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Post by Avenger on Nov 18, 2013 17:39:25 GMT -5
Thanks Scroddy... yer a real pal!!! Keep an eyeball peeled for that book... ws Book arrived today. It's much appreciated. Thanks Bill! |
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 18, 2013 20:10:27 GMT -5
Thanks Scroddy... yer a real pal!!! Keep an eyeball peeled for that book... ws Book arrived today. It's much appreciated. Thanks Bill! COOL! That came off a small tug we were junking that had a 3406 as the prime mover. I guess with a book, close is better than nothing. Toss it on the pile, pal. Ive been moving it for 10 years! ws |
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Post by ppat324 on Nov 19, 2013 7:47:05 GMT -5
11/19 - Sandusky, Ohio – The self-unloader CSL Niagara remained aground at Sandusky Monday night, and the Coast Guard said a plan to lighter at least part of the 30,000 metric ton cargo of coal was being formulated.
The tug Ohio continued its work to free the 739-foot freighter, but the day-long effort had not produced any results, officials said.
Niagara's owners, Canada Steamship Lines, hired three tugs to work on the project, the Toledo-based Coast Guard Marine Safety office said. As a self-unloader, Niagara will be able to utilize her own gear to put all or part of the cargo onto another vessel.
Great Lakes Towing Co. was expected to handle most of the effort; the company was reportedly preparing equipment at its Cleveland yard Monday night.
Niagara went aground Sunday morning when she veered out of the 27-foot deep dredged channel and struck the two to five-foot sidewall.
Meantime, low water levels on Lake Erie forced freighters, which went to anchor Sunday, to remain where they were Monday. Gale force westerly winds shoved water from the Western basin toward Buffalo and weathermen said only diminishing winds will alter the low water issue. The wind speed is predicted to begin dropping Tuesday, forecasters said.
For Lake Superior wreck hunters, discovery of historic tugboat was serendipity
11/19 - Duluth, Minn. – A pair of Lake Superior shipwreck hunters got slightly lost earlier this year while out on the water. But, oh, what they found.
David Shepherd and Rob Valley, who live in Thunder Bay, Ont., say they made an unplanned discovery of a sunken vessel that all evidence suggests is a tugboat called the Mary Ann, scuttled more than 75 years ago. It’s a boat perhaps somewhat unremarkable if not for the fact that in 1867 it became the first vessel registered in the then-new Dominion of Canada.
“It took our breath away,” Shepherd said of the realization of what they found. “It was overwhelming, the significance of it. It’s not just a scuttled boat. It’s the first ship (registered) in Canada that wasn’t a naval vessel.”
And it was a discovery that wouldn’t have happened if not for a slight mistake. Shepherd and Valley went out on Lake Superior in early July to calibrate their sonar gear on a known wreck near the Welcome Islands, about five miles offshore from the city of Thunder Bay. They thought they’d be testing their gear on a wreck called the Grey Oak.
“We wanted to see what a certain-sized ship looked like on our equipment,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd and Valley didn’t know it at the time, but they were off on some of the landmarks used to locate the Grey Oak. They started up their sonar and quickly located a sunken vessel. Only it was not the Grey Oak.
That realization came a few weeks later when the duo decided to return to the ship, which was supposed to rest at a depth of 90-110 feet; they hadn’t checked the depth on sonar on that initial visit. After entering the water, Shepherd recalled, “within 55 feet, (I) see a shipwreck. … That’s when the alarm bells went off, that this isn’t supposed to be here. That’s when we realized we’ve got a brand-new shipwreck.”
“When (Shepherd) came back up, it was like he’d seen a ghost,” Valley said. “He said, ‘This is not the ship. We’ve found a new one.’ ”
Parts of the main cabin and bridge were gone, but there were cabins and artifacts at the vessel’s stern ¬ bunks, cabinets, cans and bottles, some wood debris. The ship rests in between 55 and 70 feet of water.
With video footage and notes in hand, Shepherd and Valley started researching the sunken ship. They consulted with local diving and wreck experts including Ryan LeBlanc of Thunder Bay. They made return visits to the ship to collect more video and measurements.
What they found ¬ the ship’s size, construction materials, the lines of its bow and keel, the configuration of the scuppers used to clear water from the deck ¬ all matches up with the Mary Ann.
“The evidence is all pointing to it being the Mary Ann,” Shepherd said. “Looking at all the available information, it matches.”
The 78-foot tug’s full name is Mary Ann of Dunnville, ¬Dunnville being a community in southern Ontario near Lake Erie, where the tug was built. According to the 1997 book “The Welland Canals and Their Communities” by John N. Jackson, the Mary Ann’s first owner was a successful businessman named Lachlan McCallum, and it was the first ship registered in Canada after the nation was formed in 1867.
McCallum was a senator in Ontario, and a history of the ship printed in the Port Arthur (Ontario) News-Chronicle in 1944 reported that Mary Ann was the name of one of his daughters. Port Arthur later combined with Fort William to form the present-day city of Thunder Bay, often referred to as the Lakehead.
“It was at the Lakehead … where the Mary Ann spent most of her long life” after being acquired by new owners and brought to Port Arthur in the early 1880s, the 1944 article reported. The tug also served as an excursion boat, with an awning over the afterdeck and with a brass band aboard on at least one occasion.
“It is on record also that the Mary Ann was chartered to carry fish from Port Arthur to Duluth after the regular closing of the navigation season,” the 1944 article reported.
The Mary Ann later was converted to a barge, Valley and Shepherd found in their research. After a few more years of service, it was abandoned and allowed to sink at a dock.
It was long thought that the Mary Ann was one of nearly three dozen derelict vessels hauled away from docks in 1936 and scuttled in hundreds of feet of water far out in Thunder Bay, in what became known as the “Graveyard of Ships.” But the recent discovery puts the Mary Ann about 10 miles away from the “graveyard.”
“That the biggest mystery,” Shepherd said. “Obviously they dropped a ship far away from where it was supposed to be.”
Shepherd and Valley want to help ensure the Mary Ann and its artifacts are protected by forming a local chapter of the Ontario Underwater Council, a group that aims to promote scuba diving and protect underwater resources. “There are some artifacts on it that we’d like to see stay there,” Valley said.
The pair also want to return to the Mary Ann next season to keep surveying the wreck and better document what’s there. “We’re looking at the video and drawing up plans,” Shepherd said.
And there are other wrecks they’re searching for in Thunder Bay and along Ontario’s rocky north shore of Lake Superior. This winter, though, they’ll be reflecting on their luck in finding a humble tug with a unique place in history.
“To find (a wreck) is a feat in itself. To screw up and find another one is incredible,” Shepherd said. “I went out and bought a lottery ticket.”
Today in Great Lakes History - November 19
On this day in 1939, in a 24-hour-period, there were 132 transits of the Soo Locks. There were 71 upbound passages and 61 downbound passages.
On this day in 1952, Mrs. Ernest T. Weir smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of the largest freighter built on the Great Lakes and the 690-foot ERNEST T. WEIR slid down the ways at the Lorain yard of American Ship Building Company. The new vessel had a crew of 38 under the command of Captain W. Ross Maitland and Chief Engineer C. F. Hoffman.
On 19 November 1897, NAHANT (wooden propeller freighter, 213 foot, 1,204 gross tons, built in 1873, at Detroit, Michigan) caught fire while docked near Escanaba, Michigan. Firefighters were hampered by sub-zero temperatures, and she burned to a total loss. The fire jumped to the dock and did $300,000 worth of damage. Two of the crew were burned to death. The wreckage of the vessel was still visible from the Escanaba lighthouse 100 years later.
American Steamship's SAM LAUD (Hull#712) was launched on this date in 1974 at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
The keel for JOHN T. HUTCHINSON (Hull#1010) was laid November 19, 1942, at Cleveland, Ohio for the U.S. Maritime Commission.
The Kinsman Transit Co.'s steamer MERLE M. McCURDY was laid up for the last time at Buffalo, New York, on November 19, 1985. She was scrapped at Port Colborne, Ontario, in 1988.
On 19 November 1842, the wooden schooner BRANDYWINE was carrying flour in a storm on Lake Erie when she capsized and then drifted to the beach near Barcelona, New York. One passenger's body was found in the cabin, but the entire crew of 6 was lost.
More incidents from the terrible storm swept the Lakes in mid-November 1886. On 18-19 November of that year, The Port Huron Times listed the vessels that were known to have foundered in that storm. Here is the list of vessels that foundered as it appeared on 19 November 1886. "The barge EMERALD near Kewaunee, 5 lost. The barge F M DICKINSON near Kewaunee, 3 lost. Two unknown schooners (one supposed to be the HELEN) near Port Sherman. One unknown schooner near Hog Island Reef. The barge NORTH STAR near East Tawas, the fate of the crew is unknown." The list then continues with vessels ashore. "The barge WALLACE and consort on Choclay Beach, east of Marquette. The schooner SOUTH HAVEN near Pt. Sherman. The schooner MARY near Blenheim, Ontario. The schooner PATHFINDER near Two Rivers, the cargo and vessel are a total loss. The schooner CUYAHOGA and two scows in North Bay. The schooner P S MARSH and an unknown schooner at St. Ignace. The schooner HARVEY BISSELL near Alpena. The propeller CITY OF NEW YORK near Cheboygan. The schooner KOLFAGE near Goderich, Ontario has broken up. The propeller NASHUA on Grass Island, Green Bay. The barge BISSELL near Kewaunee. The schooner GOLDEN below China Beach. The propeller BELLE CROSS and barges across from China Beach. The schooner FLORIDA on Marquette Beach is a total loss. And the barges BUCKOUT, MC DOUGALL, BAKER, GOLDEN HARVEST near East Tawas.
The schooner HATTIE JOHNSTON sailed from Milwaukee loaded with 26,000 bushels of wheat on the night of 19 November 1879, and then a severe gale swept Lake Michigan. After two weeks, she was presumed lost with all hands. Aboard were Capt. D. D. Prouty, his wife and 8 crewmen.
On 19 Nov 1886, the steamer MANISTIQUE was towing the schooner-barges MARINETTE and MENEKAUNEE, all loaded with lumber, in a NW gale on Lake Michigan. The gale lasted three days. The barges broke loose after a long fight against the elements and both were wrecked near Frankfort, Michigan. Six of the seven aboard the MARINETTE were lost including the woman cook and her 13-year old daughter. MENEKAUNEE broke up before the Lifesaving Service could get to her and all seven aboard died. When the Lifesaving Service arrived on the beach, they found a jumbled mass of lumber and gear and the ship's dog keeping watch over the dead bodies. The dog also died soon after the Lifesaving crew arrived.
EMPIRE MALDON (steel tanker, 343 foot, 3,734 gross tons) was launched on 19 November 1945, by Sir James Laing & Sons, Ltd., at Sunderland, United Kingdom for the British Ministry of War Transport She was sold to Imperial Oil Co. of Canada in 1946, and renamed IMPERIAL HALIFAX and served on the Maritime Provinces-East Coast trade. In 1969, she was purchased by Johnstone Shipping, Ltd., of Toronto and served on the Great Lakes. She lasted until 1977, when she was scrapped by United Metals, Ltd. in Hamilton, Ontario.
On Friday morning, 19 Nov 1999, shortly after leaving the ADM dock in Windsor, the salty AVDEEVKA lost power in the Fighting Island Channel of the Detroit River. The main engine on the vessel quit while she was abreast of Grassy Island and she began drifting downstream. The stern anchor was dropped and then the port side bow anchor. She began swinging towards the middle of the channel with her stern outside the channel when the main engine was restarted and she headed back upstream for the Belle Isle anchorage. Once in the anchorage a team from the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the vessel to investigate. She was released the next day. It is reported that the vessel lost power due to main fuel valve being left closed after routine maintenance during her stay at the ADM dock.
1904: PHILIP MINCH caught fire 8 miles off Marblehead, Ohio, and sank in the navigation channel. All on board got off safely and rowed to Sandusky in the lifeboat. The remains were dynamited in 1906.
1914: C.F. CURTIS foundered in Lake Superior, 7 miles east of Grand Marais, with the loss of 14 lives. The towing barges ANNIE PETERSON and SHELDON E. MARVIN also went down after the trio ran into high winds and snow.
1956: The year old West German freighter WOLFGANG RUSS was beached in the St. Lawrence near Ile d'Orleans after a collision with the Cunard Line vessel ASIA. The former was inbound for Sorel and had to lightered and taken to Lauzon for repairs to the large hole in the side of the hull. The vessel began Great Lakes visits with the opening of the Seaway in 1959 and made 28 inland trips to the end of 1967. It arrived off Gadani Beach, Pakistan, for scrapping as b) KOTRONAS BEACH on Feb. 4, 1980.
1977: The Canada Steamship Lines self-unloader FRONTENAC grounded off Grassy Island in the St. Lawrence and about 5,000 tons of ore had to be lightered to the SAGUENAY to float free.
1979: The Liberian freighter DANILA was damaged when it struck the west pier while inbound at Port Weller in fog. The vessel first visited the Seaway as a) MAERSK CAPTAIN in 1976 and was back as b) DANILA in 1979. The ship was scrapped at Alang, India, as d) JAY BHAVANI in 1991-1992.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 20, 2013 6:14:21 GMT -5
Man dies after being run over by forklift at Detroit Marine Terminal
11/20 - Detroit, Mich. – A 62-year-old man was killed Tuesday at the Port of Detroit Marine Terminal after a co-worker accidentally struck him with a forklift, police said.
Rescuers were called to the scene near Jefferson and Scotten at 8:50 a.m. after the forklift ran the man over, Detroit Police Officer Adam Madera said. He was guiding the driver of the forklift, who apparently lost sight of him. Madera said the investigation is being handled as an accident.
Known as the Nicholson Terminal and Dock, the marine cargo handling facility employs about 50 people, said Rhonda Burke, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that regulates workplace conditions.
OSHA has visited the facility 28 times over the past 40 years, records show. The most recent was in May 2009, but no citations were issued. OSHA investigated a 2004 fatality and issued eight citations.
The Detroit News
Lookback No. 3 – Roy A. Jodrey stranded Nov. 20, 1974
11/20 - Roy A. Jodrey, a self-unloader in the Algoma Central fleet, was up bound from Sept Iles, Quebec, and en route to Detroit with a cargo of iron ore, when it stranded on Pullman Shoal, off Wellesley Island, in the St. Lawrence 39 years ago today.
The nine-year old freighter stayed aground long enough for all on board to get away safely. Then, in the early hours of November 21, the ship slipped back off its perch and disappeared into deep water. Any hope for salvage was determined to be too difficult due to the location, the current and the damage.
Roy A. Jodrey was built as Hull 186 at Collingwood, and had been launched on September 9, 1965. The 640 foot, 6 inch long, diesel-powered vessel entered service on November 11, 1965, bound for Calcite, Mich., to take on a cargo of stone for Sault Ste. Marie.
The ship handled a variety of stone, coal and iron ore for Algoma's customers in its brief career.
Skip Gillham
Today in Great Lakes History - November 20
In 1948, the ROBERT HOBSON was blown against the Duluth-Superior breakwall as she tried to enter the harbor during a 68-mph gale. Damage to the vessel was kept to a minimum when Captain John Mc Nellis ordered the seacocks opened to settle the HOBSON on a sandbar. Renamed b.) OUTARDE in 1975, she was scrapped at Port Colborne, Ontario in 1985.
On 20 November 1854, BURLINGTON (2-mast wooden brig, 80 foot, 117 tons, built in 1842, at Cleveland, Ohio) was driven hard aground near Port Bruce, Ontario, on Lake Huron while trying to assist the stranded Canadian bark GLOBE.
SAGINAW was christened at the Government Dock in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1999. Bonnie Bravener and Wendy Siddall broke the traditional bottle of champagne adding the second vessel to Lower Lakes Towing's fleet. The company then opened the vessel for tours to all those in the large crowd that had gathered to witness the event. She was built in 1953 as a.) JOHN J. BOLAND.
Hall Corporation of Canada's EAGLESCLIFFE HALL was launched in 1956, at Grangemouth, Scotland. Sold off the lakes, renamed b.) EAGLESCLIFFE in 1974, she sank two miles east of Galveston, Texas, on February 9, 1983.
The ferry WOLFE ISLANDER was christened on November 20, 1946, at Marysville, Wolfe Island. The new ferry was the unfinished OTTAWA MAYBROOK which was built to serve the war effort in the south Pacific Ocean. She replaced two landing barges which were pressed quickly into service following the condemned steamer WOLFE ISLANDER, a.) TOM FAWCETT of 1904, which had served the community for 42 years. Officially christened WOLFE ISLANDER by Mrs. Sarah Russell, it took five tries before the champagne bottle finally broke on her port side.
Pittsburgh Steamship's steamer RALPH H. WATSON (Hull#285) was launched in 1937, at River Rouge, Michigan, by Great Lakes Engineering Works.
On 20 November 1872, the side wheel steamer W. J .SPICER was finally laid up and the crew dismissed. She had served for many years as the Grand Trunk ferry at Fort Gratiot on the St. Clair River.
On 20 November 1880, BAY CITY (wooden barge, 199 foot, 480 tons, built in 1852, at Trenton, Michigan as the sidewheeler FOREST CITY) was carrying coal when she was cast adrift east of Erie, Pennsylvania by the steamer JAMES P. DONALDSON in a storm. She was driven ashore and wrecked. Her crew was saved by the U.S. Lifesaving Service using breeches' buoy. November 20, 1898. ANN ARBOR #3 left Cleveland, Ohio for Frankfort, Michigan, on her maiden voyage.
November 20, 1924 - Pere Marquette fleet engineer Finlay MacLaren died after 42 years with the railroad. He was succeeded by his brother Robert until Leland H. Kent was named fleet engineer in 1925.
On 20 Nov. 1871, the schooner E. B. ALLEN was sailing from Chicago to Buffalo with a load of corn when she crossed the bow of the bark NEWSBOY about six miles off the Thunder Bay Light on Lake Huron. The NEWSBOY slammed her bow deep into the schooner's hull amidships and the ALLEN sank in about 30 minutes. The crew escaped in the yawl. The NEWSBOY was badly damaged but did not sink.
On 20 Nov. 1999, the Bermuda-flag container ship CANMAR TRIUMPH went aground on the St. Lawrence River off Varennes about 15 kilometers downstream from Montreal. She was the third vessel to run aground in the St. Lawrence River that autumn. The Canadian Coast Guard reported that she was having engine problems and the CBC News reported that the vessel's rudder was damaged in the grounding.
On Saturday morning, 20 Nov. 1999, Marinette Marine Corporation of Marinette, Wisconsin, launched the 175-foot Coast Guard Cutter HENRY BLAKE. The BLAKE was one of the "Keeper" Class Coastal Class Buoy Tenders. Each ship in the "Keeper" class is named after a famous American lighthouse keeper. 1917: JOHAN MJELDE, built at Cleveland in 1916, was sailing as b) STORO when captured by the German submarine U-151 near the Azores and, after 22 tons of copper were removed, the ship was scuttled on November 26.
1920: J.H. SHEADLE ran aground on the rocks at Marquette when the steering failed while backing from the dock. The ship was badly damaged. It last sailed in 1979 as e) PIERSON INDEPENDENT.
1943: The former LAKE FINNEY, later a Pre-Seaway trader in the 1930s as SANTA EULALIA, was torpedoed and sunk by British forces as the enemy ship c) POLCEVERA off Carlovassi, Italy.
1966: The Liberty ship MOUNT EVANS made two trips through the Seaway in 1961. It stranded off Mapingil, Philippines as h) EASTERN ARGO on this date in 1966. The hull was refloated with damage and then towed to Taiwan for scrapping in 1967.
1990: GINA, a Lebanese freighter, began leaking at Varna, Bulgaria. The ship was later taken to Piraeus, Greece, and laid up. The superstructure was removed and installed on a fire damaged vessel while the hull was towed to Aliaga, Turkey, in October 1991 and dismantled. GINA had been a Great Lakes trader as a) MARCOSSA-I in 1972
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 21, 2013 6:25:44 GMT -5
Great Lakes levels recover from record lows after wet year
11/21 - Detroit, Mich. – A snowy winter and wet spring and summer led to an almost unprecedented recovery of Great Lakes levels this year, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said Wednesday.
But because they were at or near record lows, several of the lakes continue to have below-average water levels even after the recovery.
“That’s going to continue to affect Great Lakes shipping, shoreline property owners, marina owners and the recreational boater,” said Keith Kompoltowicz, watershed hydrology branch chief of the Army Corps’ Detroit district.
Dan Mishler noticed the difference this year. Mishler is president of the Lake Charlevoix Association for shoreline owners and other enthusiasts of the northern Michigan Lake connected to Lake Michigan.
“The water dropped dramatically about this time a year ago, and it stayed down throughout the winter,” he said. “It did not do that this year.”
Several marinas had to dredge, and many were forced to install much longer docks to use their boats, Mishler said. The dredging in particular concerns him.
“Michigan doesn’t have a really clean past,” he said. “The three cities on Lake Charlevoix (Boyne City, Charlevoix and East Jordan) all have industrial pasts, and when they dredge, I worry about what they are stirring up.”
The walleye and perch fishing on Lake St. Clair and western Lake Erie late last year was “absolutely excellent,” said charter fisherman Bruce Curtis, who represents that region for the Michigan Charter Boat Association.
But lower water levels meant “some marinas suffered,” he said. Those that didn’t dredge soon enough or deep enough lost bigger boats to other, deeper-channel marinas that could better accommodate them, he said.
Great Lakes levels typically get whatever rise they will have in a normal year during snowmelt and spring rains, a period from late winter to early summer. Lakes Michigan and Huron, which are connected at the Straits of Mackinac, had a nearly 20-inch rise from late February to early June in 2013, compared with just a 4-inch seasonal rise the year before, Kompoltowicz said. The average seasonal rise from late winter to early summer is closer to a foot, he said.
“Going back to 1918, the seasonal rises on Lake Superior and Lakes Michigan and Huron were in the top percentages of seasonal rises ever recorded” this year, Kompoltowicz said.
The better-but-not-normal lake level theme played out across the Great Lakes basin:
■ Lakes Michigan and Huron remain 17 inches below their long-term average as of the end of October but are up 11 inches from this time a year ago.
■ Lake Superior is 2 inches below its long-term average but up 13 inches from its levels of a year ago.
■ Lake St. Clair is 6 inches below its long-term average but up nearly 10 inches from a year ago.
■ Lake Erie is near its long-term average and up nearly 10 inches from this time last year.
■ Lake Ontario is also near average and up about a foot from the previous year.
Precipitation levels are only part of the equation, said Drew Gronewold, a hydrologist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. How much evaporation occurs in the summer is also key to lake levels, he said.
“Right now, we are in a period, since an El Niño period in the late 1990s, of exceptionally high evaporation,” he said. El Niño refers to a pattern of extended warming of the Pacific Ocean that leads to climate changes across the globe.
The forecast over the next six months calls for Lake Superior to remain 2 to 3 inches below its long-term average, but a foot or more above its levels of a year ago.
“With a wet winter, mean monthly Lake Superior water levels could rise above their long-term average, which would be the first time in 14 years that has occurred,” Kompoltowicz said.
The six-month forecast calls for water levels about a foot above those of a year ago on Lakes Michigan and Huron.
“Even with very dry conditions, we don’t see any further threat for record lows on Lakes Michigan and Huron,” Kompoltowicz said.
Lake Erie is expected to remain near its long-term average and 4 to 5 inches above its levels of last year, he said. Lake Ontario is projected at about 10 inches above its levels of the previous year over the next six months.
Kompoltowicz noted the difficulty in even short-term projections of lake depths.
“At the end of 2012, we were projecting several months in a row of record-low water levels on Lakes Michigan and Huron,” he said. “That ended with only a two-month stretch, and Lakes Michigan and Huron then rose very quickly.
“Something could change to make these forecasts complete busts.”
Steel production dips by 5,000 tons in Great Lakes states
11/21 - Raw steel production in the country's Great Lakes region dipped slightly to 668,000 tons in the week that ended Saturday, according to an American Iron and Steel Institute estimate.
Production slipped by about 5,000 tons, or about 0.7 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 655,000 tons, up from 615,000 tons a week earlier.
Total domestic raw steel production last week was about 1.86 million tons, which was up from 1.83 the week prior.
U.S. steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 77.5 percent last week, up from 76.3 percent a week earlier. The capacity utilization rate had been 70.1 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 75.5 percent during the same period in 2012.
Domestic mills have produced an estimated 85 million tons of steel this year, down 1.8 percent from the same period last year. The mills had made about 86.6 million tons of steel by Nov. 16, 2012.
In September, U.S. steel mill shipped 7.8 million net tons, a 5.6 percent decrease from a month earlier but an 8.9 percent increase from the same period last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Year-to-date shipments over the first nine months were down 2.4 percent. Shipments of hot-dipped galvanized products, hot-rolled sheet and cold-rolled sheet all declined last month.
Lookback # 4: Bannockburn went missing on November 21, 1902
11/21 - The Bannockburn, the legendary “Flying Dutchman” of Lake Superior, disappeared with all hands 111 years ago today. The ship had loaded 85,000 bushels of grain at Port Arthur destined for Midland but was lost without a trace.
The nine-year old steamer had been built at Middlesborough, England, and crossed the Atlantic to join the Montreal Transportation Co. in 1893. While a good carrier for the canal grain trades, Bannockburn had its share of misfortune with groundings in 1897, 1900 and 1901.
No one knows what caused the ship to disappear. Some speculated there was a boiler explosion, others that it hit bottom and sank in rough seas, and some pondered that the machinery went through the bottom of the hull.
Reports circulated that the 245-foot-long vessel was aground on or near Michipicoten Island but this only raised unfounded hope for relatives of the missing sailors.
Folklore suggested that the ship has been spotted riding the waves of Lake Superior on dark and stormy nights but apparently all that has even been found was an oar that washed up on the Michigan side of the lake.
Today in Great Lakes History - November 21
In 1934, the package freighter EDWARD L. LOOMIS, Captain Alex McKenzie, collided with the W. C. FRANZ, Captain Alex McIntyre, about 30 miles southeast of Thunder Bay Island, Lake Huron. Four crewmen on the FRANZ drowned when the lifeboat turned over while being lowered.
On 21 November 1861, ENTERPRISE (2-mast wooden scow-schooner, 64 foot, 56 tons, built in 1854, at Port Huron, Michigan) was driven ashore near Bark Shanty at the tip of Michigan's thumb on Lake Huron. The storm waves pounded her to pieces. Her outfit was salvaged a few days later.
On the evening of 21 November 1890, the scow MOLLIE (wooden scow-schooner, 83 foot, 83 gross tons, built in 1867, at Fairport, Ohio) left Ludington, Michigan, with a load of lumber. About 8:00 p.m., when she was just 25 miles off Ludington, she started to leak in heavy seas, quickly becoming waterlogged. Capt. Anderson and his two-man crew had just abandoned the vessel in the yawl when the steamer F & P M NO 4 showed up, shortly after midnight. The rough weather washed Capt. Anderson out of the yawl, but he made it back in. At last a line from the F & P M NO 4 was caught and made fast to the yawl and the crew made it to the steamer. The men had a narrow escape, for the MOLLIE was going to pieces rapidly, and there was little likelihood of the yawl surviving in the gale.
PATERSON (Hull#113) was launched November 21, 1953, at Port Arthur, Ontario, by Port Arthur Ship Building Co. Ltd.
In 1924, MERTON E. FARR slammed into the Interstate Bridge that linked Superior, Wisconsin, with Duluth, Minnesota, causing extensive damage to the bridge. The bridge span fell into the water but the FARR received only minor damage to her bow.
On 21 November 1869, the ALLIANCE (wooden passenger sidewheeler, 87 foot, 197 gross tons, built in 1857, at Buffalo, New York) slipped her moorings at Lower Black Rock in the Niagara River and went over the falls. She had been laid up since the spring of 1869.
November 21, 1906 - The PERE MARQUETTE 17 encountered one of the worst storms in many years while westbound for the Wisconsin Central slip in Manitowoc. Wisconsin. She made port safely, but the wind was so high that she could not hold her course up the river without assistance. The tug ARCTIC assisted, and as they were proceeding through the 10th Street Bridge, a gust of wind from the south drove the ferry and tug against the north pilings of the 10th Street Bridge. The ARCTIC, pinned between the ferry and the bridge, was not damaged, but she crushed the hull of a fishing tug moored there, sinking her, and inflicted damage of a few hundred dollars to the bridge.
November 21, 1923 - Arthur Stoops, the lookout on the ANN ARBOR NO 6, was drowned while stepping from the apron onto the knuckle to cast off the headline.
On the night of 21 November 1870, C.W. ARMSTRONG (wooden propeller steam tug, 57 foot, 33 tons, built in 1856, at Albany, New York) burned at her dock at Bay City, Michigan. No lives were lost.
More incidents from the Big Gale of 1879. On 21 November 1879, The Port Huron Times reported "The schooner MERCURY is ashore at Pentwater. The schooner LUCKY is high and dry at Manistee; the schooner WAUBASHENE is on the beach east of Port Colborne. The schooner SUMATRA is on the beach at Cleveland; the large river tug J P Clark capsized and sunk at Belle Isle in the Detroit River on Wednesday [19 Nov.] and sank in 15 minutes. One drowned. The schooner PINTO of Oakville, Ontario, stone laden, went down in 30 feet of water about one mile down from Oakville. At Sand beach the barge PRAIRIE STATE is rapidly going to pieces.
1883: The boiler exploded aboard the salvage tug ERIE BELLE while working to free the schooner J.N. CARTER in the Kincardine area of Lake Huron. The former was wrecked but the boiler is still on what has become known as “Old Boiler Beach”.
1902: BANNOCKBURN disappeared on Lake Superior without a trace. Its final resting place has never been found.
1906: The wooden steamer RESOLUTE anchored off the Eastern Gap at Toronto to ride out a storm but the wind switched battering the vessel until it sank. The hull was salvaged in October 1907 and rebuilt as the JOHN ROLPH.
1936: HIBOU was lost in Owen Sound Bay within two miles of the dock and seven perished. The hull was refloated in 1942.
1941: HENRY C. DARYAW, requisitioned for war and on its delivery voyage stranded on rocks in the Brockville Narrows, rolled over and slid off into deep water and sank. It was to have been used on the east coast as a tender for ocean ships. One life was lost.
1957: MONTFAUCON was built at Wyandotte, MI in 1920 and later operated on the Great Lakes as b) E.M. BUNCE. It was at Naples, Italy, as g) ANNA MARIA IEVOLI when an internal explosion caused damage that led to the ship being scrapped.
1959: MOSES GAY was built at Duluth in 1943. It was severely damaged as e) HEANGURA in a storm at Ostra Kvarken, Sweden, and went aground. While salvaged, the ship was tied up at Turku, Finland, and sold for scrap in January 1960.
1961: The British freighter RAPALLO was anchored at Istanbul, Turkey, when struck and damaged by two different freighters, both out of control due to high winds. The vessel was repaired and began Seaway trading in 1963 for the Ellerman Wilson Line.
1961: The former Paterson canaller GANANDOC left the Great Lakes as b) SUGARLAND in October 1961. It had a brief career in the south and went aground at Arcas Reef, Bay of Campeche, while inbound for Coatzacoalcos, Mexico with 2,877 tons of phosphoric rock from Tampa. The ship was abandoned on November 26 as a total loss.
1962: BRO, a Norwegian pre-Seaway visitor as early as 1953, was abandoned by the crew after taking a severe list en route from Seville, Spain, to Rotterdam, Netherlands. The ship was taken in tow, reached Lisbon, Portugal, and was repaired.
1982: CAPTAIN PANAGOS D.P. went aground at Farasan Island in the Red Sea en route from Trois Rivieres, QC to Bandar Abbas, Iran. Fire broke out in the engine room and the ship was gutted. The hull was refloated and was noted lying off Qatar “derelict” in December 1986 and finally scrapped at Gadani Beach, Pakistan, as c) JENNY in 1988. The vessel first came through the Seaway as PANAGOS D. PATERAS in 1977 and returned as CAPTAIN PANAGOS D.P. in 1980.
1994: The Russian freighter FASTOV, upbound for Green Bay with pulpwood on its first trip to the Great Lakes, lost power and struck the Shell dock at Corunna, ON, resulting in considerable damage to the structure. The vessel returned inland as d) EVANGELOS in 1999 and was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey, as f) JONA in 2011.
2007: The engine aboard the Lake Erie passenger ship JIIMAAN became disabled after the vessel snagged a fish net off Kingsville and the vessel grounded briefly.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 22, 2013 6:06:40 GMT -5
Port Reports - November 22
Marquette, Ohio - Rod Burdick
Kaye E. Barker arrived and loaded ore at the Upper Harbor on Thursday.
Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
The pilothouse was carefully hoisted off the St. Marys Challenger on Wednesday and placed on the dock at Bay Shipbuilding. There's no word on where the structure will ultimately end up. The stack was removed on Thursday. The 107-year-old former steamer is undergoing conversion to a barge this winter.
Saginaw River - Todd Shorkey
Thalassa Desgagnes arrived on the Saginaw River Thursday morning. She initially turned in the Essexville basin and was off the Port Fisher Fertilizer dock. She is now backed into the slip at Bay Aggregates in Bay City.
Owen Sound, Ont. - Shane Ruther
Mississagi arrived Wednesday to unloaded 11,000 tons of road salt from Goderich.
Toledo, Ohio - Jim Hoffman
The saltwater vessels Three Rivers and Wicko are unloading cargo at the Midwest Overseas Terminal Dock. The tug Michigan with the barge Great Lakes is at the B-P Dock. The tug Petite Forte with the barge St. Marys Cement is unloading cement at the St. Marys Cement Dock. The tanker Algosea is in drydock at Ironhead Shipyard. Whitefish Bay is loading grain at Andersons K Elevator. Cedarglen is at Andersons E. Elevator. Capt. Henry Jackman is at anchor at the western end of Lake Erie. She may have a cargo of potash to unload at Andersons K. Elevator. The saltwater vessel Drawsko is also at anchor at the western end of Lake Erie waiting for dock space at Toledo. The next vessels due in at the CSX Coal Docks will be the Robert S. Pierson on Friday, H. Lee White on Saturday, James L. Kuber on Tuesday, Saginaw on Wednesday, Lakes Contender on Thanksgiving Day, and Kaye E. Barker on Friday. The next scheduled ore boats due in at the Torco Ore Dock will be Whitefish Bay on Monday, 2 Dec. followed by the Atlantic Erie, James R. Barker and Lakes Contender on Wednesday, 4 Dec.
Sandusky & Marblehead, Ohio - Jim Spencer
Michipicoten loaded Thursday at the NS coal dock in Sandusky. She was expected to sail late in the day for the Canadian Soo. The self-unloader arrived shortly after midnight Wednesday. At Marblehead, the tug Dorothy Ann and barge Pathfinder sailed shortly before noon for Cleveland. Thursday afternoon, the tug John Francis was at the dock with an unnamed barge. The Lafarge Quarry crew was loading the barge with stone destined for an unspecified lakeshore construction project.
Port Colborne, Ont.
Algomas Quebecois arrived Thursday morning at the Marine Recycling Corp. scrapyard. The Molly M. 1 was on the bow, with Seahound and Vac on the stern.
Sorel, Que.
Reports indicate that idle Phoenix Sun has been sold to Goldrich Waters International Shipping of Hong Kong. It is not known if the new owner tends to run the saltwater-built vessel (formerly Sagittarius and VSL Centurion), or send her for scrap. Fleetmate Phoenix Star was scrapped earlier this year in a Toledo drydock.
Coast Guard set to load more than 1,200 Christmas trees onto Mackinaw for transit to Chicago
11/22 - Cheboygan, Mich. – The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw is scheduled to load 1,220 Christmas trees onto the ship at its homeport of Cheboygan, Mich., on Nov. 25, in preparation for the 2013 Christmas Ship celebration.
The trees will be transported to Chicago where they will be offloaded on the morning of Dec.7 following a public ceremony at Navy Pier. The trees will be given to nonprofit organizations, selected by members of the Chicago maritime community, then given to deserving families.
The journey and ceremony honors the traditions of the Rouse Simmons, the original Christmas Ship, which sank between Kewaunee and Two Rivers, Wis. on Nov. 23, 1912 in a storm during its annual transit from northern Wisconsin to Chicago.
The trip coincides with the Mackinaws annual seasonal buoy operations in southern Lake Michigan in support of Operation Fall Retrieve, the nations largest domestic aids to navigation recovery operation. During the transit to Chicago, the crew of the Mackinaw will conduct a wreath laying ceremony near the wreck of the Rouse Simmons to honor the ship and its crew.
“The crew and I are looking forward in participating in this years event.” We feel it’s an extremely worthwhile cause,” said Cmdr. Michael Davanzo, the ships commanding officer.
Today in Great Lakes History - November 22
In 1947, the Canadian tanker BRUCE HUDSON broke down shortly after departing Port Stanley, Ont. The U.S. tanker ROCKET, Captain R. B. Robbins, managed to get a line on the HUDSON and tow her 50 miles through high seas and a snow storm to shelter behind Point Pelee. Later, the tug ATOMIC arrived on scene and towed the Hudson to Toledo for repairs.
On 22 November 1860, WABASH VALLEY (wooden propeller, 592 tons, built in 1856, at Buffalo, New York) was caught in a blizzard and gale off Muskegon, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. Her skipper thought they were off Grand Haven and as he steamed to the harbor, visibility dropped to near zero. The vessel ran onto the beach. Her momentum and the large storm waves carried her well up onto the beach where she broke in two. Her machinery was salvaged and went into the new steamer SUNBEAM.
Scrapping of SPRUCEGLEN, a.) WILLIAM K. FIELD was completed on November 22, 1986, by Lakehead Scrap Metal Co. at Thunder Bay Ontario. SPRUCEGLEN was the last Canadian coal-fired bulker.
On 22 November 1869, CREAM CITY (3-mast wooden bark, 629 tons, built in 1862, at Sheboygan, Wisconsin) was carrying wheat in a gale when she lost her way and went ashore on Drummond Island. She appeared to be only slightly damaged, but several large pumps were unable to lower the water in her hull. She was finally abandoned as a total wreck on 8 December. She was built as a "steam bark" with an engine capable of pushing her at 5 or 6 mph. After two months of constant minor disasters, this was considered an unsuccessful experiment and the engine was removed.
CITY OF MILWAUKEE was chartered to the Ann Arbor Railroad Co. and started the Frankfort, Michigan-Kewaunee, Wisconsin service for them on November 22, 1978.
November 22, 1929 - CITY OF SAGINAW 31 went out on her sea trials.
On 22 November 1860, CIRCASSIAN (wooden schooner, 135 foot, 366 tons, built in 1856, at Irving, New York) was carrying grain in a gale and blizzard on Lake Michigan when she stranded on White Shoals near Beaver Island. She sank to her decks and then broke in two. Her crew was presumed lost, but actually made it to Hog Island in the blizzard and they were not rescued from there for two weeks.
A final note from the Big Gale of 1879. On 22 November 1879, The Port Huron Times reported, "The barge DALTON is still high and dry on the beach at Point Edward."
1878: The wooden passenger and freight steamer WAUBUNO was lost with all hands, 14 crew and 10 passengers, on Georgian Bay.
1898: ARTHUR ORR went aground on Isle Royale when the steering gear failed in a severe storm. It was later released and survived until scrapping at Hamilton in 1947-1948.
1898: S.S. CURRY was leaking badly after it struck a reef off Duck Island, Lake Huron.
1906: J.H. JONES, en route from Owen Sound to Lions Head, was lost with all hands. The wooden passenger and freight steamer went down in 60 mph winds.
1907: Fire broke out aboard the wooden freighter LIZZIE MADDEN shortly after clearing Bay City for Little Current. The crew was rescued by the LANGELL BOYS. The burning hull drifted ashore on Little Charity Island in Saginaw Bay and was a total loss.
1911: JOLIET sank in the St. Clair River following a collision with the HENRY PHIPPS. It had been anchored due to fog when hit and all on board were saved. The remains were dynamited as a hazard to navigation.
1919: The wooden steamer MYRON sank off Crisp Point, Lake Superior and 17 crew were lost.
1950: The former Canada Steamship Lines canaller MAPLETON was destroyed at the Port of Suez, Egypt as b) EASTERN MED when a fire broke out while loading oil drums. The remains of the ship were scrapped.
1975: PIERSON DAUGHTERS hit bottom off North Colban Island in the St. Lawrence and had to go to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs after unloading the cargo of iron ore at Conneaut.
1988: The Dutch flag freighter POOLSTER first came through the Seaway in 1969. It suffered an engineroom fire off Kuwait as e) ATLANTIC REEFER while bound for Dubai on this date. The badly damaged ship was towed to Sharjah and then sold for scrap. It was renamed f) VOYAGER I for the trip to Gadani Beach, Pakistan, and the vessel arrived April 4, 1989, for dismantling.
1998: SPAR OPAL went aground inside the breakwall at Port Colborne due to high winds and was released by the tugs UNDAUNTED and WELLAND. The ship had also been a Seaway trader beginning in 1984 as a) LAKE SHIDAKA, in 1991 as b) CONSENSUS ATLANTIC, and in 1992 as c) FEDERAL MATANE (i). It began Great Lakes service as e) SPAR OPAL in 1997.
2000: PRINSES IRENE of the Oranje Lijn made 16 trips into the Great Lakes, with passengers and freight, from 1959 through 1963. The vessel was observed beached at Jakarta, Indonesia, as c) TANJUNG OSINA on this date and appeared to be badly rusted and burned out. The hull was later reported to have been broken up.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 25, 2013 6:16:01 GMT -5
National Freight Advisory Committee endorses full use of Harbor Maintenance Tax
11/25 - The National Freight Advisory Committee has unanimously approved a recommendation to pass legislation that will ensure that the Harbor Maintenance Tax is utilized for its intended purpose – to keep the nation’s harbors and channels dredged and maintained at their maximum authorized depth for the safe shipping of commerce.
The resolution was championed by Paul C. LaMarre III, Executive Director of the Port of Monroe, Michigan.
The Harbor Maintenance Tax is a user fee collected by the U.S. Government to ensure the adequate maintenance and operations of the national waterway infrastructure. In recent years, more fees have been collected than expended and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund contains a surplus of $8.2 billion.
At the same time, there is a growing backlog of dredging needs throughout the nation’s harbors. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently reported that almost 30 percent of commercial vessel calls at U.S. ports are constrained due to inadequate channel depths. U.S. ports have expressed the need for a consistent dredging plan – which is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The recommendation made by the Committee will go to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to present to the hateful muslim traitor Administration. This recommendation is consistent with President hateful muslim traitor’s goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015.
The American Great Lakes Ports Association
Studies provide no certainty in Griffon shipwreck search
11/25 - Traverse City, Mich. – Five months after divers searched a remote section of Lake Michigan for a mysterious 17th century ship and retrieved a wooden slab the group leader believes is part of the vessel, it is still uncertain whether they are on the right track.
The object of the week-long mission in June was the Griffon, built by the legendary French explorer La Salle, which disappeared in 1679 with a six-member crew, becoming the oldest known shipwreck in the upper Great Lakes. The dive team dug a deep hole at the base of the nearly 20-foot-long timber, which was wedged vertically into the lake floor, hoping other wreckage was beneath. To their disappointment, they found nothing.
Since then, the beam has undergone a CT scan at a Michigan hospital. A wooden sliver has been sent to a Florida lab for carbon-14 analysis. Three French experts who participated in the expedition have completed a report. Others are in the works, as scientists who have examined the slab or data from the tests compile their findings. Thus far, most have declined to take a position on whether the Griffon has been found.
Based on the totality of the scientific results thus far, as well as historical research, to this point there are still two valid theories about the wooden beam, said Ken Vrana, who served as project manager for the expedition. It could be part of a ship, or a pound net stake an underwater fishing apparatus used in the Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Dean Anderson, Michigan’s state archaeologist, who has long been skeptical that the beam came from the Griffon, told The Associated Press last week he is convinced the latter alternative is correct. “I’m looking at the evidence and the evidence is pointing to a net stake,” Anderson said. “I’m not seeing any evidence of a vessel element here.”
That theory is hotly disputed by Steve Libert, president of Great Lakes Exploration Group, who has spent three decades and more than $1 million on his quest for the Griffon. He contends the slab is a bowsprit – a spur or pole that extends from a vessel’s stem – which broke off and was jammed into the lake bed as the ship sank during a violent storm.
“I am very confident that this piece is from the Griffon,” Libert said, “dismissing the net stake idea as “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.”
His view is bolstered by findings of the French team, which included Michel L’Hour, director of the Department of Underwater Archaeological Research in the French Ministry of Culture and an authority on shipwrecks. Their report, which L’Hour shared with the AP, casts doubt on the stake theory, noting that the slab doesn’t have a sharp, pointed end typical of submerged stakes found elsewhere. Instead, it has a sloping beveled end similar to those of bowsprits of wrecked European vessels from the 16th and 17th centuries that have been recovered, the report says.
It draws no conclusion about whether the timber came from the Griffon but says it has other characteristics consistent with a bowsprit from the period, including its length. Additionally, it says the section of the timber that protruded from the lakebed appears to have eroded for one or several centuries.
In August, Libert arranged to have the slab x-rayed with a CT scan machine at Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord, hoping to obtain tree ring images that would determine its age. Only 29 rings were visible. Carol Griggs, a Cornell University expert in using ring patterns to date trees, said at least 50 were needed for an accurate measurement. So yet again, the results were inconclusive.
Libert also sent a sliver from the timbers interior to Beta Analytical Inc., a Miami company that performs carbon-14 tests on archaeological and geological artifacts. The results were similar to radiocarbon analysis performed on other pieces from the slab a decade ago. They found the wood could have originated from any of several periods between 1670 and 1950.
Darden Hood, the company’s president, said in an interview it could be misleading to narrow down the time range any further.
So the results are not in any way definitive, Hood said in a letter to Libert. They must be used as one line of evidence along with others to hopefully provide you with a solution.
But William Lovis, a Michigan State University anthropology professor who reviewed the findings at Anderson’s request, said a computer program that uses tree-ring data to refine carbon-14 test results indicates a greater likelihood that the timber came from the 1800s than the late 1600s. Vrana, the project manager, acknowledged that it does not appear that the timber may be as old as the Griffon.
Libert, however, said the carbon-14 findings support his position by failing to rule out that the beam dates from the 17th century. He said that fact, combined with other historical and archaeological data, makes a strong case that hes recovered the Griffon bowsprit and that other wreckage is waiting to be found in the same area. He plans to resume the search next spring.
“This would be probably the most important archaeological find in this country’s history,” he said.
Detroit News
Lookback #8 – Rouse Simmons, famed Christmas tree ship, sailed November 25, 1913
11/25 - The wooden schooner Rouse Simmons cleared Thompson Harbor, near Manistique, Mich., on November 25, 1913, loaded with Christmas trees for the Chicago market. The 45-year-old vessel was spotted several times in obvious distress on the stormy lake but it could not be reached for aid and disappeared with all hands, a total of 16 sailors, likely on November 26.
Area fisherman found spruce and balsam trees in their nets the following spring and some years later a wallet from one of the crewmen washed up on shore.
The hull of the 130-foot-long sailing ship was discovered by divers, apparently in 1971, and today the U.S. Coast Guard remembers the fabled “Christmas Tree Ship” by delivering trees to Chicago at this time of year.
Skip Gillham
Today in Great Lakes History - November 25
In 1890, the WESTERN RESERVE delivered a record cargo of 95,488 bushels of wheat from Duluth to Buffalo.
In 1913, the schooner ROUSE SIMMONS, Captain August Schuenemann, departed Thompson Harbor (Michigan) with a load of fresh cut Christmas trees bound for Chicago. Somewhere between Kewaunee and Two Rivers, Wis., the SIMMONS was lost with all hands.
On 25 November 1857, ANTELOPE (wooden schooner, 220 tons, built in 1854, at Port Robinson, Ontario) was driven ashore by a gale near St. Joseph, Michigan. Five lives were lost. She was recovered the next year and rebuilt.
INCAN SUPERIOR was withdrawn from service after completing 2,386 trips between Thunder Bay and Superior and on November 25, 1992, she passed down bound at Sault Ste. Marie for service on the Canadian West Coast. Renamed PRINCESS SUPERIOR in 1993.
ROBERT C. STANLEY was laid up for the last time November 25, 1981, at the Tower Bay Slip, Superior, Wisconsin. She was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey in 1989.
CITY OF MILWAUKEE (Hull#261) was launched November 25, 1930, at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. She was sponsored by Mrs. Walter J. Wilde, wife of the collector of customs at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She entered service in January of 1931.
On 25 November 1866, F. W. BACKUS (wooden propeller, 133 foot, 289 tons, built in 1846, at Amherstburg, Ontario) was carrying hay, horses and cattle off Racine, Wisconsin. She was run to the beach when it was discovered that she was on fire. Her crew and passengers disembarked. The tug DAISY LEE towed her out while she was still burning, intending to scuttle her, but the towline burned through and she drifted back to shore and burned to the waterline. Her live cargo was pushed overboard while she was still well out and they swam to shore.
On 25 November 1874, WILLIAM SANDERSON (wooden schooner, 136 foot, 385 gross tons, built in 1853, at Oswego, New York) was carrying wheat in a storm on Lake Michigan when she foundered. The broken wreck washed ashore off Empire, Michigan, near Sleeping Bear. She was owned by Scott & Brown of Detroit.
During a storm on 25 November 1895, MATTIE C. BELL (wooden schooner, 181 foot, 769 gross tons, built in 1882, at E. Saginaw, Michigan) was in tow of the steamer JIM SHERRIFS on Lake Michigan. The schooner stranded at Big Summer Island, was abandoned in place and later broke up. No lives were lost.
On 25 Nov 1947, the CAPTAIN JOHN ROEN was renamed c.) ADAM E. CORNELIUS by the American Steamship Co. in 1958, CORNELIUS was renamed d.) CONSUMERS POWER. Eventually sold to Erie Sand, she was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1988. Built in 1927, as a.) GEORGE M. HUMPHERY.
On 25 Nov 1905, the JOSEPH G. BUTLER JR (steel straight-deck bulk freighter, 525 foot, 6,588 gross tons) entered service, departing Lorain, Ohio, for Duluth on her maiden voyage. The vessel was damaged in a severe storm on that first crossing of Lake Superior, but she was repaired and had a long career. She was renamed DONALD B GILLIES in 1935, and GROVEDALE in 1963. She was sunk as a dock in Hamilton in 1973, and finally sold for scrap in 1981.
1904: B.W. BLANCHARD stranded near Alpena, MI and was wrecked. The ship had become unmanageable in heavy weather while enroute to Detroit with a cargo of lumber and was a total loss.
1908: NORTH STAR sank in Lake Huron off Port Sanilac after a collision with NORTHERN QUEEN. The accident occurred in dense fog and the ship went down quickly. All were saved.
1927: THOUSAND ISLANDER cleared Sarnia for Midland under tow of C.S.L. fleetmate COLLINGWOOD and they encountered heavy weather on Lake Huron. The ship was overwhelmed southeast of Thunder Bay Island and sank.
1950: The cargo of steel and package freight aboard the C.S.L. steamer WEYBURN shifted on Lake Ontario in a wild fall storm and the ship took on a precarious list and almost capsized. The ship was escorted to Toronto by RENVOYLE where the problem was corrected.
1971: The Greek freighter ESTIA sank on the Caribbean north of French Guiana after a violent engine room explosion. The ship was bound for Brazil with phosphates and all on board were saved. The vessel had been a Great Lakes visitor as MANCHESTER SPINNER beginning in 1963.
2003: The yacht ALISON LAKE, rebuilt at Toronto from the U.S. Coast Guard ship SAUK, hit a submerged object and sank in very deep water south of Key West, FL. All on board were rescued.
Coast Guard medevacs man in Straits of Mackinac
11/24 - Cleveland, Ohio – A Coast Guard boat crew medically evacuated a man Saturday afternoon from a commercial vessel in the Straits of Mackinac. His name was not released.
At 1 p.m., a search-and-rescue controller at the Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste Marie, Mich., was contacted by the captain of the motor vessel Burns Harbor, a 1,000-foot ship owned by American Steamship Co., requesting assistance with the medical evacuation of a 37-year-old man. The man was reportedly suffering abdominal pains and had collapsed and lost consciousness for two minutes. After conferring with the on-duty flight surgeon, the ship was directed to make way for St. Ignace, Mich., where they would be met by a Coast Guard boat that would take the man to safety.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. the Burns Harbor, which had just passed west under the Mackinac Bridge, turned around and headed back east. After passing under the bridge, it turned north toward St. Igance, slowly approached Coast Guard Station St. Ignace and met up with the CG 45-foot RB-M. When the vessel got just off the station it turned sharply to the east and held its position, where it blocked the waves for the RB-M to remove the crewman. Weather at the time in Straits had winds gusting over 30 mph, temperatures in the teens and rough seas.
The rescue crew transferred the man to the rescue boat. The man was taken to the Coast Guard station where EMS transported him to the Mackinac Straits Rural Health Clinic in St. Ignace. The man was last known to be in stable condition.
USCG, Bob McGreevy
Maritime community mourns loss of Badger’s popular captain
11/23 - Captain Dean Hobbs, senior captain of the carferry Badger and a well-known master mariner on the Great Lakes, passed away Thursday evening as a result of a heart attack while playing hockey.
The family of Captain Hobbs, which includes his wife Brenda, shared this statement Friday:
We are deeply saddened by the unexpected passing of our dear husband and dad, Captain Dean Hobbs. He died on Thursday evening, November 21, while enjoying a game of hockey, one of his favorite pastimes.
He knew the Great Lakes inside and out and took great pride in his job as a captain on the SS Badger and every ship he helmed. He was an exceptional friend, sailor, father and husband. … The lakes and our lives will not be the same without him and we will miss him forever.
At the time of his death he was secretary of International Shipmasters Association Lodge 23 in Traverse City. He served as ISMA Grand Lodge president in 1999.
Captain Hobbs was a graduate of, and an instructor at, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy and also held a bachelor’s degree from the Maine Maritime Academy. In 1976 he became the youngest licensed captain on the Great Lakes.
Besides his position on board the Badger, he was senior trial master for Marinette Marine Corporation, and assisted in the sea trails and delivery of many of its new vessels, including nearly 24 new U.S. Coast Guard cutters and several U.S. Navy Littoral combat ships.
He owned the sea trial and vessel delivery company, ABCD Marine LLC. One of his most recent projects was the delivery of the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fishery research vessel Reuben Lasker.
Early in in his Great Lakes career, he sailed with and was in fleet operations for the Inland Steel and American Oil Co. (AMOCO) fleets. Captain Hobbs started working for Lake Michigan Carferry, the Badger’s owner, in 1995. He served as relief master of the tug Ken Boothe Sr. for the early part of the 2012 shipping season.
He graduated from Sault Area High School, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., in 1972. He was a staunch supporter of the Boatnerd site and graciously welcomed many visitors to Badger’s pilothouse during the group’s annual Boatnerd crossing, and often led tours of the boat.
A statement Friday evening from Lake Michigan Carferry reads as follows: “Captain Hobbs was our Senior Captain for 17 years and took great pride in providing a safe and memorable experience for the passengers and crew aboard the S.S. Badger. His maritime knowledge, commanding presence and commitment to Lake Michigan Carferry Service will be profoundly missed.”
A funeral will be held sometime next week for close friends and family, and arrangements will be made for a larger maritime memorial service at the beginning of 2014, according to the family.
Badger Captain Dean Hobbs remembered as “master” on the lakes, stellar man
11/24 - Ludington, Mich. – Senior Captain Dean Hobbs of Lake Michigan Carferry’s SS Badger wasn’t just a ship captain, he was one of the best there was.
Rear Admiral John Tanner, former superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, said next month would have made 40 years that he knew Hobbs and that there wasn’t a better captain or better person around.
Hobbs, 59, died around 10 p.m. Thursday night after suffering a heart attack during a senior men’s league hockey game.
Tanner said he met Hobbs in 1973 when he was a ship’s officer and visited the GLMA to talk to a student group. In 1974, Tanner joined the faculty and he remained a faculty member through Hobbs’ graduation in 1976. They maintained a relationship over the years as Hobbs advanced his career as a mariner and Tanner advanced to take over one of only six mariners’ academies in the U.S.
Tanner and GLMA Director of Enrollment John Berck said Hobbs was a true mariner in every sense of the word.
From the academy he took a job with Amoco, which had three ships hauling petroleum products around the Great Lakes. He was a manager with the company.
Hobbs joined Lake Michigan Carferry in 1995, the same year that Tanner took over the GLMA.
“It was a perfect marriage,” Tanner said of Hobbs. “He was the right personality type at the right time in his life. Things line up in a person’s life and he enjoyed that immensely.”
Part of the job that Hobbs enjoyed most was telling people about his ship and the history of the Great Lakes. It was not uncommon to see him speaking with passengers on cross-lake trips.
“I can tell you he did that for people in all walks of life,” Tanner said. “Sometimes people will just talk to people who only benefit them. Dean talked to everybody. He talked to people he knew would never, ever help him, which is the definition of a true gift.”
Tanner said the Badger is an important vessel for a number of reasons.
“It has a historic value, it has a mystique about it — the general public loves that vessel — I can speak for people all through Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin. If it’s one of the 1,000-footers, they see that on the lake or maybe in the locks, but the Badger, what makes it so unique, is that the people who love ships can go aboard and touch it and talk to the captain as members of the general public and that’s where Dean was a master.”
Tanner said the GLMA’s school ship happened to be in Marinette, Wis., when Hobbs was getting ready to deliver a ferry bound for Staten Island, New York.
“Dean treated all the cadets to breakfast,” Tanner said. “Stuff that he did, things he didn’t have to do. Spending time with cadets who he didn’t have to, taking them to breakfast, for those 12 cadets it meant the world to them.”
Tanner said Hobbs never stopped giving back to the academy that taught him his skills. “He probably helped Great Lakes Maritime Academy more than any other graduate,” Tanner said. “Whatever I would ask, whether as a faculty member or a superintendent, he was there.”
Hobbs served as an adjunct instructor at the GLMA and was very engaged in the history of the industry.
“He paid attention to the history of the Badger and the history of the Great Lakes,” Tanner said. “In fact there’s an organization that goes back to 1886 called the International Shipmasters Association — he was grand president of that in 1999 or 2000. That’s a very prestigious title. Shipmasters from around Lakes elected him president which was a huge thing.”
Hobbs also helped establish a shipmasters lodge, No. 23, in Traverse City.
“He was just involved in so much. He did so much to help other people,” Tanner said. “He was a good shipmate aboard ship, he was a good captain but I know personally he helped so many mariners who needed a boost in their confidence and give them help in their lives.
“Life’s not fair. Somebody who did that should live a long life and Dean can’t, but Dean was there for people.”
Piloting a 410-foot vessel across Lake Michigan thousands of times is not the easy task that it may seem to observers. Tanner, who was third officer on the first 1,000-foot vessel on the Great Lakes, said people don’t understand the skill involved in bringing the SS Badger back and forth between Ludington and Manitowoc.
“The skills he had were world class,” Tanner said. “I was fortunate enough to be on the first 1,000-footer on the Great Lakes. I know the dynamics of ship handling of a lot of different vessels. When a ship doesn’t have a bow thruster, when they pivot on an anchor (like the Badger does), it’s world-class seamanship. It’s world class. There are very few people in the world who can do that, that’s how impressive it is, the handling of the Badger.”
Tanner said he had a group of mariners from Washington, D.C., on the Badger and they watched with mouths agape as the vessel was docked by pivoting on the anchor chain.
Hobbs had an unlimited tonnage master’s license and credentials for ocean-going vessels as well.
“He did work for the shipyard in Marinette on some government vessels, some very high-end navy vessels,” Tanner said.
“He was always there whenever we needed help with an academic program or volunteer opportunity,” GLMA’s Berck added. “I’ve known Captain Hobbs, Dean, for so many years. I loved Dean and it’s just such a shock. Our concerns are now with his wife, Brenda, and their children.”
Berck said it was a tradition to bring the new class of cadets down from the GLMA each year and cross the lake on the Badger, and Hobbs made it a special experience for them every time.
“Captain Hobbs would go out of his way with all these incoming cadets and give them all kinds of inside knowledge and speak with them,” Berck said. “We’re certainly going to miss him.
Hobbs was someone who cadets or instructors could reach out to with questions or for advice or help.
“He was really somebody who was always there as a liaison with the industry for the school,” Berck said. “He was proud of what happened for him here and the direction it took him in the industry but he was just a very humble fellow — as many successful people are. He was just a wonderful friend and supporter with the school.”
“He liked organizing things,” Tanner said. “He worked and dabbled and did all sorts of things.”
“He was very active in a lot of those things — he loved hockey. In fact, he helped set up a hockey game we held for years at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy between the cadets and the alumni. Dean was a goalie and he just loved that.”
Hobbs also arranged in May of 2003 to have the school’s ship meet the Badger for a salute between the ships outside Ludington’s harbor in 2003. He arranged it so the school ship’s first port of call on a trip around the lake that year was Ludington.
“I was very proud of that and so was Dean Hobbs,” Tanner said.
Berck said Hobbs was extremely knowledgeable and for years he tried to get him to write a book. He said he’ll be missed.
“It’s a close-knit, small industry and you won’t find anyone who doesn’t think he was one of the best captains in the industry but also one of the best people in the industry,” Berck said. “Forget the maritime, forget everything else, he was just a quality person who would do the heavy lifting behind the scenes for people he didn’t even know,” Berck said.
Ludington Daily News
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 26, 2013 5:51:45 GMT -5
Today in Great Lakes History - November 26
In 1952, the PHILIP R. CLARKE was launched at the American Ship Building yard at Lorain, Ohio. The 647- foot-long freighter became the flagship of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. She was lengthened by 120 feet in 1974 and converted to a self-unloader in 1982.
On 26 November 1856, CHEROKEE (2-mast wooden schooner, 103 foot, 204 tons, built in 1849, at Racine, Wisconsin) foundered in a gale 7 miles south of Manistee, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. All aboard (estimates range from ten to fourteen persons) were lost.
The U.S.C.G.C. MESQUITE departed Charlevoix and locked through the Soo on November 26, 1989, to begin SUNDEW's normal buoy tending duties on Lake Superior.
The ELIZABETH HINDMAN was launched November 26, 1920, as a.) GLENCLOVA (Hull#9) at Midland, Ontario, by Midland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.
On 26 November 1872, the steamer GEO W. REYNOLDS burned at 1 in the morning at the dock in Bay City. The fire supposedly originated in the engine room. She was owned by A. English of East Saginaw.
On 26 November 1853, ALBANY (wooden side wheel passenger/package freight, 202 foot, 669 tons, built in 1846, at Detroit, Michigan) was carrying passengers and miscellaneous cargo in a storm on Lake Huron.. She was making for the shelter of Presque Isle harbor when the gale drove her over a bar. Her crew and 200 passengers came ashore in her boats. Plans were made to haul her back across the bar when another storm wrecked her. Her boiler and most of her machinery were recovered the following year.
LAKE BREEZE (wooden propeller, 122 foot, 301 gross tons, built in 1868, at Toledo, Ohio) burned at her dock in Leamington, Ontario, on 26 November 1878. One man perished in the flames. She was raised in 1880, but the hull was deemed worthless. Her machinery and metal gear were removed in 1881, and sold to an American company.
The ANN ARBOR NO 5 (steel carferry, 359 foot, 2,988 gross tons) was launched by the Toledo Ship Building Company (Hull #118) on 26 Nov 1910. She was the first carferry to be built with a sea gate, as a result of the sinking of the PERE MARQUETTE 18 in September of 1910.
On 26 Nov 1881, JANE MILLER (wooden propeller passenger-package freight coaster, 78 foot, 210 gross tons, built in 1878, at Little Current, Ontario) departed Meaford, Ontario, for Wiarton - sailing out into the teeth of a gale and was never seen again. All 30 aboard were lost. She probably sank near the mouth of Colpoy's Bay in Georgian Bay. She had serviced the many small ports on the inside coast of the Bruce Peninsula.
HIRAM W. SIBLEY (wooden propeller freighter, 221 foot, 1,419 gross tons, built in 1890, at E. Saginaw, Michigan) was carrying 70,000 bushels of corn from Chicago for Detroit. On 26 Nov 1898, she stranded on the northwest corner of South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan during blizzard. (Some sources say this occurred on 27 November.) The tugs PROTECTOR and SWEEPSTAKES were dispatched for assistance but the SIBLEY refloated herself during the following night and then began to sink again. She was put ashore on South Fox Island to save her but she broke in half; then completely broke up during a gale on 7 December 1898.
During the early afternoon of 26 Nov 1999, the LOUIS R. DESMARAIS suffered an engine room fire while sailing in the western section of Lake Ontario. Crews onboard the DESMARAIS put out the fire and restarted her engines. The DESMARAIS proceeded to the Welland Canal where she was inspected by both U.S. and Canadian investigators. No significant damage was noted and the vessel was allowed to proceed.
1924: The wooden steamer J.C. FORD was destroyed by a fire while on the St. Marys River near DeTour.
1940: The coal-laden CHEYENNE went aground in a storm near Port Colborne while enroute to Montreal. The ship was released on December 1. It last sailed as c) SORELDOC (ii) in 1965 before being scrapped at Hamilton.
1942: L.E. BLOCK went aground in the Straits of Mackinac during a snowstorm.
1951: JOHN H. PRICE was at Ste. Anne des Monts to load pulpwood when a storm swept the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The ship broke loose early the next day, drifted to shore and was pounded on the rocks. All on board were saved and the vessel was refloated May 30, 1952.
1964: The Norwegian tanker STOLT DAGALI, a Seaway caller as a) DAGALI in 1960-1962, was sliced in two by the passenger vessel SHALOM about 28 miles southeast of the Ambrose Channel Light Vessel. The stern of the tanker sank but the bow was rebuilt using the stern of the C.T. GODSTAD that had grounding damage. The rebuilt ship resumed sailing as STOLT LADY.
1979: Despite clear visibility, PIERSON DAUGHTERS and JABLANICA collided off Alexandria Bay, NY, and both ships were damaged. The latter went aground on Broadway Shoal and had to be lightered before being released. It was a regular Seaway trader and was also back as b) ELLIE beginning in 1993. The ship was scrapped at Alang, India, as d) PINE TRADER in 2009.
1981: EURO PRINCESS, a Seaway trader beginning in 1976, went aground in the Atlantic near Sable Island and the crew of 26 was airlifted to safety. Despite a cracked hull, the ship was refloated and was back on the Great Lakes as c) EUROPEGASUS in 1985 and survived until scrapping in India in 1997-1998.
2000: The former BALSA I, a Seaway trader beginning in 1981, reported taking water off Hainan Island in the South China Sea and sank. The crew was saved by a passing freighter.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 27, 2013 7:05:10 GMT -5
Lookback #10 – Judge Hart stranded in Lake Superior on November 27, 1942
11/27 - The canal-sized steamship Judge Hart stranded on Fitzsimmons Rock, Ashburton Bay, Lake Superior 71 years ago today. The 261-foot-long bulk carrier had loaded 101,500 bushels of grain at Port Arthur and was en route to Toronto.
The ship had gone to anchor off the Welcome Islands in 53 mile per hour winds but stranded by the bow at about 3.50 a.m. The captain kept the engine running to hold the vessel's position in the stormy weather. This enabled the crew to leave in the lifeboats and they were taken aboard fleetmate James B. Eads that was nearby riding out the same storm.
The last of the sailors left on November 28 and, when the engine stopped running, the Judge Hart slid back off the ledge, drifted and sank in deep water.
The hull was not seen again until 1990 when wreck hunters discovered it final resting place. The 1,729- gross-ton ship is at a depth of 150 feet and was in remarkable condition although the stack had tipped over.
Judge Hart was built at Cowes, England, Isle of Wight, and was the first of a series of 10 canal-sized ships launched for the Eastern Steamship Company. It entered the water on April 21, 1923, and sailed to Canada for work in the bulk trades through the old canal system. Judge Hart was sold to the Upper Lakes and St. Lawrence Transportation Co. in 1936, a company known as Upper Lakes Shipping after 1959, and remained in service under its original name until being lost.
Today in Great Lakes History - November 27
At 4:00 a.m. on 27 November 1872, the wooden schooner MIDDLESEX was struck by a terrible winter storm on Lake Superior. The winds caught the vessel with such force that she listed at a 45 degree angle and her cargo shifted. In danger of sinking, the crew jettisoned much of the cargo and the ship righted herself. Her lifeboat and much of her rigging and sails were washed away. She limped into Waiska Bay and anchored to ride out the storm. However, she had developed a leak and it was so cold that her pumps had frozen. To save the vessel, she was run ashore and sank in shallow water. The crew climbed into her rigging until the tug W. D. CUSHING rescued them.
ALGOSEA entered Lake service as a self-unloader for the first time with salt loaded at Goderich, Ontario and passed down bound in the Welland Canal November 27, 1976, for Quebec City.
AVONDALE was condemned and was not allowed to carry cargo after she arrived at Toledo, Ohio on November 27, 1975, to load soybeans.
The steam barge CHAUNCY HURLBUT was launched at the shipyard of Simon Langell at St. Clair, Michigan on Thanksgiving Day, 27 November 1873. She was built for Chandler Bros. of Detroit.
On 27 November 1886, COMANCHE (wooden schooner, 137 foot, 322 tons, built in 1867, at Oswego, New York) was carrying corn in a storm on Lake Ontario when she ran on a shoal and sank near Point Peninsula, New York. A local farmer died while trying to rescue her crew of 8. His was the only death. She was later recovered and rebuilt as THOMAS DOBBIE.
The PERE MARQUETTE 22 collided with the WABASH in heavy fog in 1937.
In 1966, the CITY OF MIDLAND 41 ran aground at Ludington, Michigan in a storm. Stranded on board were a number of passengers and 56 crewmen. Ballast tanks were flooded to hold the steamer on until the storm subsided. She was pulled off four days later by the Roen tug JOHN PURVES.
The propeller MONTGOMERY, which burned in June 1878, was raised on 27 November 1878. Her engine and boiler were removed and she was converted to a barge. She was rebuilt at Algonac, Michigan in the summer of 1879.
On 27 November 1866, the Oswego Advertiser & Times reported that the schooner HENRY FITZHUGH arrived at Oswego, New York with 17,700 bushels of wheat from Milwaukee. Her skipper was Captain Cal Becker. The round trip took 23 days, which was considered "pretty fast sailing".
The CITY OF FLINT 32 was launched in Manitowoc on 27 Nov 1929. Cut down to a rail barge at Nicholson's, Ecorse in 1970, renamed b.) ROANOKE.
On Monday, 27 Nov 1996, the Cyprus flag MALLARD of 1977, up bound, apparently bounced off the wall in the Welland Canal below Lock 1 and into the path of the CANADIAN ENTERPRISE. It was a sideswipe rather than a head on collision. The ENTERPRISE was repaired at Port Weller Dry Docks. The repairs to the gangway and ballast vent pipes took six hours. The MALLARD proceeded to Port Colborne to be repaired there.
At 10:20 p.m. on Monday, 27 Nov. 2000, CANADIAN TRANSFER radioed Soo Traffic to report that the vessel was aground off Algoma Steel and "taking on water but in no danger." The crew reported that they had two anchors down and one line on the dock. Purvis Marine was contacted.
1905: LAFAYETTE stranded at Encampment Island, Lake Superior, broke in two and was a total loss. MANILA, its consort barge, also came ashore but was later salvaged.
1942: JUDGE HART stranded at Fitzsimmons Rock, Ashburton Bay, Lake Superior, enroute to Toronto with 101,500 bushels of grain. All on board were rescued and the ship later slid off the rocks, drifted and sank.
1981: LOUKIA, a Greek flag visitor to the Great Lakes in 1976, arrived at Monrovia, Liberia, as f) DESPOULA and was abandoned. The vessel was looted before being sold for scrap. On September 2, 1982, while under tow for Yugoslavia for dismantling, the vessel broke loose in heavy seas and grounded about 14 miles north of Monrovia.
2006: SPAR OPAL had mechanical problems and ran aground near the Iroquois Lock. It was released on November 29. It did not return through the Seaway in 2007 but was back for two final trips in 2008. The ship was renamed h) ARWAD PRINCESS in 2012 and re-registered in Belize.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Nov 28, 2013 6:02:43 GMT -5
Sherwin propeller installed at National Museum of the Great Lakes
11/28 - Toledo, Ohio – The National Museum of the Great Lakes is pleased to announce the installation of the steamship John Sherwin’s propeller as one of its largest artifacts to go on display at the new museum in Toledo Ohio. The propeller weighs 22 tons and is approximately 22 feet in diameter. The propeller was put on permanent loan to the museum by the Interlake Steamship Co., which owns the boat.
The propeller was cast in Toledo in 1958, when the boat was built for the company at American Shipbuilding in Toledo. When it was cast it is believed to be the largest cast propeller ever built. Christopher Gillcrist, Executive Director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes said he hopes the propeller, which is installed in front of the museum, will become a place where people from all over the world will be photographed. The propeller is also important because it represents one of about 25 artifacts that are detailed at part of the Toledo Trail a specialized tour that highlights artifacts and stories that are connected to Toledo’s history.
The installation of the propeller was made possible by a grant from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, which has been so critical in this project. The City of Toledo Department of Engineering Services managed the installation.
Republic Steel fires up new electric arc furnace
11/28 - Lorain, Ohio – Steel production once again is a hot ticket in South Lorain as Republic Steel has begun melting metal with the company’s new electric arc furnace.
Republic Steel announced Tuesday it has begun hot commissioning of the new furnace, an $85 million investment that is expected to create nearly 450 jobs in the next several years. The furnace will re-heat scrap metal to produce liquid steel.
The Canton-based company already has hired more than 300 workers for the startup and they completed the furnaces first heat Monday night, a Republic Steel spokesman said. The new electric arc furnace will provide more than 1 million tons of steel annually. At full capacity, the new electric arc furnace could melt up to 20 heats per day, said Chris Hoyt, director of sales for Republic Steel.
“It’s the first time in five years we’ve produced liquid steel there, so were pretty excited,” Hoyt said. The project ultimately could bring in more than $1 billion dollars in annual economic activity to Ohio, according to project plans. The existing 489 jobs in Lorain will be retained.
Republic Steel bills itself as the nations leading provider of special bar quality steel used in a variety of applications such as axles, drive shafts, suspension rods and other car parts, off-road vehicles and industrial equipment.
U.S. Steel - located next door to Republic - recently announced it would purchase most of the steel produced by the new furnace. Based on the size of the furnace, there are about 40 new jobs for workers handling scrap metal that goes into the furnace, a spokesman said.
The project was more than two years in the making, with Republic Steel announcing the new furnace in November 2011, the same year the company celebrated 125 years in business.
Morning Journal
Lookback #11 – William E. Corey stranded in Lake Superior on November 28, 1905
11/28 - Wild weather battered the Lake Superior region at the end of November 1905, and a number of ships became casualties 108 years ago. Among those damaged was the newly-built William E. Corey of the recently-created United States Steel fleet.
Named for the president of U.S. Steel and the largest ship on the Great Lakes when it was launched on June 24, 1905, William E. Corey stranded off the Wisconsin shore of Lake Superior on Gull Island Reef on November 28, 1905. Salvagers were dispatched to get the company flagship removed from its perch before the onslaught of winter. The 158 workers succeeded in their efforts and the 569-foot-long bulk carrier was floating freely again on December 10.
William E. Corey was soon surpassed by larger ships but continued to haul cargoes for U.S. Steel until tying up at Duluth on June 20, 1960. It remained idle until a sale to Upper Lakes Shipping in July 1963 and the vessel returned to service the following month as Ridgetown.
The ship concentrated in the grain trade until tying up at Toronto on November 17, 1969. Since then it saw service off Nanticoke as a temporary breakwall from 1970 into 1973. Refloated, it was sunk again off the Credit River, west of Toronto, on June 21, 1974, and remains visible at that location 108 years after it was built at Chicago.
Today in Great Lakes History - November 28
In 1949, sea trials for the largest freighter built on the Great Lakes, the WILFRED SYKES, were held off Lorain, Ohio. SYKES was converted to a self-unloader in 1975.
In 1942, the Canadian grain carrier JUDGE HART grounded and then sank in Ashburton Bay, Lake Superior. The entire crew of the JUDGE HART was rescued by the JAMES B. EADS, Captain Stanley J. Tischart, and the whaleback JOHN ERICSSON, Captain Wilfred E. Ogg.
On 28 November 1867, MARQUETTE (wooden bark, 139 foot, 426 tons, built in 1856, at Newport [Marine City], Michigan) was carrying corn from Chicago to Collingwood, Ontario when she sprang a leak during a storm on Lake Huron. She was run ashore on Hope Island on Georgian Bay.
On November 28, 1905, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company vessel MATAAFA was wrecked as it tried to re-enter the Duluth Ship Canal in a severe storm. The MATAAFA had departed Duluth earlier but had decided to return to safety. After dropping her barge in the lake, the vessel was picked up by waves, was slammed against the north pier and was swung around to rest just hundreds of feet offshore north of the north pier, where it broke in two. Much of the crew froze to death in the cold snap that followed the storm, as there was no quick way to get out to the broken vessel for rescue. The MATAAFA was repaired prior to the 1906, season; she ultimately ended her career as an automobile carrier for the T.J. McCarthy Steamship Company and was sold for scrap in 1965.
The CANADIAN OLYMPIC's maiden voyage was 28 Nov 1976, to load coal at Conneaut, Ohio for Nanticoke, Ontario. Her name honored the Olympic games that were held at Montreal that year.
On November 28, 1983, while up bound after leaving the Poe Lock, the INDIANA HARBOR was in a collision, caused by high winds, with the downbound Greek salty ANANGEL SPIRIT resulting in a 10 foot gash in the laker's port bow.
LANCASHIRE (Hull#827) was launched at Lorain, Ohio on November 28, 1942. She would soon be renamed b) SEWELL AVERY.
CATHY B towed the GOVERNOR MILLER to Vigo, Spain on November 28, 1980, where she was broken up.
BENSON FORD was renamed e) US265808 and departed River Rouge on November 28, 1986, towed by the Sandrin tugs TUSKER and GLENADA bound for Ramey's Bend in the Welland Canal.
FRONTENAC arrived at the Fraser Shipyard, Superior, Wisconsin on November 28, 1979. Her keel, which had hogged four feet, was declared a constructive total loss.
The BRANSFORD stranded on a reef off Isle Royale in Lake Superior during a major storm on 28 November 1905, (the same storm that claimed the steamer MATAAFA). She was recovered.
On her third trip in 1892, the ANN ARBOR NO 1 again ran aground, this time three miles north of Ahnapee (now called Algoma). There was $15,000 damage to her cargo.
In 1906, the ANN ARBOR NO 4 left Cleveland bound for Frankfort on her maiden voyage. The ANN ARBOR NO 4 ran aground off Kewaunee in 1924.
On 28 November 1905, AMBOY (2-mast wooden schooner-barge, 209 foot, 894 gross tons, formerly HELENA) was carrying coal in tow of the wooden propeller GEORGE SPENCER in a gale on Lake Superior. In an effort to save both vessels, AMBOY was cut loose. The SPENCER was disabled quickly and was driven ashore near Little Marais, Minnesota. AMBOY struggled against the gale for a full day before finally going ashore near Thomasville, Ontario on 29 November. No lives were lost from either vessel.
On 28 November 1872, W O BROWN (wooden schooner, 140 foot, 306 tons, built in 1862, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying wheat in a storm on Lake Superior when she was driven ashore near Point Maimanse, Ontario and pounded to pieces. Six lives were lost. Three survivors struggled through a terrible cold spell and finally made it to the Soo on Christmas Day.
On 28 Nov 1874, the propeller JOHN PRIDGEON JR was launched at Clark's shipyard in Detroit, Michigan. She was built for Capt. John Pridgeon. Her dimensions were 235 X 36 X 17 feet. The engines of the B F WADE were installed in her.
On 28 Nov 1923, the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Company and Bob-Lo docks were destroyed by a fire caused by an overheated stove in the ferry dock waiting room. The blaze started at 3 a.m.
CANADIAN TRANSFER underwent repairs most of Tuesday, 28 Nov. 2000, at the Algoma Steel dock at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She had run aground the previous night in the Canadian channel approaching Algoma Steel. CANADIAN TRANSFER was freed by two Purvis Marine tugs. The vessel suffered a crack or hole in the hull plating about 10 feet from the bottom along its port side.
1918: The bow section of the former passenger steamer NORTH WEST sank in Lake Ontario. The ship had been cut in two for a tow out of the Great Lakes. The stern was later rebuilt as b) MAPLECOURT.
1923: LINDEN, a wooden bulk carrier, burned as a total loss in Tawas Bay.
1932: The Canadian freighter GEORGIAN stranded at Munising while downbound from Port Arthur to Detroit. The crew was rescued on December 3. The first salvage attempt failed on December 5 and the vessel was not released until May 1933.
1961: IQUITOS, enroute from Callao, Peru, to Manzanillo, Mexico, with fish meal, caught fire off the coast of Mexico and was abandoned by the crew. The vessel first visited the Great Lakes as a) RUTENFJELL in 1936 and returned on numerous occasions. It was back as b) POLYRIVER from 1951 to 1958. The abandoned IQUITOS drifted for months and was finally sunk by a U.S. destroyer as a hazard to navigation about 100 miles southeast of the Christmas Islands, on April 9, 1962.
1966: The Liberty ship TEGEAN ran aground on The Sisters rocks in fog south of Halifax while inbound for bunkers. All on board were saved by Coast Guard and Navy helicopters. The hull broke into 3 pieces and was dynamited by Navy divers as a hazard on December 16, 1966. The vessel had traded through the Seaway as b) ST. MALO in 1962.
1981: LONDON EARL went aground at Pointe aux Trembles while outbound from Thunder Bay to Hamburg, West Germany, with a cargo of wheat. Five tugs released the ship, with only minimal damage, on November 30. The vessel later returned through the Seaway as b) OLYMPIC LIBERTY beginning in 1983, as c) STABERG in 1990 and as d) ITHAKI in 1996. It was scrapped at Alang, India, in 2001.
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