Today in Great Lakes History

[yachtsmanwilly]

Great Lakes levels keep catching up

10/4 - The upper Great Lakes continue to edge closer to normal water levels, even during their seasonal decline, continuing a trend this year that has Lake Superior more than 1 foot above last year’s level and Lakes Michigan-Huron more than 2 feet higher than 2012.

The International Lake Superior Board of Control on Wednesday reported that they are allowing so much water to leave Lake Superior down the St. Mary’s River into Michigan-Huron that they’re warning anglers in the river to be cautious of extremely high flow and water levels.

The river had been a problem, with low water levels forcing some freighters to carry lighter loads.

The board reported Lake Superior fell about an inch in September, a month it usually drops a half-inch. The lake is 6 inches below its long-term normal level for Oct. 1 and is 13 inches above the level on Oct. 1 last year.

Lakes Michigan-Huron dropped the usual 2 inches in September but are 25 inches higher than the Oct. 2, 2012, level and 17 inches below their long-term normal.

Duluth News Tribune




Today in Great Lakes History - October 4

On October 4, 1887, ORIENT (wooden propeller tug, 60 foot, 37 gross tons, built in 1874, at Buffalo, New York) foundered three miles west of Point Pelee on Lake Erie in a storm. She was seen going down by the schooners LISGAR and GLENFORD but neither was able to help. All six on the ORIENT were lost. She was out of Marine City, Michigan.

On October 4, 1979, the ST. LAWRENCE NAVIGATOR arrived at the Port Weller Dry Docks, St. Catharines, Ontario, where she was lengthened to the Seaway maximum length of 730-foot overall. A new bow and cargo section was installed including a bow thruster and was assigned Hull #66. New tonnage; 18,788 gross tons, 12,830 net tons, 32,279 deadweight tons. She was renamed c.) CANADIAN NAVIGATOR in 1980 and ALGOMA NAVIGATOR in 2012. She sails for Algoma Central Corp. She was converted to a self-unloader in 1997.

TEXACO BRAVE (Hull#779) was launched October 4, 1976, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shimonoseki, Japan for Texaco Canada Ltd., Don Mills, Ontario. Renamed b.) LE BRAVE in 1987, c.) IMPERIAL ST LAWRENCE in 1997, and d.) ALGOEAST in 1998.

On October 4, 1980, Bethlehem's ARTHUR B. HOMER was laid up for the last time at Erie, Pennsylvania. As a result of the collision between the PARKER EVANS and the SIDNEY E SMITH JR, four months earlier, alternate one-way traffic between the Black River Buoy and Buoys 1 and 2 in Lake Huron was agreed upon by the shipping companies on October 4, 1972

The JAMES E. FERRIS' last trip before scrapping was from Duluth, Minnesota, with a split load of 261,000 bushels of wheat for Buffalo, New York, arriving there October 4, 1974.

The JIIMAAN, twin screw ro/ro cargo/passenger ferry built to Ice Class 1D standards had its keel laid October 4, 1991, at Port Weller Drydocks, Ltd. (Hull# 76).

On October 4, 1982, the BENJAMIN F. FAIRLESS laid up for the last time in Duluth, Minnesota. She was towed out of Duluth, on her way to Kahoshiung, Taiwan for scrapping, on June 17, 1988.

October 4, 1940 - The Ludington Daily News reported "The Pere Marquette car ferries handled approximately 95,000 freight cars last year." (1939)

On October 4,1877, BRITISH LION (3 mast wooden bark, 128 foot, 293 tons, built in 1862, at Kingston, Ontario) was carrying coal from Black River, Ohio, to Brockville, Ontario. She was driven ashore at Long Point in Lake Erie by a storm and wrecked. She was the first bark on the Lakes to be wire rigged and she was built for the Great Lakes - Liverpool trade.

On October 4, 1883, JAMES DAVIDSON (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 231 foot, 1,456 gross tons, built in 1874, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was carrying coal and towing the barge MIDDLESEX in a storm on Lake Huron. She was driven onto a reef near Thunder Bay Island and ripped up her bottom. The barge was rescued by the tug V SWAIN. No lives were lost. Financially, the DAVIDSON was the most extensive loss on the Lakes in the 1883, season. She was valued at $65,000 and insured for $45,000. Her coal cargo was valued at $8,000.

1904: CONGRESS burned at the dock at South Manitou Island, Lake Michigan while loading lumber. The ship was towed away, abandoned, burned to the waterline and sank.

1966: ROBERT J. PAISLEY ran aground in heavy weather off Michigan City, IN. The ship was released the next day but went to Sarnia with hull damage and was laid up.

2008: MERKUR BAY came through the Seaway in 1984. It hit a rock as m) NEW ORIENTAL in heavy weather off Tuy An, Vietnam, and settled on the bottom with a large hole in the bow. The crew abandoned ship on October 18 when it showed signs of sinking. It was enroute from Thailand to China with iron ore and was a total loss.

[yachtsmanwilly]

How Steeltown transformed into a booming agrifood hub

10/5 - Hamilton, Ont. - At Pier 16 in Hamilton Harbour, another chapter in the sad decline of the city’s once-dominant steel industry is playing out as cranes load huge mounds of unwanted iron ore onto a ship, bound for mills in China.

Carting off the vital steel-making raw material from United States Steel Corp., which idled its blast furnace here three years ago, suggests the mill won’t be restarting any time soon, if ever.

And yet across the harbour a second ship highlights an emerging economic engine for Hamilton – the booming agrifood sector. The Federal Yukina is waiting to dock alongside Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd.’s newly built dome-shaped grain silos, where it will begin loading up the fall harvest of Ontario soybeans for export to the Netherlands.

From near-obscurity five years ago, agrifood has become a mainstay of Hamilton’s port, and the regional economy. Agricultural tonnage shipped through the port doubled between 2008 and 2012 to a record of more than 1.6 million tonnes, led by exports of one million tonnes of soybeans last year. Agricultural products now account for 16 per cent of everything shipped in and out of the port, up from less than 10 per cent in 2009.

This year is expected to be even better as a bumper crop of soybeans, corn and wheat is harvested across Ontario. So far, grain shipments are up 30 per cent from last year. Fertilizer is up 80 per cent.

Steel shipments, on the other hand, are down 35 per cent so far this year, compared to 2012. Shipments of coke, a key steel-making input, are down 92 per cent.

“Agriculture is the new steel for Hamilton,” said Ian Hamilton, vice-president of the Hamilton Port Authority and head of real estate development. “Five years ago, the market for steel collapsed. And that’s when it hit home that we had to diversify.”

Since then, the port has attracted $200-million in new investment, including $40-million in various agriculture-related projects, such as new and expanded storage and handling for grains and fertilizer. In 2007, Bunge Ltd. expanded its canola processing plant and Biox Corp. opened a 67-million-litre biodiesel plant at the port.

“Everything you can see from here down to there is alive and well,” said Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina, pointing out over the harbour toward the Burlington Bay Bridge. “We’re running out of space. That’s probably our biggest problem. We don’t have enough space to put people who want to be here.”

So the port authority is looking for additional land to feed future expansion, much of it linked to agrifood – already a $1.3-billion industry in the city. Among other things, the port is eyeing U.S. Steel’s underused 400-hectare site that dominates the waterfront.

“If the land mass is there, they will come,” said Bruce Wood, president and chief executive of the port authority. “If U.S. Steel ever gave up or sold some of their property, that’s a game changer.”

The port has ambitious plans to boost tonnage capacity by expanding rail links that would double the length of trains that can access the harbour, to 100 cars from 50. Efforts are also under way to attract new value-added manufacturers, such as margarine makers, distilleries and breweries plus a flour mill to help feed a nearby Maple Leaf Foods mega-bakery, opened in 2011.

“A lot of the flour mills in Canada are old,” Mr. Bratina said. “You have grain. You have a bakery. Why not make flour?”

Parrish & Heimbecher, one of the port’s newest tenants, invested $20-million to build two 30,000-tonne multi-use storage domes, capable of handling everything from soybean and sugar to fertilizer. It’s now exploring the possibility of adding substantially to that capacity. “We have plans to grow our business on this site,” said Matthew Gardner, operations manager for Eastern Canada.

Ontario consumes less than half of the province’s swelling production of wheat and soybeans. The surplus needs to find a way to hungry markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Mr. Gardner pointed out.

Across the harbour at grain merchant Richardson International Ltd., a steady stream of double tractor-trailers is unloading wheat from as far away as Owen Sound and Trenton, Ont. At the peak of the harvest, as many as 240 trucks per day are weighed in, their load tested for quality and then cycled through three unloading pits.

Thanks to a $5.5-million expansion in 2008, tonnage has grown 35 per cent. “As agriculture has boomed, we’ve benefited too,” explained Riley Verhelst, Richardson’s director of operations.

Hamilton Harbour is also becoming a key conduit for fertilizer, including potash from Saskatchewan and urea from the Baltics. Handlers such as Agrico Canada Ltd. have seen inbound tonnage more than double since the recession, buoyed by demand from Ontario farmers, who have vastly expanded corn acreage.

The Globe and Mail




Today in Great Lakes History - October 5

On this day in 1954, the GEORGE M. HUMPHREY was christened at Lorain. The HUMPHREY successfully completed her sea trials on 10/6 and carried 191,214 tons of iron ore in nine trips before laying up for the season.

Upbound with a load of limestone on Lake Superior on October 5, 1965, the PETER A.B. WIDENER reported broken steering gear and possible damage to steering mechanism and screw after encountering gale force winds and high waves near Isle Royale. Fleetmates HENRY PHIPPS and HENRY H. ROGERS responded to the vessel, and dumped oil on the 10-foot seas to calm them. The USCG WOODRUSH arrived from Duluth, and towed the vessel to Duluth.

On October 5,1876, GRACE GREENWOOD (3-mast wooden schooner, 124 foot, 306 tons, built in 1853, at Oswego, New York) was carrying iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan, to Michigan City, Indiana, when she foundered in a storm while coming in to St. Joseph harbor for shelter. No lives were lost. She was the first vessel built by George Rogers and her launch was initially sabotaged by someone jamming a file into the ways.

On Saturday afternoon, October 5, 1997, while passing White Shoal Light on their way to Charlevoix, the MEDUSA CHALLENGER was hit by a waterspout. The only damage reported was a spotlight on the pilothouse bridge wing lifted out of its support and crews bikes stored on deck rose vertically. The 1906, built boat was also reported to have been vibrating in an unusual manner. Another boat in the area reported wind gusts of almost 100 mph in the brief storm. That same day the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan was hit with a violent storm that blew down trees a foot in diameter.

The ARTHUR B. HOMER, loaded with ore, was in a head-on collision on October 5, 1972 with the unloaded Greek salty NAVISHIPPER at Buoy 83, in the Detroit River's Fighting Island Channel. NAVISHIPPER reportedly had no licensed pilot aboard at the time, a violation of maritime law. There were no injuries, but the HOMER suffered extensive bow damage up to and including part of her pilothouse. The former was repaired, operated through 1980 and was scrapped at Port Colborne in 1987. The latter was also repaired and eventually towed into Cadiz, Spain, for scrapping as f) CRYSTAL on December 2, 1981, when the tailshaft fractured on November 25, 1981.

HUTCHCLIFFE HALL was in collision with steamer RICHARD V. LINDABURY on a foggy October 5, 1962, off Grosse Pointe Farms in Lake St. Clair. The canaller suffered a 12-foot gash on her port side forward of her after cabins and sank. She was raised October 7 and taken to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs. On October 5, 1967, while outbound on the Saginaw River after discharging a load of limestone at Saginaw, Michigan, the J. F. SCHOELLKOPF JR's steering failed which caused her to hit the west side of the I-75 Zilwaukee Bridge. The SCHOELLKOPF JR incurred little damage but the southbound lanes of the bridge were out of service for several days until repairs were completed.

The ARTHUR H. HAWGOOD (Hull#76) was launched at West Bay City, Michigan, by West Bay City Ship Building Co. on October 5, 1907, for the Neptune Steamship Co. (Hawgood, mgr.), Cleveland, Ohio. Renamed b.) JOSEPH BLOCK in 1911, and c.) GEORGE M. STEINBRENNER in 1969. Scrapped at Ramey's Bend in 1980.

On October 5,1889, BESSEMER (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 178 foot, 436 gross tons, built in 1875, at St. Clair, Michigan) was carrying iron ore along with her consort SCHUYLKILL (wooden schooner, 152 foot, 472 gross tons, built in 1873, at Buffalo, New York) in Lake Superior. They were struck by a rapidly rising gale and ran for the Portage Ship Canal. It became obvious that BESSEMER was sinking. The two collided and went onto a reef at the mouth of the canal and they both broke up quickly. The crews were able to jump onto the breakwater. The wrecks partly blocked the canal until they were dynamited the next September.

On October 5,1877, TIOGA (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 549 tons, built in 1862, at Cleveland) was towing two barges in a storm on Lake Erie when she caught fire. The high winds fanned the flames. Her crew escaped to the barges and were later picked up by the steamer BADGER STATE. The burned out hulk of TIOGA sank the next day in 30 feet of water off Point Pelee. This was her first year of service as a bulk freighter; she had been built as a passenger steamer and was converted in 1877.

On October 5, 1900, the lumber hooker SWALLOW was involved in a collision in the early morning hours and ended up ashore near Cherry Beach. A week later, she was lightered and freed, then taken to Detroit for repairs. She foundered in a storm one year later (18 October 1901).

On October 5,1904, CONGRESS (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 267 foot, 1,484 gross tons, built in 1867, at Cleveland as the passenger vessel NEBRASKA) was seeking shelter at South Manitou Island on Lake Michigan when she caught fire. The fire spread quickly. To prevent it from destroying the dock, a courageous tug skipper got a line on the CONGRESS and towed her out on the lake where she burned for 13 hours and then sank in 26 fathoms of water. No lives were lost.

1904: HUNTER, a wooden passenger and freight steamer, was destroyed by a fire at Grand Marais, MI. There were no injuries.

1932: JOHN J. BOLAND JR., enroute from Toledo to Hamilton with coal, took on water and sank after the cargo shifted. Four lives were lost when the vessel went down about 10 miles off Barcelona, NY.

1941: MONDOC stranded off the east coast of Trinidad on her first trip on the bauxite run. The crew took to the lifeboats and was saved.

1964: DENMARK HILL went aground off the Porkkala Lighthouse in the Baltic Sea enroute from Nicaro, Cuba, for Porkkala, Finland. The vessel was refloated October 7 with considerable bottom damage.

1988: ENERCHEM REFINER struck the #1 East Outer Light while upbound in the Detroit River and received major damage that was repaired at Lauzon.

1999: MONTE AYALA, a Seaway caller in 1975, began to leak in #1 hold and then list while anchored at St. Brieuc Bay while inbound for Brest, France, as d) JUNIOR M. The cargo of ammonium nitrate was unloaded. The ship was arrested, abandoned by the owners, auctioned off for scrap and arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, on August 21, 2000

[ppat324]

On October 6, 1893, DAVID STEWART (3-mast wooden schooner, 171 foot, 545 gross tons, built in 1867, at Cleveland, Ohio) foundered in a gale off Pigeon Bay, Ontario, on Lake Erie. She crew clung to the frozen rigging for 14 hours until saved by the fish tug LOUISE of Sandusky, Ohio. The STEWART was carrying iron ore at the time of her loss.

Herb Fraser & Associates completed repairs on the ALGOSOO at the Welland Dock on October 6 1986. She had suffered a serious fire at her winter mooring on the west wall above Lock 8 at Port Colborne, Ontario, on March 7, 1986.

The bow section of the barge PRESQUE ISLE arrived Erie, Pennsylvania, on October 6, 1972 under tow of the tugs MARYLAND and LAURENCE C. TURNER. The total cost to construct the tug/barge 1,000- footer was approximately $35 million.

October 6, 1981, the Reoch self-unloader ERINDALE's bow was damaged when she hit the Allanburg Bridge abutment running down bound in the Welland Canal. Built in 1915, as a.) W. F. WHITE, she was renamed b.) ERINDALE in 1976.

In 1980, the LAC DES ILES grounded in the Detroit River just below Grassy Island, the result of a faulty steering mechanism. She freed herself a few hours later. The damage caused by the grounding ended her career. She was scrapped at Port Colborne in 1985.

This day in 1870, the schooner E. FITZGERALD was launched at the Fitzgerald & Leighton yard at Port Huron, Michigan. Her dimensions were 135 feet x 26 feet x 11 feet.

In 1875, the MERCHANT (iron propeller passenger/package freight steamer, 200 foot, 750 tons, built in 1862, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying lumber on Lake Michigan when she stranded on Racine Reef near Racine, Wisconsin. Then she caught fire and was gutted before she could be refloated. She had stranded on that same reef twice previously. She was the first iron cargo ship built on the Lakes and the first one lost.

On October 6, 1873, JOHN A. MC DOUGALL (wooden schooner-barge, 151 foot, 415 gross tons) was launched at Wenona, Michigan. She was built at the Ballentine yard in only five weeks.

On October 6, 1889, PHILO SCOVILLE (3-mast wooden schooner, 140 foot, 323 tons, built in 1863, at Cleveland, Ohio) was sailing from Collingwood for Chicago when a storm drove her into the shallows and wrecked her near Tobermory, Ontario. Her captain died while trying to get ashore through the rocks. The Canadian Lifesaving Service saved the rest of the crew. At first the vessel was expected to be recovered, but she broke up by 10 October.

1910: The wooden freighter MUSKEGON, formerly the PEERLESS, was damaged by a fire at Michigan City, IN and became a total loss.

1958: SHIERCLIFFE HALL hit bottom in the St. Marys River and was intentionally grounded off Lime Island with substantial damage. The ship was refloated and repaired at Collingwood.

1966: EMSSTEIN and OLYMPIC PEARL collided south of St. Clair, MI and the former had to be beached before it capsized. This West German freighter made 19 trips to the Great lakes from 1959 through 1967 and arrived at Gadani Beach, Pakistan, for scrapping as d) VIOLETTA on May 28, 1978. The latter, on her first trip to the Great Lakes, had bow damage and was also repaired. This ship arrived at Alang, India, for scrapping as b) AL TAHSEEN on May 6, 1985.

1972: ALGORAIL hit the pier inbound at Holland, MI with a cargo of salt and settled on the bottom about 12 feet off the dock with a gash in the port bow. The vessel was refloated in 24 hours and headed to Thunder Bay for repairs.

1982: CONTINENTAL PIONEER made 8 trips through the Seaway from 1960 through 1964. A fire broke out in the accommodation area as c) AGRILIA, about 20 miles north of Porto Praia, Cape Verde Islands and the heavily damaged ship was abandoned before it drifted aground in position 15.06 N / 23.30 W

[yachtsmanwilly]

Today in Great Lakes History - October 7

On October 7, 1968, the NORMAN P. CLEMENT was damaged in a grounding off Britt, Ontario. The Canadian boat was towed to Collingwood for repairs. However, while in dry dock, an explosion occurred on October 16 that injured 11 workers and further damaged the hull. Rather than repair her, the owners had the CLEMENT towed out into Georgian Bay where she was intentionally sunk on October 23, 1968.

On this day in 1939, the E. G. MATHIOTT collided with the steamer CORVUS on the St. Clair River. Damage to the CORVUS totaled $37,647.70.

On this day in 1958, the WALTER E. WATSON, Captain Ralph Fenton, rescued the sailing vessel TAMARA on Lake Huron.

On October 7, 1871, GEM (wooden schooner, 120 foot, 325 tons, built in 1853, at Buffalo, New York) was sailing up bound in a storm on Lake Erie with a load of coal. She began to leak and was run to shore in an effort to save her. However, she went down before reaching shoal water and settled with six feet of water over her decks.

ALGOWOOD was launched October 7, 1980, at Collingwood, Ontario, for Algoma Central Marine, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

PAUL THAYER was launched October 7, 1973, for the Union Commerce Bank Trustee, Cleveland, Ohio and managed by Kinsman Marine Transit Co., Cleveland. She was built under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1970, for $12.6 million. Renamed b.) EARL W. OGLEBAY in 1995.

The WILLIAM MC LAUCHLAN (Hull#793) was launched at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co., on October 7, 1926, for the Interlake Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Renamed b.) SAMUEL MATHER in 1966, c.) JOAN M. MC CULLOUGH in 1975 and d.) BIRCHGLEN in 1982. Scrapped at Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1988.

BLACK RIVER, a lake bulk freighter, was built as a steel barge in 1897, by the F.W. Wheeler & Co., she was launched October 7, 1896, as a.) SIR ISAAC LOTHIAN BELL (Hull# 118).

HUTCHCLIFFE HALL was raised October 7, 1962, and taken to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs. She had sunk after a collision a few days earlier.

October 7, 1923 - The ANN ARBOR NO 4 went back into service after being overhauled and having new cabins built on her main deck.

MADISON suffered a fire on October 7, 1987, while lying idle at Muskegon, Michigan, and was badly damaged.

In 1903, ADVENTURE (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 108 foot, 142 gross tons, built in 1875, at Detroit, Michigan, as a schooner) caught fire while tied to the Kelleys Island Line & Transport Co. Dock. The blaze spread so quickly that those on board barely escaped. She was towed from Kelleys Island out into Lake Erie by the tug SMITH to save the dock and the adjacent schooner ANDERSON.

In a severe gale and rain/hail storm on October 7, 1858, the 247-ton schooner OSPREY approached Oswego, New York. As she was about to enter the harbor, the vessel struck the east pier broadside. Her masts and rigging were carried away and she started to sink. Capt. John Parsons got his wife and child out of the cabin to try to escape to the pier. His wife was washed overboard and drowned. Capt. Parsons held on to his child, but another wave struck the wreck and swept the child into the water. George Crine, the mate, was also swept overboard. Those three were lost, but the next wave swung the wreck about with her bowsprit over the pier and the captain and the six remaining crewmen scrambled to safety. The entire town and harbor mourned those deaths and held a dockside service two days later with many prayers and all flags at half-mast. Donations were accepted for the surviving sailors since they escaped with only the clothes on their backs.

On October 7,1873, the PULASKI was launched at the Archibald Muir yard on the Black River in Port Huron. Her dimensions were 136 feet x 26 feet x 11 feet, 349 gross tons. She was a three mast "full canaller", painted white and her private signal was a red M on a white ground bordered with blue. Her sails were made by Mr. D. Robeson of Port Huron, Michigan.

On October 7, 1886, The Port Huron Times reported that "The old side-wheel ferry SARNIA, which was a familiar sight at this crossing [Port Huron-Sarnia] for so many years, and which is said to have earned enough money in her time to sheet her with silver, the hull of which has been for some years back used as a barge by the Marine City Salt Company, has closed her career. She was last week scuttled near the Marine City Salt Works wharf."

1902: ANN MARIA hit a sandbar approaching Kincardine while inbound with a cargo of coal and broke up as a total loss. Four crew and a volunteer rescuer were reported lost.

1917: GEORGE A. GRAHAM was wrecked off Manitoulin Island, Georgian Bay, when the cargo shifted when turning in a storm. The ship ran for the safety of South Bay but stranded on the rocks. All on board were saved but the ship was a total loss.

1919: The wooden steamer HELEN TAYLOR was damaged by a fire in the pilothouse near Hessel, Mich., but was repaired.

1937: M & F DREDGE NO. 14, Hull 39 from the Collingwood shipyard, foundered in the St. Lawrence off Batiscan, QC as b) D.M. DREDGE NO. 14.

1956: The consort barge DELKOTE of the Hindman fleet was adrift for 9 hours in a Lake Superior storm with 13 on board and waves up to 20 feet. The ship had broken loose of the GEORGE HINDMAN but was picked up by the CAPT. C.D. SECORD.

1968: EDWARD Y. TOWNSEND, under tow for scrapping in Bilbao, Spain, broke in two about 400 miles southeast of St. John's, NF, and the bow sank. The stern was apparently retrieved and towed into Santander, Spain, for scrapping on October 28.



Big ship coming to Canada

10/7 - St. Catharines, Ont. – A St. Catharines-based shipping company is awaiting the arrival of its first Equinox-class vessel, Algoma Equinox, after it set sail from Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries shipyard in China Tuesday.

The Equinox class consists of four gearless bulk carriers and four self-unloading bulk carriers. The ship is designed to optimize fuel efficiency — a 45 percent improvement in energy efficiency over Algoma’s current fleet average. A fully-integrated exhaust gas scrubber will remove 97 percent of all sulphur oxides from shipboard emissions, said Greg Wight, Algoma’s president and chief executive officer.

The vessel is 226 metres long with five 31,200-ton capacity cargo tanks.

The Algoma Equinox is the first in a series of eight Equinox class vessels being built at Nantong Mingde shipyard. Algoma will own six of the series. CWB Inc., formerly the Canadian Wheat Board, will own the other two gearless bulkers, which will be operated and managed by Algoma.

Algoma has invested $300 million into its six Equinox class vessels.

Niagara Falls Review



Shipwreck hunters find sunken Scotiadoc in Lake Superior

10/7 - Duluth, Minn. – For 60 years, after it sank beneath the surface of Lake Superior in a pea-soup fog near Thunder Bay, the wreck of the freighter Scotiadoc slumbered undiscovered in the shadow of the Sleeping Giant.

But now a group of shipwreck hunters have capped off a memorable year by confirming they’ve located the lost vessel resting in more than 850 feet of water, making it in all likelihood the deepest shipwreck ever found in the Great Lakes.

That follows the group’s discovery of the long-lost, long-sought-after wreck of the Henry B. Smith offshore from Marquette, Mich., in May, a find that drew widespread attention.

“Finding the Henry B. Smith was the entrée; the Scotiadoc was the dessert,” said Jerry Eliason of Cloquet, part of the group that had searched for the Scotiadoc for years. The 424-foot ship sank after colliding with another freighter in June 1953, resulting in one death.

Ships Collide

The Scotiadoc was launched in 1904, and spent most of its career, as the Martin Mullen; as the Mullen, it made frequent trips to and from the Twin Ports. In 1947, it was sold and renamed the Scotiadoc.

The Scotiadoc departed Port Arthur, Ontario — part of what’s now Thunder Bay — with a crew of 29 and nearly 260,000 bushels of wheat just before 4 p.m. on June 20, 1953. At that time, the 451-foot freighter Burlington was passing Passage Island, in ballast en route to Port Arthur, according to documents from a post-wreck court of investigation. Eliason obtained copies of those documents to aid in the search for the Scotiadoc.

About two hours later, the two ships were in the vicinity of Trowbridge Island, off the tip of the Sleeping Giant — and each ship, the court ruled, made crucial errors as they navigated through thick fog and driving rain.

The captain of the Scotiadoc, George Edgar Morris, later testified that he picked up the Burlington on radar when it was about 5 miles away. He kept watch on the radar screen as the Burlington drew closer, and he sounded the Scotiadoc’s fog signals — but, inexplicably, he failed to make radio contact with the rapidly approaching vessel and failed to reduce his ship’s speed.

First mate William Crosson testified that he thought the Burlington was going to run parallel to the Scotiadoc, off the ship’s starboard side — but the ships never exchanged passing signals. On the bridge of the Scotiadoc, the fog signals of the Burlington grew louder and louder. Morris watched it get closer and closer on radar. And then, Crosson later testified, he “saw a shadow in the fog.”

Meanwhile, aboard the Burlington, Captain George Stephen Ward said he had slowed his vessel’s speed and was switching his radar screen between long-range — to monitor another vessel, the Secord — and short-range, which had “an awful lot of interference and sea clutter.” Then, from amid the clutter, “this object appeared on the radar screen” about a mile and a half away. It was the Scotiadoc.

Visibility was a few hundred feet, and Ward later testified that he initially could not hear a fog signal from the Scotiadoc. He made some course alterations, but — like Morris on the Scotiadoc — failed to use his radio to contact the nearby ship. Then, finally, “we heard the whistle off on our port side, a blast of the whistle, (and) immediately (after) I heard the blast I was pumping the telegraph full astern,” in an attempt to avoid a collision, Ward later testified. “Then I ran for the window, and I just saw this object coming out across our bow.”

The Scotiadoc tried to evade the approaching ship, but it was no use. The Burlington plowed into the starboard side of the Scotiadoc at an angle near the stern, gashing a hole in the smaller vessel as its bow scraped along the side. The collision crumpled the bow of the Burlington, pushing it in 4 to 8 feet.

After the Collision

Edward Quail, third mate on the Scotiadoc, was off-duty, lying in bed reading a comic book, when he heard the collision.

“As soon as I heard it hit I jumped, grabbed my boots and ran, grabbed a life belt and went to put her on and went to the deck, taking steps 10 feet long,” Quail later testified, adding that he “didn’t have time to look (at the damage), just run.”

Up on the bridge, it was quickly clear that the Scotiadoc was fatally stricken. As the ship started to list, Captain Morris testified, he “was sending out S.O.S. calls.”

“And I was talking to the steamer Burlington and he said he was going to turn around,” Morris testified.

By that time the Burlington had faded back into the fog. Radar indicated the ships were three-tenths of a mile apart. As the crew readied the Scotiadoc’s two lifeboats, Morris took one last look at the radar. Then “the mate came running up the deck across the hatches, calling, ‘Come on, come on, everything is ready,’ ” Morris testified. “So I went right from the bridge there right down across the hatches, got a hold of the life line and shinnied right down into the boat.”

Morris, and most of the crew, went to the port-side lifeboat, which was launched successfully. But about a half-dozen crew members went to the starboard-side lifeboat, where a mishap in the launching led to the sole fatality of the collision.

“Quite a number of the crew of the (Scotiadoc) who should have reported to the starboard boat did not report, and there were an inadequate number of crew to properly launch the boat,” the court of investigation reported. “Owing to some mischance, the reason for which is not entirely clear … the after falls of the starboard lifeboat were let go and as a result of this the stern fell to the deck.”

Then, in heavy seas and with several crew members in the lifeboat, the stern slipped from the deck over the side of the sinking ship, dropping five people about 15 feet into the frigid lake. Four of them, including two women on the kitchen staff, grabbed onto ropes and were hauled out of the water, some in shock.

Others threw a “punt,” a small raft, to the fifth crew member in the water — Wallace McDermid, 39, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

“(We) hollered, ‘Wally, grab a hold of the punt,’ but he — at that time we hollered at him he was all right, (but) the next time we looked it was so foggy we couldn’t see whether he was hanging on to the punt,” testified third engineer Austin Proulx, who was commended for his actions in saving his four crewmates and trying to save McDermid.

McDermid, who may have had some physical limitations, apparently did get a hold of the raft, but he disappeared into the fog and was not seen again.

After McDermid vanished, the waterlogged lifeboat rowed away from the sinking ship and was met by the port-side lifeboat. Everyone transferred to the port-side boat and the 28 surviving crew members shouted and fired flares in the fog. They were picked up by the Burlington about an hour later and returned to Port Arthur. The Scotiadoc descended into the depths of Lake Superior.

The court of investigation later found the Scotiadoc 75 percent to blame for the collision, and the Burlington 25 percent — with poor communication and excessive speed given the weather conditions as contributing factors. Captain Morris of the Scotiadoc had his master’s certificate suspended for a year; Captain Ward of the Burlington had his certificate suspended for two months.

Finding the Wreck

Eliason said the Scotiadoc first came to the group’s attention as they searched for the Theano, another shipwreck in the area. Thanks to the court testimony and other accounts, there was a well-defined point from which to start looking.

With the Henry B. Smith wreck the group found earlier this year, Eliason and his wife, Karen, had acquired a trove of raw data from government archives that they analyzed to accurately pinpoint its location.

But with the Scotiadoc, it was old-fashioned “mowing the lawn” with a sonar unit developed by Eliason’s son, Jarrod — running a grid pattern over a defined search area, hoping to turn up something. The group set its search area after taking into account how the Scotiadoc may have drifted after it was hit.

Beginning in the early 2000s, the group — which, through the years, also has included Ken Merryman of Minneapolis, Kraig Smith of Rice Lake, Wis., and Randy Beebe of Duluth, all veterans of decades of Great Lakes shipwreck hunting — made periodic trips to search for the Scotiadoc, eventually acquiring a good “target.”

But it was only in early September of this year that the many factors involved in this wreck search — time, correct gear, permits from Canadian authorities and above all favorable weather — came together to allow for the group’s camera to get the video footage needed to confirm the wreck’s identity: the name “Scotiadoc” spelled out along the side.

The confirmation came late on the night of Sept. 7, with Eliason, Merryman and Robert Nelson of Eau Claire, Wis., a seasonal resident of the Northland, aboard Merryman’s boat Heyboy to see the footage. The ship rests upright, and largely intact near Trowbridge Island, about 20 miles southeast of Thunder Bay, with the bow at a depth of 850 feet and the stern at 870 feet. Eliason said it appears the previous record-holder for deepest wreck found in the Great Lakes is the Isaac Jenkins, discovered in Lake Ontario in about 750 feet of water.

The Scotiadoc’s pilothouse broke off as it sank and came to rest beside the ship; the stern appears to be mangled.

“It looks to us like it sank stern-first,” Eliason said. “The stern is very chaotic.”

While that is not a definitive conclusion, Merryman said, it would make sense. The Scotiadoc was struck near its stern, and that’s where water would have poured into the ship.

The Henry B. Smith rests in about 535 feet of water and proved a challenge to film. The Scotiadoc, at more than 300 feet deeper, put the group’s skills and technology to a far greater test.

They had to take into account the tremendous pressure the lights and camera would face at that depth, and ensure the gear was up to the task. And they had to rely on years of experience to guide that camera, tethered to a cable trailing off from the Heyboy, to the right spot 850 feet below — not to mention hauling it up again each time.

But the season was a good learning experience, Merryman said, that should bode well for future explorations.

“It let us take the next step in evolving our technology,” he said. “It opened up some new avenues for us. We can hunt for deeper stuff.”

Duluth News Tribune




Port Reports - October 7

Marquette, Mich. - Rod Burdick
Frontenac and Lee A. Tregurtha loaded ore at the Upper Harbor on Sunday.

Cedarville & Port Inland, Mich. - Denny Dushane
At Cedarville, the tug Undaunted & barge Pere Marquette 41 loaded on Saturday and departed during the day. American Courage was expected to arrive on Sunday in the mid-afternoon. Both Joseph L. Block and Wilfred Sykes are due in on Monday, the Block in the morning and the Sykes in the late evening. At Port Inland, Joseph L. Block was expected to arrive Sunday in the early evening. The Buffalo is due Tuesday in the early morning and Mississagi rounds out the schedule on Tuesday.

Stoneport, Mich. - Denny Dushane and Dan McNeil
A busy Sunday saw four vessels arriving to load limestone. The first was the Kaye E. Barker in the late morning, followed by the Manistee in the early afternoon. Also arriving on Sunday was the H. Lee White in the early evening and the Joseph H. Thompson also during the evening. Three vessels are on the schedule for Monday with the Pathfinder and Arthur M. Anderson both due in the morning and the Great Republic in the mid-afternoon. There are no vessels scheduled for Tuesday. Due on Wednesday at around suppertime is the Michipicoten.

Calcite, Mich. - Denny Dushane
Lakes Contender loaded at the South Dock on Sunday. There are no vessels scheduled for Monday and on Tuesday. Two vessels are due on Wednesday, with Lee A. Tregurtha making a rare visit to the South Dock in the morning to load limestone. American Mariner is also due on Wednesday in the morning for the North Dock. There are two vessels scheduled on Thursday, with the Lakes Contender returning in the late afternoon for the North Dock and the Mississagi in the evening also at the North Dock. Due on Friday is the Philip R. Clarke in the early evening, loading at the South Dock.

Saginaw River - Dan McNeil
The Alpena arrived very early Sunday morning to unload cement at Lafarge cement in Essexville. She is due to depart sometime late Sunday evening or early Monday morning. Also arriving Sunday was the Olive L. Moore and barge Lewis J. Kuber, they unloaded at the Bay City Wirt stone dock.

Toledo, Ohio - Denny Dushane
Algoma Transport loaded coal from the CSX Coal Dock on Saturday. She will be followed by the Ashtabula on Friday, October 11 during the evening. James L. Kuber is due on Tuesday, October 15 and will be followed by the H. Lee White on Wednesday, October 16. There is nothing due at the Midwest Terminal Stone Dock. Vessels due at the Torco Dock with iron ore cargoes include the Algowood, due on Thursday, October 10 in the early afternoon. Atlantic Erie is due in on Friday, October 11 in the late evening. CSL's new Baie Comeau will make her first appearance on Sunday, October 13 in the early afternoon. Algosoo is due at Torco on Thursday, October 17 in the early morning. Scrapping is wrapping up on the Phoenix Star at Ironhead Marine's large drydock.

Lorain, Ohio - Phil Leon
Algoway arrived at Lorain at 11:22 a.m. and departed at 7:15 p.m. Dorothy Ann and barge Pathfinder arrived about 12 Saturday morning and left about 6:30 a.m.

Buffalo, N.Y. – Brian W.
American Mariner was unloading at General Mills Sunday and should be departed at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Toronto, Ont. - Jens Juhl
Last week the Port Authority technical team had swapped out the David Hornell VC'S two main engines plus the duty generator by Wednesday. Sea trials were completed on Thursday. The ferry remains alongside at terminal 52 with the passenger deck tarped in as workers complete the paint work. The handy size bulker Blacky departed early Friday after taking only four days to discharge its sugar cargo. The saltie Bluewing arrived at Redpath Saturday morning but no unloading was taking place. The tug Petit Fort and barge St Marys Cement were alongside terminal 52.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Surf's up on Lake Michigan, with 7-foot waves at South Haven

10/8 - South Haven, Mich. – Fall weather has arrived in Southwest Michigan, and with it waves of up to seven feet high along the beaches of Lake Michigan Monday, according to the National Weather service in Grand Rapids.

The National Weather Service said waves would reach up to 7 feet near South Haven Monday. From South Haven to Holland, a small craft advisory was in effect through late Monday night, with west winds from 15 to 25 knots. Isolated water spouts were possible, with waves of 4-7 feet.

Farther south, a small craft advisory on Lake Michigan also applied from St. Joseph to South Haven, where west winds were forecast to reach from 20 to 25 knots.

Mlive




Feds' proposal for shipwreck sanctuary could inadvertently block commercial shipping

10/8 - Washington, D.C. – Northwestern Lake Huron can be fickle and treacherous, with at least 45 Great Lakes-plying ships succumbing over the years to its gales, fog and rocky shoals. There's an 1844 side-wheel steamer in the water, and a modern 500-foot German freighter.

This so-called Shipwreck Alley delights divers and feeds a tourism industry with glass-bottom boat rides in the 448-square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary off Alpena, Mich. And now, 13 years after its creation, the federal government wants to expand that sanctuary ten-fold, to cover 4,300 square miles and protect at least 47 more shipwrecks.

But unless changed, the expansion plans – hugely popular in the towns of northeastern Michigan, to judge from letters of support – could choke off shipping of the iron ore and limestone used to make steel and other products in cities like Cleveland. That, at least, is what maritime interests such as the Lake Carriers' Association, based in Rocky River, Ohio, say.

"It is no exaggeration to say that if iron ore could not move in ships, America's steel industry would fade into a mere shadow of its former self," James Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers' Association, said in a 17-page letter of concern to the federal government last week.

The proposed expanded sanctuary covers "some of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes on the Great Lakes," he said. Vessels that have loaded iron ore from ports on Lake Superior "must transit the Sanctuary when bound for steel mills in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario," he said. Just restricting shipping around the expanded sanctuary itself could put three major Michigan ports – Alpena, Calcite and Presque Isle – off limits, the association says, and rob other Great Lakes ports of the materials that fuel Midwest industries.

That never appeared to be the intent.

Supporters of expanding the sanctuary, one of only 13 national marine sanctuaries nationwide, say they just want to make a rich historical and cultural asset better.

"It's a heritage issue for us," said Marie Twite, supervisor of the Alpena Township trustees, whose community was part of the original preserve and who backs the expansion. "It's part of the shipping of the Great Lakes and what happened with the vessels and how that all impacted us. We are very interested in preserving that and letting people come out and experience it."

Technically, nothing in the expansion proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, would pose specific barriers to currently navigable waters. NOAA does not say it wants to restrict Great Lakes shipping. If anything, it wants more people visiting the water and protecting its treasures from scavengers' plunder.

But under a matrix of federal rules, the Coast Guard polices NOAA sanctuaries. That means the Coast Guard must enforce numerous regulations, including those promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act and incorporated into Coast Guard rules.

And those rules, say shipping and industry interests, restrict ships from anchoring or taking on or discharging ballast water in federal marine sanctuaries.

Ships add or discharge ballast water to distribute weight as they prepare to load or offload cargo. They use ballast to better maneuver, and to gain stability when they fear foul weather. But discharging ballast has potential to harm sensitive marine life and coral, as does anchoring, which is why both are generally prohibited in marine sanctuaries.

One big difference between most marine sanctuaries and the one on Lake Huron: The latter was created in 2000 to protect sunken ships, not coral reefs. Ballast operations would make no difference to a sunken ship, Weakley said in a telephone interview.

"It makes absolutely no sense if the resource you're trying to protect is a sunken vessel," he said.

Kevin Whyte, vice president and general counsel for Carmeuse Lime & Stone, which extracts limestone in Rogers City, Mich., and ships it throughout the Great Lakes, told NOAA in a letter that if ballasting is prohibited, "it could be a serious safety concern for the vessels entering and exiting the port during high-wind events, which are quite common in Northern Michigan throughout the shipping season."

It could even result in more shipwrecks, said Weakley.

Shippers could "end up in a situation where our vessels cannot safely operate in the area that's known as the crossroads of the Great Lakes," he said in an interview. "And you have to appreciate the irony that the marine sanctuary, which is designed to protect sunken vessels, is creating the potential of more sunken vessels by encouraging vessels that operate there to operate in an unsafe manner."

That's why he hopes NOAA will carve out a shipping exemption if it expands the Thunder Bay sanctuary. It has done so once before, in the Gray's Reef National Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia, he said.

The Lake Carriers' Association says it supports expanding the Great Lakes Sanctuary. It just wants ongoing shipping interests protected. Congress members from Michigan, including Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, appear to support such a balance, as does Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

Snyder wrote to NOAA last month enthusiastically supporting the expansion, but he added that "an adverse affect on businesses that utilize docking facilities to move products would be an unintended consequence of boundary expansion that must be avoided."

NOAA, the Coast Guard and the EPA were unavailable for comment. All but their essential operations are shut down due to lack of congressional funding.

NOAA's public comment period for the expansion runs through Oct. 18. For now, the shippers say that despite their worries, they are optimistic the sanctuary will be expanded without curtailing commercial maritime operations.

"At least at the Congressional level everyone appears to be on the same page with us: celebrate the region's maritime industry while allowing it to continue to operate safely," Weakley told The Plain Dealer in an email. "So it appears that everyone is trying to get to the same place and it is a matter of the regulatory agencies getting there."

"I don't think," said Whyte, of Carmeuse Lime & Stone, "that we are at all opposed to the expansion of the sanctuary. We just want to make sure that this would continue the normal vessel operations, and we don't really think that the normal commercial vessel operations have a negative impact on the sanctuary, whether it's releasing ballast water or regular shipping."

After all, said Weakley, the expanded sanctuary could indirectly benefit the shipping industry and its vessels. That is, he said, it "celebrates our industry and our heritage."

Cleveland Plain Dealer





Today in Great Lakes History - October 8

On 08 October 1871, PHILO PARSONS (wooden side-wheel steamer, 221 tons, built in 1861, at Algonac, Michigan) burned to a total loss in the great Chicago fire. She burned so completely that her remains were not located in the Chicago River until 1877. She was the vessel commandeered by Confederate raiders in a plot to capture the iron gunboat U.S.S. MICHIGAN on Lake Erie during the American Civil War. The Chicago fire destroyed many fine vessels while they were docked in the harbor. These included the new propeller NAVARINO, the schooner GLENBULA, the schooner ECLIPSE, the schooner BUTCHER BOY, the bark VALETTA, the schooner ALNWICK, the bark A. P. NICHOLS, the bark FONTANELLA, the fore-and-aft schooner STAMPEDE, the schooner N. C. FORD, and the schooner CHRISTINA NEILSON. The only recorded casualties among the sailors were on the ALNWICK; her mate died and the captain burned his hands severely.

The keel was laid October 8, 1976, for the 660-foot forward section of the BURNS HARBOR, but was completed as b.) LEWIS WILSON FOY for the Bethlehem Steel Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Purchased by Oglebay Norton and renamed c.) OGLEBAY NORTON in 1991, and d.) AMERICAN INTEGRITY in 2006.

The MATHEWSTON (Hull#47) entered service on October 8, 1922. On her maiden voyage she sailed from Port Arthur, Ontario with 11,634 tons of barley and wheat. Renamed b.) RALPH S. MISENER in 1954 and c.) MATHEWSTON again in 1967. Scrapped at Vado, Italy in 1970.

The Canadian registry for MENIHEK LAKE was officially closed on October 8, 1985, with the notation "sold Spain." She was scrapped at Gijon, Spain.

WILLIAM G. MATHER arrived on October 8, 1988, in tow of the Great Lakes Towing Co. tugs WYOMING and ALABAMA at the G&W Shipyard at Collision Bend in the Cuyahoga River to be refurbished.

On 8 October 1906, PASADENA (wooden barge, 250 foot, 1,761 gross tons, built in 1889, at Cleveland, Ohio as a propeller bulk freighter) was carrying coal, in tow of the steamer GLADSTONE, bound for Superior, Wisconsin. The PASADENA went out of control in a gale and her skipper had the tow line cut. She was thrown against a pier near the upper entry to the Keweenaw Waterway and pounded to pieces in a few hours. Two lives were lost, but 8 made it to shore on the floating wreckage.

On 8 October 1854, E. K. COLLINS (wooden passenger/package freight side-wheeler, 256 foot, 1,095 gross tons, built in 1853, at Newport, Michigan) caught fire and beached near the mouth of the Detroit River where she burned to the waterline. About 23 lives were lost. About 43 persons were rescued in small boats and by the steamers FINTRY and GLOBE. There was some speculation that arson was the cause. The hull was recovered in 1857, and rebuilt as the barge ARK.

On October 8, 2000 the tug UNDAUNTED and barge PERE MARQUETTE 41 departed Calumet Harbor loaded with pig iron for Marinette, Wis., under favorable conditions and were later caught by the heavy weather. During the storm, the 5,000 tons of pig iron and the barge's four pieces of heavy loading equipment were washed into Lake Michigan. Both the tug and barge suffered damage in the incident.

1899: The tug RECORD sank at Duluth after a collision with the whaleback steamer JAMES B. NEILSON and one life was lost.

1906: The barge PASADENA, loaded with iron ore for Cleveland and under tow of the steamer GLADSTONE, was cut loose approaching the Keweenaw Waterway. The anchors fail to hold. The ship smashed into the east pier of the waterway and broke up on the rocks. Seven sailors were rescued but two were lost.

1964: A fire aboard West German-flag freighter ERATO at Detroit left two dead when they were trapped in their stern quarters. Another three sailors were injured. The 2-alarm blaze was brought under control and the ship was eventually repaired at Toledo. It arrived at Bombay, India, and laid up as d) VIJAYA DARSHANA on May 26, 1983, and eventually scrapped there beginning in May 1986.

1971: DIDO went aground leaving Goole, U.K. for Porsgrunn, Norway, but returned to Goole the next day after being refloated. The 22-year-old Norwegian freighter was listed as a total loss and sold for scrap. It was taken to Hull, U.K., a year later and dismantled. The ship had been a pre-Seaway trader as early as 1951 and made 14 voyages to the Great Lakes from 1959 through 1963.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival in Alpena highlights Michigan preservation efforts, history

10/9 - Alpena, Mich. – This week's annual Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival in Alpena features a session highlighting a program that funds preservation efforts in Michigan.

The festival runs Thursday to Sunday and is expected to draw hundreds of lighthouse enthusiasts to Michigan's northeastern Lower Peninsula.

On Friday, a session will offer information about the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program, which is supported by the sale of Save Our Lights license plates. Since 2000, the State Historic Preservation Office has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants through the program.

"Lighthouses symbolize the Great Lake State and draw visitors to Michigan each year," Bryan Lijewski, an architect in the State Historic Preservation Office at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, said in a statement. Their maintenance and preservation is a continual project, he noted.

The Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival includes displays of photography, artists, crafters and authors. Participants may visit a number of area lighthouses. If weather permits, there will be boat tours to Middle Island Lighthouse and Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse, and helicopter tours.www.lighthousefestival.org




Today in Great Lakes History - October 9

On 08-09 October 1871, NAVARINO (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 184 foot, 761 tons, built in 1870, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin) was lying at a dock when the Chicago fire swept through the city. The vessel tried to pull away from the dock and get to the safety of Lake Michigan, but the wind, which was being drawn into the fire held her against the dock. She burned to a total loss; no lives were lost. Her machinery was later salvaged and used in the new propeller MENOMINEE.

The CHIMO was moved onto the Port Weller Dry Dock on October 9, 1983, where workers began to cut her apart forward of her aft-located pilothouse and engine room. Upon completion Upper Lakes Shipping renamed her b.) CANADIAN RANGER.

GULF MACKENZIE (Hull#435) was launched at Sorel, Quebec, by Marine Industries, Ltd. on October 9, 1976. Renamed b.) L. ROCHETTE in 1985, departed the lakes and renamed c.) TRADEWIND ISLAND in 1995 and d.) KEMEPADE in 2003.

Pioneer Shipping Ltd's SASKATCHEWAN PIONEER arrived in the Welland Canal on her delivery trip October 9, 1983, en route to her formal christening at Thunder Bay, Ontario. Sold off the lakes and renamed b.) LADY HAMILTON in 1995. Brought back to the Lakes as VOYAGEUR PIONEER in 2006. Renamed KAMINISTIQUA in 2008.

JAMES DAVIDSON (Hull# 288) was launched at Wyandotte, Michigan, by Detroit Ship Building Co. on October 9, 1920, for the Globe Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio (G. A. Tomlinson, mgr.)

On October 9, 1984, the PATERSON was sold to Shearmet Recycling, a Thunder Bay, Ontario, ship breaker, and was broken up at their Mission River dock.

COL. JAMES M. SCHOONMAKER sailed from the Great Lakes Engineering Works on her maiden voyage on October 9, 1911, to Toledo, Ohio, where she loaded coal bound for Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The SCHOONMAKER was the largest vessel on the Great Lakes when she came out. For much of the decade this vessel either broke or held many bulk cargo records. Renamed b.) WILLIS B. BOYER in 1969. Since 1987, the BOYER serves as a museum ship in Toledo, Ohio, with her original name recently restored.

On 9 October 1820, ASP (wooden schooner, 57 tons, built in 1808, at Mississauga, Ontario) was carrying lumber and staves when she sprang a leak near Long Point in Lake Ontario. She waterlogged, then capsized. The upturned vessel was driven across the lake and finally went ashore off the Salmon River at Mexico Bay, New York, and broke up quickly. 9 of the 11 onboard lost their lives. She was originally built as the British armed schooner ELIZABETH.

On 9 October 1931, CHARLES H. BRADLEY (wooden propeller, 201 foot, 804 gross tons, built in 1890, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was carrying pulpwood and towing the barge GRAMPIAN. She was traversing the Portage Canal in the Keweenaw Peninsula when she ran onto a bar and stranded. The barge kept coming and plowed into her stern. The BRADLEY caught fire and burned to the waterline. The wreck still lies in 6 to 17 feet of water just off the mouth of the Sturgeon River.

On 9 October 1895, AFRICA (wooden propeller steam barge, 135 foot, 352 gross tons, built in 1873, at Kingston, Ontario) was towing the schooner SEVERN in a storm on Lake Huron when she struck a reef, 15 miles south of Cove Island light on Lake Huron. AFRICA broke up in the storm, all 11 of her crew were lost. SEVERN went ashore near Bradley Harbour and broke up. The crew was rescued by a fish tug from Stokes Bay.

1907: CYPRUS cleared Superior with a cargo of iron ore for Lackawanna, N.Y., on only the second trip. The vessel sank two days later and there was only one survivor. The hull was found on the bottom of Lake Superior in 2007 in 460 feet of water.

1922: TURRET CROWN ran aground off Cove Island, Georgian Bay, but was later salvaged.

1944: The German freighter LUDOLF OLDENDORFF, a Great Lakes trader as a) WESTMOUNT (i) and as e) TRACTOR, was sunk by British aircraft at Egersund, Norway.

1968: BUCKEYE, under tow for scrapping overseas, began drifting in rough weather when the anchors were unable to hold off Port Colborne. The ship was blown aground west of the city and the hull remained stuck until November 29.

2001: The Maltese flag freighter SYLVIA ran over a buoy below the Eisenhower Lock and the mooring chain was wrapped around the propeller. The cable was freed and the ship proceeded to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs arriving October 19 and returning to service on October 27. The ship had previously been inland as a) CHIMO when new in 1981 and first returned as d) SYLVIA in 2000. The vessel was noted as h) INTERCROWN and registered in Cambodia as of 2010.



Algoma Central Corp.: New ship on its way to Canada from China

10/9 - The first of a new class of dry-bulk ship is on its way to Canada from China.

The Algoma Central Corp. announced Tuesday that the Algoma Equinox has set sail from the Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries shipyard in Nantong, China. The voyage will take about eight weeks.

Construction of the Algoma Equinox began in 2011. Seven additional Equinox-class vessels are expected to join the Algoma fleet by the end of 2014. Algoma will own six of the ships; operating the other two for CWB Inc.

At 740 feet long, the Equinox ships are “Seawaymax” vessels — the largest that can fit through the canal locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.

The ships, which cost about $50 million each, have the latest engine technology and hull design to decrease air pollution and increase fuel efficiency. Algoma Central Corp. estimates its Equinox vessels will be 45 percent more energy-efficient than its current fleet average.

Modern engines will last longer with less maintenance. Exhaust scrubbers reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by up to 97 percent, allowing the vessels to use lower-cost fuel while meeting air-quality standards.

Algoma is not the only Canadian firm building new ships. Canada Steamship Lines has ordered four Trillium-class self-unloading lakers from Japan. And the Montreal-based Fednav Limited announced earlier this year the planned addition of six new vessels capable of international trade and work on the Great Lakes.

The 34,000-ton bulk carriers are sized to use the St. Lawrence Seaway and are specially equipped for navigating in ice. They will be built at Oshima Shipyard in Japan and delivered between May and November 2015 as part of a series of 27 new ships (including 14 lakers) added to Fednav’s fleet since Jan. 1, 2012.

In all, about 30 new Canadian ships for the St. Lawrence Seaway have been built recently, are under construction or under contract for construction. The building boom is fueled in large part by Canada’s 2010 repeal of a 25 percent duty on ships built abroad.

The American laker fleets are not seeing a similar expansion. American ship owners do not have the option of having lakers built overseas — the Jones Act requires that cargo transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships built in America.

Additionally, since American lakers stay in freshwater, they avoid saltwater corrosion and their hulls last longer. So rather than building new, American ship owners often upgrade their vessels as needed.

Duluth News Tribune




Port Reports - October 9

Saginaw River - Todd Shorkey
There were a number of vessel passages on the Saginaw River in the past week. Algoway unloaded at the North Star dock in Essexville on Sept. 30th. On October 1, Manitowoc unloaded at an unknown Saginaw River dock. Indiana Harbor unloaded at the Consumers Energy dock in Essexville on October 5. On October 6, Alpena unloaded at the Lafarge Cement dock in Essexville and the Olive L. Moore - Lewis J. Kuber delivered a split cargo to the Burroughs North dock in Essexville and the GM dock in Saginaw.

Commercial vessel deliveries to the Saginaw River totaled 16 during the month of September. This was five more deliveries then during the same period in 2012 and just one less than the five-year average of 17. Looking at year-to-date numbers, through the end of September 2013, there were 100 commercial vessel passages on the Saginaw River. That was four more than the same period in 2012 and just three below the five-year average of 103.

Sandusky, Ohio - Jim Spencer
Algoma Transport loaded Tuesday at the NS coal dock. She followed the Monday visit of Thunder Bay, which is underway for Hamilton. At Marblehead, Calumet loaded and sailed Monday.

Buffalo, N.Y. – Brian W.
Herbert C. Jackson was inbound for the North Entrance Channel at 7:20 a.m. on the way to the ADM Standard Elevator. Rebecca Lynn and barge- A-397 arrived through the North Entrance around noon Tuesday.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Premiere-elect says he will keep promise to remove Canadian Miner wreck

10/10 - Sydney, N.S. – Premier-elect Stephen McNeil says his government will keep a promise to have the derelict ship Canadian Miner removed from the rocky shore of Scatarie Island, where it has sat, to the growing concern of local residents, since breaking free of a tow line two years ago.

After a sweeping victory for the Liberal party in Tuesday's election, McNeil reaffirmed in an interview Wednesday morning his commitment to having the wreck removed.

"Hopefully, the federal government will be part of that," he said. '"If not, we will remove it and try to receive that payment from them.

"We will be looking to have that done in the most cost-effective way. It is something that has to be dealt with. Then, the levels of government can figure out who pays what."

Fishermen and other local residents living in Cape Breton coastal communities near Scatarie Island appealed to both the former NDP provincial government and the federal government without success for the removal of the derelict bulk carrier, which has been breaking apart while being battered by the ocean.

A New York-based company attempted to salvage the Miner before walking away from the job, claiming government bureaucratic hurdles.

Cabinet ministers that are appointed to the Liberal government will take on responsibility for the removal of the Miner, McNeil said, although he couldn't say exactly how long that will take.

"We are not going to let it go on forever," he said. "We have to go in there and do an assessment, and once we appoint our ministers, that will be one of the things they deal with as soon as they can.

"The challenge, potentially, right now is you are heading into October; what does winter look like and how much of it can we do then."

Cape Breton Post


Steel production rises by 28,000 tons in Great Lakes states

10/10 - Raw steel production in the country's Great Lakes region shot up to about 676,000 tons in the week that ended Saturday, according to an American Iron and Steel Institute estimate.

Production rose by about 28,000 tons, or about 4.3 percent from the week prior. Most of the raw steel production in the Great Lakes region takes place in Indiana and the Chicago area.

Production in the Southern District was estimated at 678,000 tons, up from 661,000 tons a week earlier.

Total domestic raw steel production last week was about 1.87 million tons, up from 1.85 million a week prior. Steelmakers made about 9.6 percent more steel last week than they did over the same period last year.

U.S. steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 78.2 percent last week, which is up from 77.3 percent a week earlier. The capacity utilization rate had been 68.7 percent at the same time last year.

So far this year, domestic steel producers have had a capacity utilization rate of 77.2 percent, which is up from 76.8 percent during the same period in 2012.

Domestic mills have produced an estimated 74 million tons of steel this year, down 3 percent from the same period last year. The mills had made about 76.3 million tons of steel by Oct. 5, 2012.

Steel imports rose 13.9 percent in August over July. So far this year, total steel imports are 21.1 million tons, or about 9 percent less than during the same period in 2012.

Northwest Indiana Times




Today in Great Lakes History - October 10

On this day in 1891, the SUSAN E. PECK collided with the schooner GEORGE W. ADAMS above the Soo Locks. The PECK, loaded with wheat for Buffalo, sank in a matter of minutes and completely blocked the navigation channel. General Orlando M. Poe, in charge of the Soo Locks, estimated that 275 boats lost an estimated 825 days and 5 hours waiting for the wreck to be cleared.

On this day in 1956, two F-86 Saber Jets collided over Lake Michigan. The ERNEST T. WEIR, Captain Ray R. Redecker, rescued one of the pilots (Lt. Kenneth R. Hughes) after he spent three hours in the water. ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, WILLIAM A. IRVIN and GEORGE W. PERKINS participated in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the second pilot.

On October 10, 1902, GARDEN CITY (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 133 foot, 352 gross tons, built in 1873, at Ogdensburg, New York) caught fire on the Saginaw River between Bay City and Saginaw while sailing up the river for winter lay-up. She sank four miles above Bay City near the old interurban railroad bridge.

While downbound with coal in the St. Lawrence River on October 10, 1981, the JEAN PARISIEN suffered considerable bottom damage when she ran aground near Comfort Island about a mile west of Alexandria Bay, New York. She was rebuilt with a new forebody at Port Weller Drydocks and renamed b.) CSL ASSINIBOINE in 2005.

BROOKDALE of 1909 was towed out of Toronto on October 10, 1980, by the tug GLENADA, assisted by the tug TERRY S. She was one her way to the cutters’ torch at Port Maitland, Ontario.

CHAMPLAIN with her former fleet mate CADILLAC was towed past Gibraltar October 10, 1987, heading for Aliaga, Turkey, for dismantling by Cukurova Celik Endustrisi A.S.

SAVIC b.) CLIFFS VICTORY cleared New York on October 10, 1986.

HULL NO 1, b.) KINSMAN ENTERPRISE, being towed by the Polish tug JANTAR arrived in Aliaga, Turkey, on October 10, 1989, to be scrapped there.

October 10, 1906 - The PERE MARQUETTE 5 was sold to The Barry Transportation Co. for $75,000. The PERE MARQUETTE 5 was the last of the "break-bulk" boats operated by the Pere Marquette Railway Co.

On October 10, 1905, CHARLES H. BURTON (3 mast wooden schooner, 158 foot, 514 gross tons, built in 1873, at Bangor, Michigan) was carrying coal in a storm in Lake Erie when she was driven ashore 4 1/2 miles east of Barcelona, New York and broke up. No lives were lost. She had been built on the hull of the bark GLENBULAH that had burned in the Chicago fire of 1871.

On 10 October 1877, ELIZA R. TURNER (wooden schooner, 156 foot, 409 gross tons, built in 1867, at Trenton, Michigan) was carrying wheat from Detroit to Buffalo when a storm drove her aground nine miles west of Long Point on Lake Erie where she was wrecked. The skipper and cook drowned, but the remaining 8 were saved.

The tug CRUSADER of Oswego burned and sank in the middle of the Straits of Mackinac about 9 p.m. on 10 October 1878.

On 10 October 1877, ABEONA (wooden scow-schooner, 100 tons, built in 1863, at Lambert, Ontario) was carrying lumber and shingles down bound on Lake Huron when she stranded during a storm one mile west of Port Austin where she reportedly later broke up.

In 1877, PORTLAND (2-mast wooden schooner, 118 foot, 250 tons, built in 1847, at Pillar Point, New York) stranded and went to pieces north of False Presque Isle on Lake Huron. Salvage attempts only retrieved her anchor and chain.

1923: HURONTON, a Canadian freighter, sank in Lake Superior off Caribou Island following a collision on the foggy lake with the CETUS. The vessel went down in 800 feet of water in 18 minutes but all on board were rescued.

1927: MICHIPICOTEN, of the Owen Sound Transportation Co., was destroyed by a fire at Gore Bay, on Manitoulin Island.

1963: The wooden freighter VAUQUELIN caught fire and sank in the St. Lawrence northeast of Quebec City off Cap Saumon. The vessel had previously sailed as a) LA RIVIERE MALBAIE.

1969: The T-2 tanker CARIBBEAN SKY visited the Seaway for 3 trips in 1960-1961 before being converted to a bulk carrier. The engine exploded and disintegrated during dock trials after repairs at Antwerp, Belgium, as f) LAKE PLACID, with the loss of one life. The hull settled but was pumped out and declared a CTL. It was towed to Rotterdam in 1971, repaired and returned to service as g) GARANDA. The after end again proved to be troublesome and was cut off and scrapped. The bow was joined to after end of the Panamanian tanker AKRON and the ship returned to service under this name. It was finally dismantled in Pakistan during 1981.

1987: The wheat-laden WILLOWGLEN went aground on the north side of Ogden Island in the St. Lawrence. The ship was released on October 13 and later went to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Badger to operate while making modifications

10/11 - Ludington, Mich. – Federal District Court Judge Janet T. Neff has signed the consent decree needed to allow the SS Badger to continue to operate as it makes modifications, Lake Michigan Carferry announced late Thursday.

The consent decree was filed with the U.S. Department of Justice as an agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Lake Michigan Carferry over coal ash discharged into Lake Michigan as part of the coal-fired ship's operations.

When the EPA began permitting what ships could discharge in 2008, it did not allow for coal ash. Thus began the legal battle to keep the carferry operating.

LMC studied its alternatives to using coal but found none feasible. Now the carferry and the EPA have an agreement to have the carferry create storage onboard for the ash created while crossing the lake. It will be disposed of once the ship is in port, but it will still take some time for the modifications to be made to the SS Badger.

In the meantime, the consent decree allows the Badger to operate, discharging a specific allowed amount of coal ash during the season, giving LMC a year to make the modifications.

“This consent decree offers the fastest and most certain path available to EPA to stop the discharge of coal ash from the Badger into Lake Michigan,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman when the proposed decree was announced early this year. “The enforcement agreement reduces the discharge of coal ash more quickly and with greater oversight than would occur during the appeal of a decision to issue or deny a permit – a process that often takes several years.”

A comment period on an initial proposed decree drew more than 7,000 comments, split between those supporting it as written, and those wanting it toughened or not approved.

On Sept. 13, a revised consent decree with tougher potential penalties if LMC doesn’t comply was agreed to and sent to Neff for review.

The agreement has stronger reporting requirements, limits the mercury content in coal used by the SS Badger during the 2014 sailing season, and requires LMC to report information on the quantity of coal ash discharged by the SS Badger.

“This ensures that the Badger will be sailing long into the future,” Bob Manglitz, LMC CEO and president, said in September.

LMC, under terms of the consent decree, will have to store the coal ash on board by the start of the 2015 sailing season — or in some other way eliminate it. LMC has been ordered to file its plans and to reduce the discharge before that date.

LMC had already started taking action to reduce and ultimately eliminate the ash discharge prior to the start of the consent decree process by using coal that produces less ash, LMC states. It also has been working toward eliminating the ash discharge during the review process by starting the engineering and design work necessary for the installation of a ash retention system — a technology never before implemented on a steamship.

Manglitz previously had told the Daily News he wanted the consent decree in place before spending large amounts of money to comply with the storage provisions. The carferry will end this year's season Sunday, Oct. 13.

The Ludington Daily News




US Brig Niagara at Great Lakes Shipyard for drydocking and repairs

10/11 - Cleveland, Ohio – The US Brig Niagara, Erie, Pennsylvania’s Flagship, has arrived at Great Lakes Shipyard for routine drydocking and repairs. The vessel was hauled out using the Marine Travelift, and the work on the vessel will be completed in approximately two weeks.

This marks the first time Great Lakes Shipyard has hauled out a tall ship using its Travelift, as well as the first time the US Brig Niagara has been hauled out with a Travelift.

Owned and maintained by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Flagship Niagara is a reconstruction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perrys ship that led the Battle of Lake Erie victory on September 10, 1813.

To learn more, visit www.thegreatlakesgroup.com.




Today in Great Lakes History - October 11

On this day in 1923, the HENRY STEINBRENNER of 1901 collided with the J. McCARTNEY KENNEDY at 4:20 p.m. off Parisienne Island, Whitefish Bay. The accident occurred during thick, smoky weather and both boats were severely damaged.

MEDINA (wooden propeller tug, 66 foot, 57 gross tons) was launched by O'Grady & Maher at Buffalo, New York on October 11, 1890. She cost $12,000.

Quebec & Ontario Transportation's b.) BAIE COMEAU II cleared Sorel October 11, 1983, as c.) AGIA TRIAS, Panamanian registry #1355. Her Canadian registry was closed on October 12, 1983. Her mission was to carry grain from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Mexican and Caribbean Island ports. Subsequently she was renamed d.) OCEANVIEW in 1988, e.) SEA DIAMOND in 1989, f.) GOLDEN CREST in 1990, g.) ATLANTIC WOOD in 1991, h.) LONDON FURY in 1994 and i.) DONG SHENG in 1995.

Cleveland Tankers’ MERCURY scraped the South Grand Island Bridge in the Niagara River in heavy fog on October 11, 1974. Her forward mast snapped off, the amidships mast was tilted and her smoke stack was toppled. She proceeded after the mishap to G&W Welding at Cleveland, Ohio under her own power for repairs.

Upper Lakes Shipping's WHEAT KING, under tow, arrived at Chittagong Roads, Bangladesh on October 11, 1989, to be broken up.

In 1911, the rail ferry CHIEF WAWATAM arrived at St. Ignace, Michigan, and began service shortly thereafter.

On 11 October 1913, THOMAS H. CAHOON (3 mast wooden schooner-barge, 166 foot, 431 gross tons, built in 1881, at E. Saginaw, Michigan) was carrying lumber in tow of the steamer C. W. CHAMBERLAIN. They were bound from Sault Ste. Marie to Byng Inlet. However during a storm, the CAHOON stranded and went to pieces on 'Kenny Shoal' by the southwest corner of Innes Island in Georgian Bay. No lives were lost.

On October 11, 1839, DEWITT CLINTON (wooden passenger/package freight side-wheeler, 147 foot, 413 tons, built in 1836, at Huron, Ohio) foundered off Milwaukee with the loss of 5 lives. She was recovered the following year and lasted until 1851. She and her near-twin ROBERT FULTON were reportedly the first Lake steamers built primarily as freighters with relatively few passenger accommodations.

On October 11, 1866, GREAT WEST (wooden 3-mast bark, 175 foot, 765 tons, built in 1854, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying wheat in a storm on Lake Michigan when she stranded on Racine Reef. She was reported to be a total loss but she may have been recovered and then lost near Chicago in 1876. When launched, she was the largest sailing vessel on the Lakes and much was made of her beautiful lines. She was diagonally braced with iron. She stood 174 feet tall from her deck to her masthead. So if she were sailing today, although she'd be able to sail under the Mackinac Bridge, she'd be stopped at the Blue Water Bridge whose roadway is only 152 feet above the water.

1923: The canal-sized steamer GLENGELDIE, enroute from Killarney to Welland with a cargo of quartz rock, hit bottom in Georgian Bay and had to be towed to Collingwood for over $15,000 in repairs to the starboard side. The ship later sailed for Canada Steamship Lines as b) ELGIN.

1924: SENATOR DARBYSHIRE, a wooden bulk carrier upbound and in ballast, was destroyed by a fire on Lake Ontario, and sank near Point Petre Light. The crew fought the early morning blaze but eventually had to abandon the ship and was picked up by MAPLEBAY. Capt. J.W. Scarrow was later a master for Canada Steamship Lines.

1942: WATERTON was lost due to enemy action in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The former Misener freighter, operating for the Bowater Steamship Co., was attacked with 2 torpedoes from U-106 and went down in the Cabot Strait in 8 minutes. All on board got off safely. The ship was traveling from Cornerbrook, NF, to Cleveland with newsprint and pulpwood.

1982: The Israeli freighter DAGAN made 18 trips to the Great Lakes from 1959 to 1967. It ran aground on Cay Sal Bank, north of Cuba, as f) CORK and was abandoned the next day as a total loss.

[yachtsmanwilly]

On this day in 1976, three boats discharged a record 108,379 tons of cargo on a single day at the Pinney Dock in Ashtabula, Ohio. The three boats were the JAMES R. BARKER (57,305 tons), the WILFRED SYKES (20,678 tons), and the JOSEPH L. BLOCK (30,306 tons).

On the night of October 12, 1871, the grain laden schooner PLOVER struck a reef near Whitefish Point on Lake Superior, put a hole in her hull and sank in deep water. Captain Jones and the crew of eight escaped in the yawl. They spent two days making their way to Sault Ste. Marie.

The JEAN PARISIEN suffered considerable bottom damage when she ran aground near Comfort Island about a mile west of Alexandria Bay, New York. She was released October 12, 1981, and returned to service after repairs were completed at the Canadian Vickers Montreal yard.

The CLIFFS VICTORY was sold October 12, 1985, to Hai International Corp. of New York for scrapping in the Orient and transferred to Panamanian registry. Her name was changed to c.) SAVIC, utilizing the "S" from CLIFFS, the "VIC" from VICTORY and inserting an "A". All the other letters were painted out.

The JOHN A. KLING sailed on her maiden voyage for the Rockport Steamship Co. (Reiss Steamship Co., mgr.) on October 12, 1922, light from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to load stone at Rockport, Michigan. Sold into Canadian registry in 1981, renamed b.) LEADALE. She was scrapped at Ramey's Bend in 1983.

The keel was laid October 12, 1925, for the Interlake Steamship Co.'s steamer COLONEL JAMES PICKANDS.

The SYLVANIA returned to service on October 12, 1967. She sank at the Peerless Cement Co. Dock at Port Huron, Michigan in June of that year after being struck by the Canada Steamship Lines package freight steamer RENVOYLE.

The tug EDNA G remained at Two Harbors, Minnesota, until October 12, 1993, when she was towed to the Fraser Shipyard at Superior, Wisconsin, by the Great Lakes Towing Co. tug KANSAS. She is now on display as a floating exhibit for the city.

On October 12, 1967, the Papachristidis Company Limited's FEUX FOLLETS entered service with the distinction of being the last steam-powered vessel built on the Great Lakes. The vessel was renamed b.) CANADIAN LEADER when it was sold to Upper Lakes Shipping in 1972 It was scrapped in 2011.

At 3:00 a.m., 12 October 1870, the 76-ton tug ONTARIO caught fire and burned to the waterline while lying at Harrow's dock in Algonac, Michigan.

On 12 October 1901, ALVINA (wooden schooner-rigged scow-barge, 89 foot, 95 gross tons, built in 1871, at Fair Haven, Michigan) was being towed by the steamer WESTON and had a load of 700 barrels of lubricating oil. They were bound from Cleveland for Manistique. The ALVINA was overwhelmed in a storm and sank near Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron. Her entire crew made it to shore in her yawl. Her cargo was salvaged five days later.

On 12 October 1880, TRADER (wooden propeller, 115 foot, 169 gross tons, built in 1865, at Marine City, Michigan) was carrying lumber in a storm on Lake Michigan. She was battered severely and became waterlogged. Her crew abandoned her with water up to her decks. They were saved by the schooner GUIDE in a daring rescue. A few days later, in the "Alpena Storm,” her wreckage washed ashore near Holland, Michigan and she was erroneously reported as another "all-hands" victim of that storm.

On 12 October 1874, on her maiden voyage, the tug MARY passed Port Huron down bound with the bark FAVORITE in tow. The tug was owned by William Hardison of Port Huron.

1912: MARENGO, a wooden schooner under tow of the LLOYD S. PORTER, broke loose in a storm, came ashore west of Port Colborne and was pounded to pieces by the waves. The anchor was salvaged and now sits on the lawn of Port Colborne High School.

1912: S.K. MARTIN began leaking in heavy weather and sank in Lake Erie off Harbor Creek, NY. The coal laden wooden steamer ran for shore but the effort fell short. The crew took to the lifeboat and were saved. The ship went down bow first and rested on the bottom in 56 feet of water.

1918: The wooden tug ELLA G. STONE was destroyed by a brush fire that swept through the town of Cloquet, MN. Several scows, tugs and a dredge as well as over 400 lives were lost.


Today in Great Lakes History - October 13

On this day in 1893, Chief Engineer J. H. Hogan left the DEAN RICHMOND in Toledo to take care of some family business. One day later, the DEAN RICHMOND burned off Dunkirk, New York, with a loss of 17 lives including the replacement Chief Engineer.

On October 13, 1909, GEORGE STONE (wooden propeller freighter, 270 foot, 1,841 gross tons, built in 1893, at W. Bay City, Michigan) was sailing from Ashtabula, Ohio for Racine, Wisconsin, with cargo of coal when she stranded on Grubb Reef in the Pelee Passage on Lake Erie. She then caught fire and was destroyed. Five of the 18 crewmen were lost.

The SASKATCHEWAN PIONEER made her first trip out of Thunder Bay, Ontario with grain on October 13, 1983. Renamed b.) LADY HAMILTON in 1995, sold to Voyageur Maritime in 2006, and now sailing as c.) KAMINISTIQUA for Lower Lakes Towing.

The tug GLENADA towed the BROOKDALE from Port Colborne to Newman's scrap yard at Port Maitland, Ontario the week of October 13, 1980.

On October 13, 1902, the MAUNALOA collided with her whaleback consort barge 129 on Lake Superior and sank it 30 miles northwest of Vermilion Point, which is between Upper Michigan's Crisp and Whitefish Points. MAUNALOA had been towing the 129, both vessels loaded with iron ore, when the towline parted in heavy seas. While trying to regain control of the barge, they came together and the steamer's port anchor raked the side of the barge, which started taking on water. The crew was taken off the barge before it sank.

On 13 October 1875, off Alpena, Michigan, the tug E. H. MILLER had her boiler explode while racing with the tug CITY OF ALPENA - both in quest of a tow. The ALPENA, who was ahead of the MILLER when she blew up, immediately turned around to pick up survivors. The ALPENA sunk in minutes. The engineer, fireman and a boy were rescued, but the captain and cook were lost. The fireman was in such poor shape that it was thought that he would not live.

On 13 October 1877, The Port Huron Times reported that the tug PRINDIVILLE and the 2-masted schooner PORTLAND had both gone ashore at the Straits of Mackinac and been pounded to pieces.

On 13 October 1886, SELAH CHAMBERLAIN (wooden propeller steam barge, 212 foot, 1,207 gross tons, built in 1873, at Cleveland, Ohio) collided with the 222-foot wooden lumber hooker JOHN PRIDGEON, JR. in heavy fog off Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The CHAMBERLAIN had been towing the schooner FAYETTE BROWN. The CHAMBERLAIN sank quickly. Five of the crew went down with the vessel when the lifeboat davits became fouled and they were unable to launch the lifeboat. The rest of the crew made it to shore in the other lifeboat after a 3-hour pull through the fog.

1902: The wooden steamer C. B. LOCKWOOD was swamped in a storm and sank on Lake Erie with the loss of 10 lives.

1927: The ONTARIO, once the largest carferry on the Detroit River, was later reduced to a barge and it foundered on Lake Superior, near Outer Island, while carrying 1100 tons of pulpwood. It had been under tow of the tug BUTTERFIELD and all on board were saved.

1973: SCOTT MISENER damaged 60 bottom plates when it hit bottom near Whaleback Shoal in the St. Lawrence.

1976: The former T2 tanker and now bulk carrier SYLVIA L. OSSA, remembered on the Great Lakes as the MARATHONIAN that was in a head-on collision with ROLWI in Lake Michigan, disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle with the loss of all 37 members of the crew.

1990: ERNA WITT first visited the Great Lakes in 1958 and returned through the Seaway in 1962. The vessel sank off Port Sudan as k) SHIBA after a collision with the ALTAAWIN ALARABI while inbound from Aqaba, Jordan. Three members of the crew were lost.







1941: ENARE, a Great Lakes visitor in 1932-1933, sustained heavy damage in an air attack in the North Sea as h) GLYNN. The ship was subsequently sunk by a convoy escort as a hazard to navigation. It had also been a Great Lakes trader as f) FLAKS in 1933 and 1934.

1991: ZIEMIA GNIEZNIENSKA hit the wall at Lock 7 and dislodged a chunk of concrete. The Welland Canal was closed for three days.

2002: STELLANOVA and CANADIAN PROSPECTOR were in a head-on collision on the Seaway near Cote St. Catherine and both ships sustained considerable damage. The former was repaired at Les Mechins and the latter at Port Weller Dry Docks.


‘Storm of 1913’ Centennial Dinner to include silent auction of Regina artifacts

10/13 - Detroit, Mich. – The Great Lakes Maritime Institute Annual Dinner commemorates the tragic ‘Storm of 1913’, bringing together four elements to commemorate the 100th anniversary of this event. The storm enveloped the Great Lakes region between November 8 to 11, 1913 and was the most destructive in recorded navigation history. Over 40 freighter and hundreds of smaller boats were total losses. The number of lost crewmembers was about 275.

The GLMI Centennial Dinner is on Sunday October 27 at 2 p.m. at the Blossom Health Inn, 24800 Jefferson Ave., St. Clair Shores. Blossom Heath was constructed in 1911 on the shore of Lake St. Clair. The venue is appropriate since the windows afforded a view of the passing traffic in the freighter channel on Lake St. Clair a century ago.

Maritime artist Robert McGreevy will recount the tragic voyage of the steamer Howard M. Hanna Jr. from Lorain, Ohio, loaded with coal. The hatch covers were battened down, covered with tarpaulins and secured with hatch bars, and the vessel passed into Lake Huron on November 9. As the wind and waves increased the vessel was thrown on the reef near the Port Austin light. In addition to this presentation, Mr. McGreevy will also have a new piece of artwork that depicts the Howard M. Hanna Jr. on the Great Lakes.

The commercial diver Wayne Brusate has a most unusual presentation chronicling the last voyage of the Canadian steamer Regina, which passed from Sarnia, Ontario. out into Lake Huron. The vessel was carrying mixed merchandise and after battling the storm her crew abandoned ship near Port Sanilac. It was Brusate who reported the discovery of the Regina on July 1, 1986, and worked with a Michigan Department of Natural resources permit to recover a number of artifacts from the wreck site.

A number of Regina artifacts were donated to the Great Lakes Maritime Institute, including full bottles of Whyte & McKay scotch and champagne. A special silent auction of Regina artifacts will be held at this dinner, providing guests an opportunity to own a part of Great Lakes maritime history from the ‘Storm of 1913’.

The full-course dinner will be served at the cost of $40 per person. Tickets can be obtained through www.GLMI.org or by calling 586-777-8300. In order to accommodate patrons, an October 20 dinner reservation deadline is necessary. Please note that in order to bid on the silent auction of steamer Regina artifacts a dinner reservation is necessary. For additional information, contact [e-mail]

[yachtsmanwilly]

Cleaner, greener Cuyahoga River has a new problem: Popularity

10/14 - Cleveland, Ohio – The sun beamed down upon the muddy brown waters of the Cuyahoga River as the Holiday, a venerable tour boat, rounded a bend carrying downtown office workers on an autumn clambake.

The 65-foot craft honked a greeting to a passing sailboat as its wake splashed water into a pair of bright, slender shells -- dousing rowers fresh out of class at nearby St. Ignatius High School.

The rowers, the captains and the beer-sipping tourists -- along with three men fishing from shore -- all stole glances at the heavyweight on the scene. A 700-foot freighter was spilling its load onto one of the ore piles that rise like pebbly mountains along the hard-working river.

There was room enough -- just enough -- for everyone.

"It's what we call the messy vitality of the shipping channel," Jim White observed from the pilothouse of Flotsam, a debris-clearing workboat for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. "Now, how do we make sure it works for everyone?"

That's a question being asked more pointedly since last month, when a pair of Canadian-flagged freighters blocked the river during a well-publicized, multi-state regatta, drawing howls from the rowing community.

The U.S. Coast Guard judged the blockade an accident, the result of bad luck and a rookie captain. But there's more than a marred regatta churning the waters in the flatlands of Cleveland.

Since the demise of the Flats as a nightlife nexus a decade ago, tug boats, barges and freighters have had the crooked river largely to themselves as they ply a six-mile channel from Lake Erie to the steel works of ArcelorMittal.

Now, recreational users are re-emerging, leading a trend that's expected to accelerate as new parks, restaurants and marinas open up on both banks.

The rowers are the most obvious addition. What was once a scattering of sculls has become a fleet of hundreds as area high school, college and adult teams practice and compete on the winding river.

Meanwhile, more motor and sail boats are venturing upstream, where armored banks now give way in places to innovative fish playgrounds, some with landscaped shores and view piers, with traces of the Towpath Trail curving past.

"One of the goals was to provide more public access to the river," said White, who helped design the pocket habitats as director of sustainable infrastructure for the port.

Kayaks have joined the carnival, spilling out of an emerging Metropark next door to the huge boathouse of the Cleveland Rowing Foundation.

On the horizon is the $500 million Flats East Bank development, which is expected to bring nightlife, boaters and jet skiers back to the mouth of the river and maybe beckon more upstream.

The Cuyahoga, once renowned for catching fire, has benefited greatly from the environmental movement it ignited. A cleaner, greener river is becoming a place to be. And that's causing some friction among the people who work there and the people who play there.

"The tension, if it grew any more, it would explode," said Jane Goodman, executive director of the Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization, an environmental advocacy group working to restore the river and its habitats.

Goodman thinks the river valley could be made even more accessible by giving the public access to roads and drawbridges domineered by heavy trucks.

"There are ways to share these resources, the bridges and the roads, just like there are ways to share the river," she said.

Jim Cox grows anxious to hear such talk. He represents the industrial players in the valley, from cement makers to salt miners, as director of the Flats Industry Association.

"This is an industrial river, and if recreation wants to share it, they have to understand the risks," Cox said. "It's not the Olentangy in Columbus. It's a federal navigation channel. And it's narrow. And it's winding"

And it's busy.

Wednesday afternoon presented a glimpse of what's routine and what's to come. Four lake freighters, each about the size of the Terminal Tower turned on its side, were unloading bulk cargo after threading the channel.

After school let out, rowing teams swarmed the docks of Rivergate Park. Soon, their artful shells flitted among the freighters and the pleasure boaters.

Despite the hectic scene, a practiced choreography was at work. Marine channel 16 crackled with communication between the motley crafts. Not long after a freighter radioed for a tug, Capt. Wayne Bratton announced the Holiday was disembarking "from beautiful Collision Bend" and the Shaker Heights High School crew team alerted river traffic to its location in a blind turn.

Protocols have emerged to guide the crew teams, which wait out passing freighters at safety zones and know to look out for bow thrusters that can flip a shell like a leaf. The rules of navigation apply to all crafts, and everyone knows the big ships have the right of way.

"Actually, I think it's working pretty well," said Lt. Commander Jerrel Russell. As commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Cleveland Marine Safety Unit, he's the nearest person to a referee on the river. Most of the shipping channels in America's coastal cities are busy, Russell said. The Cuyahoga is narrower than most, closing to 113 feet at one point, but the people navigating the river regularly know what they're doing. It's newcomers he worries about.

"There's certainly safety and security issues we need to look for, but actually it's being shared pretty well right now," Russell said.

Alas, even the best-laid plans go awry.

Patrick Connor was at the river by 5 a.m. Sept. 21st to set up for the rowing community's big event, the annual Head of the Cuyahoga.

Connor, coach of the St. Ignatius crew team and the regatta chairman, knew that some 2,000 rowers were in town for the races. The Coast Guard had ordered the river closed to boat traffic. Bad weather had cleared.

He heard about the disaster before he went and saw for himself. A pair of freighters had slipped in the night before and inexplicably parked on opposite banks, parallel to one anther, virtually blocking the middle of the race course.

Anxious calls to the Coast Guard and to the tugboat docks revealed the worst. The freighters were moored, much of the crew was away, and the ships could not get moving anytime soon.

"That's when we knew we were in deep trouble," Connor said.

Some races had to be drastically shortened and many crew teams left disappointed.

After an informal inquiry, the Coast Guard determined a captain new to his role and delayed by weather had mistakenly moored in the wrong place, near the I-90 bridge instead of the I-490 bridge farther south.

He was not found to be in violation of any navigation laws or the decree that closed the river, Russell said, adding "Really, the stars just lined up wrong."

Connor agrees the blockade, while devastating, was not purposeful.

"About four or five things came together to cause this, but it highlighted the tension on the river," he said. "It also gives us an opportunity to address some of these issues."

Last year's regatta was marred as well, when another freighter arrived unexpectedly and bulled its way up river, delaying the race.

Connor wants the Coast Guard to close the river for a longer time span around the regatta and ask businesses to "voluntarily not schedule deliveries" during boat races.

That's a precedent that makes some uneasy.

Glen Nekvasil, whose Lake Carriers' Association represents U.S.-flagged vessels on the Great Lakes, has a competing idea. He wants a "transit window" that allows ships to pass through races on their appointed rounds.

He argues the freighters operate at a cost of $900 to $1,800 an hour, and have deliveries to make and schedules to keep.

"We realize the Great Lakes are a shared waterway. We're not trying to lord over everybody," Nekvasil said. "But we have a product to deliver. We're bringing iron ore that keeps the steel mill going."

Nekvasil, like Cox, is vexed by the idea of kayaks. Jet skis give him nightmares.

"The Cuyahoga River is a federal navigation channel," he declared.

With the new interests has emerged a new group, Flats Forward, which aims to design a collective vision for the river valley that's acceptable to all. Mark Lammon, the group's director, expects that to take awhile.

"It's probably the most diverse neighborhood in Cleveland, in terms of land use," Lammon said. "I think there's plenty of space down there for everyone. It's just a question of doing it safely and doing it fairly."

Meanwhile, the rowers, the park lovers, the shippers and the industrialists need a forum to air concerns, and they have one. Their representatives gather quarterly at meetings of the Coast Guard's Cuyahoga River Safety Task Force.

The next meeting, in November, figures to be animated. In fact, the agenda will likely be busy for months and years to come.

That's not all bad, Patrick Connor observed.

He was in college in the mid-1990s, when the Flats riverfront roared as one of the top tourist attractions in Ohio, and the Coast Guard posted restrictions on rowers for their safety. No shells were allowed past the Center Street swing bridge after 5 p.m. on Fridays.

"We liked that," Connor said. "If we have to put it back in place, that might be a sign that Cleveland has come back."

The Plain Dealer



Toronto council votes to seize Captain John's ship

10/14 - Toronto, Ont. – The odyssey of Captain John’s restaurant drifted a bit further toward a conclusion on Friday. City council voted to begin the process of seizing the ship owned by John Letnik and moored at the foot of Yonge St. But the fight between Letnik and his many opponents may well end up in court: under maritime law, a ship can only be seized for arrears and sold if there is a court order.

“It’s maybe the beginning of the battle,” Letnik said at city hall after the vote. He said he will “definitely” mount a legal challenge.

Letnik owes about $1 million in taxes and fees. His 55-year-old ship, the Jadran, once housed a popular restaurant, but it is now a relic: the city turned off the water and shut down the restaurant in 2012.

The city has taken a hard line with Letnik in recent years, but councillors Doug Ford and Joe Mihevc praised him Friday as a contributor and immigrant success story. Council passed a motion to honour Captain John’s with a plaque.

“I appreciate that they recognized me as a contributor in the early days on the waterfront,” Letnik said.

Mihevc, who worked on the boat upon its arrival in 1975, as a university student making $4.50 per hour, voted against the proposed seizure “in solidarity” with Letnik. He said he knew the proposal would pass anyway.

“I’m filled with sadness about it,” Mihevc said. “But at the end of the day the taxman gets his pound of flesh, and that’s what we’re seeing here today.”

The complex negotiations with Letnik have involved the Toronto Port Authority and Waterfront Toronto. Letnik, who owns an apartment building in Scarborough, says he still sleeps on board many nights

. “We’ll see what happens,” he said Friday. “But I’m not leaving the ship yet.”

Toronto Star




Today in Great Lakes History - October 14

On this day in 1953, Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland, submitted a successful bid of $118,111 for six retired lakers to be scrapped by the U.S. Maritime Commission. The six boats were the CHACORNAC, COLONEL, MUNISING, NEGAUNEE, YOSEMITE and AMAZON.

On 14 October 1871, the LEVANT (2-mast wooden schooner, 91 foot, 115 tons, built in 1854, at Chicago, Illinois) was loaded with lumber when she was overtaken by a severe gale and went over on her beam ends off Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan. The 6-man crew lashed themselves to the vessel so as not to be washed away by the waves. Throughout the night the men died one by one. At daylight, the schooner D P DOBBINS found the wreck with floating bodies tied to it and three still alive (two of them were barely alive). One died during the rescue attempt and another died within minutes of being rescued. Only Peter J. Thornum survived.

DEAN RICHMOND (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 238 foot, 1,432 gross tons, built in 1864, at Cleveland, Ohio) sailed from Toledo, Ohio, on Friday the 13th of October 1893, with a load of bagged meal, flour, zinc and copper ingots. She encountered hurricane force winds of over 60 mph and battled the storm throughout the night. She was seen on 14 October 1893, off Erie, Pennsylvania, missing her stacks and battling the wind and waves. The following day, wreckage and bodies were washing ashore near Dunkirk, New York. Among the dead were the captain, his wife and three children. A few crewmembers managed to make it to shore however all but one died of exposure. The only survivor was found on the beach near Van Buren Point two days later. During the search for bodies, three volunteers lost their lives. The wreck was found in 1984.

The keel to the JAMES R. BARKER was laid on October 14, 1974. She was to become Interlake's first 1000 footer and the flagship of the fleet for Moore McCormack Leasing, Inc. (Interlake Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio, mgr.).

On October 14, 1983, the CHI-CHEEMAUN encountered 48-knot winds after departing Tobermory with 113 passengers bound for South Baymouth. Due to high wind and waves the captain decided to find shelter rather than to continue on or return to port. The ferry made her way around the Bruce Peninsula southeast to Dyer Bay where she dropped anchor for the night, however she had no overnight accommodations. Complimentary meals were served and activities were organized by the crew. The anchor was lifted the next morning and the ferry returned to Tobermory.

The GEORGE A. STINSON departed Detroit on her maiden voyage October 14, 1978, light for Superior, Wisconsin, to load iron ore pellets for delivery to the Great Lakes Steel Division of the National Steel Corp. at Zug Island in River Rouge, Michigan. Renamed b.) AMERICAN SPIRIT in 2004.

On 14 October 1875, it was discovered that thieves had completely stripped the canvass and rigging from the schooner FORWARDER owned by Little & Brown. The schooner was lying about three miles below Port Huron.

On 14 October 1822, APPELONA (wooden schooner, 45 foot, 37 tons, built in 1814, at Henderson, New York) was bound from Oswego for Genesee, New York, when she was struck by lightning in Lake Ontario and sank about 15 minutes. All hands were injured but abandoned her for shore and all survived.

The tug NELSON burned at Chicago on Saturday, 14 October 1876. She was one of the smaller class of tugs and the damage was so great that she was not considered to be worth repairing.

October 14, 1911 - The ANN ARBOR NO 4 ran aground while enroute to Manistique, Michigan, at full speed, damaging several plates. The ANN ARBOR NO 3 pulled her off.

On 14 October 1876, NEW YORK (wooden propeller freighter, 183 foot, 704 tons, built in 1856, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying lumber and towing the schooner BUTCHER BOY and barges NELLIE MC GILVERAY and A. J. CORREY from Cove Island in Georgian Bay to Buffalo when they encountered a severe storm near Pointe aux Barques. The towline parted and the NEW YORK could not regain it in the heavy seas. She then sprang a leak and the water rose rapidly enough to put out her fires. The crew (15 men and one woman) abandoned in the yawl as NEW YORK was overwhelmed and sank. The open boat was adrift for five hours when the 74-foot schooner NEMESIS came upon it. NEMESIS tried twelve times to approach the yawl in the rough seas, losing a portion of her deck load of tanbark each time that she came about, but at last she got alongside the yawl. The NEW YORK's crew managed to get aboard the NEMESIS except for Fireman William Sparks, who fell between the yawl and the schooner and was lost. The other vessels in the tow all made it to Port Huron safely.

On 14 October 1883, NELLIE GARDNER (wooden schooner-barge, 178 foot, 567 gross tons, built in 1873, at Marine City, Michigan) was loaded with 39,000 bushels of corn while being towed by the steamer JOHN PRIDGEON JR in a storm on Lake Huron. The GARDNER released herself from the tow in the heavy weather to run for the shelter of Thunder Bay under sail. However, she was unable to make it, and turned back for Tawas, Michigan, but struck a reef, broke in two and was wrecked 1 mile SE of Scarecrow Island. Her crew made it to shore in her yawl.

1895: The wooden steamer AFRICA struck a reef near Cove Island enroute to Georgian Bay, broke up and sank with the loss of all 13 crew.

1922: ARROW, a steel sidewheeler, partially burned at the dock in Put-in-Bay.

1954: The Dutch freighter PRINS WILLEM V. sank off Milwaukee after a collision with the barge SINCLAIR XII pushed by the SINCLAIR CHICAGO. All 30 sailors on board were rescued but the overseas vessel was never salvaged. It was replaced in 1956 by another PRINS WILLEM V.

1966: The STONEFAX and ARTHUR STOVE collided in the Welland Canal between Allanburg and Port Robinson. The former, a member of the Halco fleet, sank with its cargo of potash and remained on the bottom until November 25. The latter subsequently visited the Seaway as b) TIARET and was scrapped at Nantong, China, as c) CLARET in 1984-1985.

1983: The British freighter HOUSTON CITY visited the Great Lakes in 1966. It ran aground at Mayotte Island, part of the Comoros, while enroute from the Far East to South Africa as c) ALPAC AFRICA. The ship was stuck until October 22 and scrapped at Shanghai, China, in 1984.

1985: FURIA was trapped in Lock 7 when a section of the lock wall collapsed. The Welland Canal was closed until November 7. The vessel arrived at Shanghai, China, for scrapping as b) YRIA on November 1, 2001, after it made a final trip inland as such in 2000.

1987: GEORGE A. SLOAN sustained major bottom damage going aground in the Amherstburg Channel and was repaired at Toledo. The ship is still sailing as c) MISSISSAGI.