreaker and Buoy tender in the Great Lakes.She is currently a museum ship preserved at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario. During the summer months it is also operated as a bed and breakfast.Built at Port Arthur...
resides at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes as a display and as a bed & breakfast. Launched in 1958, it and the former USCGC Mackinaw serve as the Great Lakes two surviving large red hulled icebreakers.
Mackinaw City, Mi
The is a 290-foot (88 m) vessel specifically designed for ice breaking duties on the Great Lakes. LR number: 6119534The Mackinaw was homeported in Cheboygan, Michigan
Cheboygan, Michigan
Cheboygan is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 5,295. It is the county seat of Cheboygan County....
, during active service. Due to the Mackinaw's age and expensive upkeep, the cutter was decommissioned and replaced with a smaller multipurpose cutter , which was commissioned in Cheboygan the same day.
The old Mackinaw moved under its own power on June 21, 2006, from the port of its decommissioning to a permanent berth at the dock at the ship's namesake port, Mackinaw City, Michigan
Mackinaw City, Michigan
Mackinaw City is a village in Emmet and Cheboygan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2000 census the population was 859. The name "Mackinaw City" is a bit of a misnomer as it is actually a village...
where she now serves as the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
Manistee, Mi
The was a railroad ferry of the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry CompanyGrand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company
The Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's subsidiary company operating its Lake Michigan railroad car ferry operations between Muskegon, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1905 to 1978...
. Built in 1931 to replace a previous ferry, the , lost in 1929 with all hands. She sailed for this company for 40 years and another 5 for the Ann Arbor Railroad before laying up in Frankfort in 1982. She sat there until being sold for a museum. Later moved to her present berth in Manistee, she is open for tours as the last unmodified classic railroad ferry. The older paddlewheel steam railroad ferries , built in 1884, was modified to support a restaurant in antique railcars in Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
; and the Huron, built in 1875, was stripped of her cabins and sank at a pier in Detroit. The hull of the Landowne was raised and towed to Buffalo. The mayor and daily newspaper have inveighed against the Lansdowne, calling it an eyesore. She has since been scrapped.
Manitoulin Island, Ont
The is a museum ship berthed permanently at the Manitowaning Heritage Complex. It is one of three surviving running mates, the others being the Norgoma and the Normac. It was built in 1946, the first ship built in post-WW II Canada, using engines intended for a Royal Canadian destroyer. Norisle ran until 1974 when it was replaced by the MS Chi-Cheemaun. Plans call for sinking the Norisle as a tourist dive site. A group, Friends of The Norisle, some 200 strong, has formed to lobby against this loss of history.Muskegon, Mi
The Milwaukee ClipperMilwaukee Clipper
The S/S Milwaukee Clipper, also known as S/S Clipper , and formerly as the S/S Juniata, is a mothballed passenger ship and automobile ferry that sailed under two configurations and on two sides of the Great Lakes. The Clipper is the oldest US passenger steamship on the Great Lakes...
, another passenger steamer. Built in 1904, she served as a passenger/package freighter for the Pennsylvania Railroad marine division called the Anchor Line as the Stmr. Juniata. In 1940, after several years in layup, she was sold and converted to an excursion steamer between Muskegon & Milwaukee. Laid up in the 1970s, she lingered for 30 years before returning to Muskegon as a museum. Also in Muskegon is the USCGC McLane, a 1920s vintage Coast Guard cutter used to combat the rum-runners in Detroit during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
. Located alongside the McLane is the , a Gato-class World War II submarine and museum. The sub is known as the most decorated World War II sub still in existence. Additionally, the USS LST 393, a World War II tank landing ship launched in 1943, is available for tours at West Michigan Dock & Market in downtown Muskegon. Sporting the camouflage livery she wore at the end of the war, the ship worked as an automobile ferry between 1947 and 1973, under the name MV Highway 16 (after US Route 16 which was bridged by the ship between Muskegon and Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
Saugatuck, Mi
The , a former Canadian Pacific passenger liner. Built in Scotland in 1907, the boat steamed between Fort William, OntarioFort William, Ontario
Fort William was a city in Northern Ontario, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Ever since then it has been the largest city in Northwestern...
, and Port McNicoll
Port McNicoll, Ontario
Port McNicoll is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the Simcoe County township of Tay.-Busy terminal:The community of Port McNicoll was established in 1908 as a Great Lakes port on the southern shores of Georgian Bay...
for over 50 years until being sold for scrap in 1967. Saved from the wrecker's torch, the Keewatin was towed to Saugatuck, Michigan
Saugatuck, Michigan
Saugatuck is a city in Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 925 at the 2010 census. The city is within Saugatuck Township, but is administratively autonomous....
use as a museum in 1968. She is the last unmodified Great Lakes passenger liner in existence and a wonderful example of Edwardian luxury. Keewatin is one of the world's last coal-fired steamships. A Toronto Star article (June 24, 2007) documents a Canadian effort to see the venerable steamer returned to Dominion waters as a museum ship at Port McNicoll.
Penetanguishene, Ont
Georgian Queen, ex-Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking cutter converted into a tour boat.Sault Ste. Marie, Mi
The Valley CampSteamship Valley Camp
The SS Valley Camp is a freighter boat that served on the Great Lakes for almost 50 years and is currently serving as a museum ship in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.- History :...
was built in 1917 and served the National Steel Corporation
National Steel Corporation
The National Steel Corporation was a major American steel producer. It was founded in 1929 through a merger arranged by Weirton Steel with some properties of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and M.A. Hanna Company. Despite a difficult market in Depression-setting 1930, the company reported USD...
, the Republic Steel Corporation, and Wilson Transit Co. during her 1917-1966 working life. She became a museum ship on the waterfront of the 'American Soo', east of the Soo Locks
Soo Locks
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario...
, in 1968. She holds many relics of the sinking of the including two of the Fitz's mauled lifeboats.
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont
The MS Norgoma, berthed in the Canadian Soo, was built as a steamer carrying freight and passengers in 1950. She ran from Owen Sound to Sault Ste. Marie from 1950 to 1963 on the so-called Turkey Trail. In 1963, the Norgoma was converted to a car ferry, her former role taken over by trucks, buses and automobiles. She ran between Tobermory to Manitoulin Island. At this time, the Norgoma was converted to diesel power. She became a museum ship in 1977.Thunder Bay, Ont
The 1905 icebreaking tugboat James Whalen serves as a popular photo shoot at Kaministiquia Park. It was rescued in 1977 after it was slated for scrapping.Toledo, Oh
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
.
Two Harbors, Minn
The steam tugboat Edna GEdna G
The Edna G is a tugboat which worked the Great Lakes. The railroad paid $35,397.50 for the Edna G. in 1896. It was out of service from 1931 to 1933 due to the depression. The Edna G. was built by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company in 1896 for the Duluth & Iron Range RY...
is in retirement as a floating display. Built in 1896, it was one of the last operating steam tugboats on the Great Lakes. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Toronto, Ont
The side-wheel steam ferry Trillium (1910) was reactivated in 1976 calls Toronto home. Several vintage 1930s screw ferries serve along side her. The steamtug Ned HanlanNed Hanlan
Edward "Ned" Hanlan was a World Champion professional sculler, hotelier, and alderman from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-Early life:...
has been preserved ashore as a static display on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. Launched in 1932, the tug is one of three preserved steamtugs on the Great Lakes, the other being the James Whalen and the Edna G.
DeTour, Mi
The Lewis G. Harrimans bow and bow superstructure are preserved here. The Harriman, launched as the purpose-built cement steamer John W. Board, was scrapped but the bow was saved as a DeTour residence. Recently restored to the Boardman colors.Put-In-Bay, Oh
The Benson Ford was named after Henry Ford's grandson, and was the flagship of the Ford Motor Company (1924). The Pilot house is now donning a cliff on Put-In-Bay, Ohio. It is a private museum residence owned by Bryan Kasper of Sandusky, Ohio. It has been featured in many magazines and national television shows such as HGtv's Extreme Homes and Travel Channel's Extreme Vacation Homes. The pagoda-style cabin of the Ford provides a glimpse of what one of the grandest freighters on the lakes looked like.Toronto, Ont
The was sunk as a breakwater (with stack and cabins intact) near Toronto at Port Credit. It was built in 1905 and is one of the oldest surviving hulls on the lake. Its stark silhouette provides an example of the appearance of early 1900s lake freighters.Failed museum attempts, ships scrapped
Several other lakers nearly became museums, but due to funding, political opposition or other causes, were scrapped.- Lewis G. Harriman - a 1923 purpose-built cement carrier, the first of her kind, that sailed from her launch until 1980. Used as a storage barge until 2003, a group tried to save her but bad communications within the company saw the ship sold in 2004 and scrapped in Sault Ste. Marie by Purvis Marine. The majority of the hull was fed to the Algoma Steel Mill but the fo'c'sle was saved as a summer cottage at Detour, Michigan.
- SS Niagara - 1897 built freighter, later converted to a sand-sucker. Scrapped in 1997 by Liberty Iron & Metal of Erie, PennsylvaniaErie, PennsylvaniaErie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
, after a failed attempt to convert her into a museum in Erie. She had been saved from the scrapyard 11 years earlier.
- John Ericsson - The second-to-last whalebackWhalebackA cargo steamship of unique design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal leaving, when fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull above the waterline, was unofficially called a "whaleback". With sides curved in towards the ends, it had a...
freighter. The Ericsson was scrapped in 1969 in the city of Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
. Politics, as was the case with the Canadiana, played a central role in the loss of the ship.
- Three-masted schoonerSchoonerA schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
J. T. Wing - Last commercial sailing ship on the Great Lakes, used briefly in the lumber trade on the Great Lakes. She served as a training vessel before being grounded on Belle Isle in 1949 as a static museum ship, before being burned before a crowd of 6000 in 1956.
- Three masted schooner Alvin Clark - Built in 1846 for the lumber trade, she sank in Green Bay in 1864. She was raised in 1965 and taken to Menominee as a museum. After being severely neglected for a number of years, she was dismantled in 1998.
- SS Seaway Queen - The Canadian straight decker Seaway Queen, formerly owned by Upper Lakes Shipping was involved in an attempt to save her as a museum. In the end, the company failed to locate an organization that was capable and willing to preserve her and she was sold and scrapped in Alang, India, in 2004.
- Lansdowne – The paddlewheel steam railroad ferry Lansdowne, built in 1884, was modified to support a restaurant in antique railcars and the Huron, built in 1875, sank at a pier in Erie, Pennsylvania. The hull was raised but little other information as to the future of the vessel has been forthcoming. The hulk was towed to Buffalo, New York, in July 2006. The mayor of Buffalo in the winter of 2008 called it an eyesore and called for its removal. The Lansdowne was scrapped in July 2008.
- Chief Wawatam - One of the world's most historic icebreakers and the last hand-fired coal steamer on the Great Lakes. The Wawatam was cut down to a barge, and finally scrapped by its owner Purvis Marine of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.
- Alabama - Famous Goodrich Transit Line steamer later cut down as a barge, scrapped in 2009.
- wrecking tug Favorite - The Great Lakes most famous salvage tug, likened to the role played by the SS Foundation Franklin in the Canadian Maritimes. An attempt to save it at Sault Ste Marie next to the SS Valley Camp failed when state monies failed to materialize and the rivited hull begain to leak. Broken up at Detour, Michigan.
Future museum potential
- 1902 built fire tug converted into passenger/packet steamer for the Owen Sound Transportation Company Ltd. Larger running mates Norisle and Norgoma have been converted into museum ships. After a stint as a floating restaurant in Toronto that was terminated when accidentally rammed by a ferry, the Normac was towed to Port Dalhousie, OntarioPort Dalhousie, Ontario
Port Dalhousie is a community in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its waterfront appeal. It is also home to the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta and is historically significant as the terminus for the first three routes of the Welland Canal.The city's most popular beach, on the...
, where she serves as the floating cocktail lounge.
- Imperial Sarnia - 1948 built steam tanker. The Imperial Sarnia is ending her days as the dead bunkering vessel Provmar Terminal II in Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
. While some freighters, such as Great Lakes bulk carriers, Liberty and Victory ships, have survived as museum ships, no conventional tankers have. The tanker museum ships that do exist, the Falls of Clyde and the Meteor, are known for being examples of unique vessel designs: an iron sailing ship and a whaleback, respectively.
- Cement Steamers - The cement fleet of steamers is rapidly being supplanted by tug/barge combinations like the Integrity and Innovation. Historic cement steamers include the E. M. Ford (1898), the J. B. Ford (1904), the St. Marys Challenger (1906), S. T. Crapo (1927), the J. A. W. Iglehart (1936), Alpena (1942) and the Paul H. Townsend (1945).
Museum or historic ships at risk
A number of historic museum ships face uncertain futures.- The coast guard cutter Bramble, a former museum ship, has been put up for sale by its owner, the Port Huron Museum. The city of Saint Clair, Michigan, rejected an option to host the Bramble as a museum ship in the summer of 2011.
- The aforementioned E. M. Ford, a cement steamer, is as of August 2008, slated for scrapping at the end of the year or the beginning of 2009 according to press reports. She will face the same fate as the lost Lewis G Harriman.
- There is a campaign to draw the public's attention to the need to renovate the whalebackWhalebackA cargo steamship of unique design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal leaving, when fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull above the waterline, was unofficially called a "whaleback". With sides curved in towards the ends, it had a...
tanker ship Meteor in Superior, WisconsinSuperior, WisconsinSuperior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...
.
- SS Norisle at Manitoulin IslandManitoulin IslandManitoulin Island is a Canadian island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario. It is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and...
. Plans call for the ship to be towed and scuttled as a dive site. The "Friends of the Norisle" have formed to oppose this loss. Supportive articles and letters to the editor have appeared in the Manitoulin Expositor newspaper.
See also
- Great Lakes Maritime AcademyGreat Lakes Maritime AcademyThe Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College is located on West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, Michigan. The academy was established in 1969 to train men and women to be licensed mariners on ships of unlimited tonnage or horsepower; including research vessels, cruise...
, training center for merchant mariners on the Great Lakes - Great Lakes Storm of 1913Great Lakes Storm of 1913The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the "Big Blow", "Jeff Kinsland's Wash," the "Freshwater Fury" or the "White Hurricane", was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario...