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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Apr 27, 2015 6:24:40 GMT -5
27 April 1889 - ROMEO (wooden propeller excursion steamer, 70 foot, 61 gross tons) was launched by F. W. Wheeler (Hull #51) at West Bay City, Michigan, for service on the Òinland route (Oden, Michigan to Cheboygan, Michigan & Bois Blanc Island) along with her sister JULIET (wooden propeller excursion steamer, 70 foot, 61 gross tons), launched the following day. The vessels had twin screws for maneuverability along the northern rivers. ROMEO lasted until 1911, when she was abandoned at Port Arthur, Texas. JULIET was converted to a steam yacht and registered at Chicago. She was abandoned in 1912.
The H.A. HAWGOOD (4-mast wooden schooner, 233 feet) was launched at 2:00 p.m. on 27 April 1886, at F.W. Wheeler's shipyard in W. Bay City, Michigan.
On April 27, 1993, the WOLVERINE ran aground on Surveyors Reef near Port Dolomite near Cedarville, Michigan, and damaged her hull.
The ASHCROFT, up bound on Lake Erie in fog, collided with Interlake's steamer JAMES H. REED on April 27, 1944. The REED, fully loaded with ore, quickly sank off Port Burwell, Ontario, with a loss of twelve lives. The ASHCROFT suffered extensive bow damage below the water line and was taken to Ashtabula, Ohio, for repairs. Later that morning on Lake Erie fog still prevailed and the PHILIP MINCH of the Kinsman fleet collided with and sank the crane ship FRANK E. VIGOR. This collision occurred at 0850 hours and the ship, loaded with sulphur, sank in the Pelee Passage in 75 feet of water. All on board were saved.
On April 27, 1973, the bow section of the SIDNEY E. SMITH JR was towed to Sarnia by the Malcolm tugs TABOGA and BARBARA ANN. The two sections of the hull were scuttled and landfilled to form a dock facing.
Shenango Furnace's straight deck steamer WILLIAM P. SNYDER JR left Ecorse, Michigan, in ballast on her maiden voyage April 27, 1912, for Duluth, Minnesota, to load iron ore.
On April 27, 1978, the TROISDOC was down bound with corn for Cardinal, Ontario, when she hit the upper end of the tie-up wall above Lock 2, in the Welland Ship Canal.
On April 27, 1980, after loading pellets in Duluth, the ENDERS M. VOORHEES stopped at the Seaway Dock to load a large wooden stairway (three sections) on deck which, was taken to the AmShip yard at Lorain. It was used for an open house on the newly built EDWIN H. GOTT in 1979.
On April 27, 1953, the steamer RESERVE entered service.
On April 27, 1984, the CHARLES M. BEEGHLY struck the breakwall while departing Superior, Wisconsin on her first trip since the 1981 season. The vessel returned to Fraser Shipyards in Superior for repairs.
On 27 April 1876, the Port Huron Times reported, "The steam barge MARY MILLS arrived up this morning and looks 'flaming'. Her owner said he did not care what color she was painted so long as it was bright red, and she has therefore come out in that color."
On 27 April 1877, the 40-foot 2-mast wooden schooner VELOCIPEDE left Racine, Wisconsin, for Muskegon, Michigan, in fair weather, but a severe squall blew in and it developed into a big storm. The little schooner was found capsized and broken in two off Kenosha, Wisconsin, with her crew of 2 or 3 lost.
1914 - The BENJAMIN NOBLE disappeared with all hands in Lake Superior. The wreck was finally located in 2004 and it lies 10 miles off Two Harbors, MN. The discovery was confirmed in July 2005.
1915 The COLLINGWOOD stranded near Corsica Shoal while downbound in Lake Huron with a load of grain.
1965 After being forced to spend the winter at Toronto when an early build up of ice prevented it from leaving the Great Lakes, the Greek freighter ORIENT MERCHANT ran aground near Port Colborne and required repairs at Port Weller Dry Docks. The ship had begun Seaway trading in 1960 and was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, arriving on November 17, 1967, as ZAMBEZI.
1970 The Israeli freighter ESHKOL began Great Lakes trading right after being built in 1964. The ship was in a collision with the fishing boat MELISSA JEAN II in the Cabot Strait on this date in 1970. It arrived at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for scrapping as ESKAT on September 29, 1982.
26 April 1891 NORWALK (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 209 foot, 1007 gross tons) was launched by William DuLac at Mount Clemens, Michigan. At first, she was not able to get down the Clinton River to Lake St. Clair due to low water. She lasted until 1916, when she was sold to Nicaraguan buyers and was lost in the Caribbean Sea that autumn.
On 26 April 1859, the wooden schooner A. SCOTT was carrying limestone blocks for a large Presbyterian church being built at Vermilion, Ohio. The vessel was driven ashore near Vermilion by a gale and was quickly pounded to pieces. Her insurance had expired about ten days earlier. No lives were lost.
Algoma's new straight deck bulk freighter ALGOWEST (Hull#226) of Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., was launched April 26, 1982. She was converted to a self-unloader in 1998, and renamed b.) PETER R. CRESSWELL in 2001.
Sea trials were conducted April 26, 1984, on Lake Ontario for the CANADIAN RANGER.
An unfortunate incident happened on the SEWELL AVERY as four crew members were injured, one critically, when a lifeboat winch housing exploded shortly after a lifeboat drill in 1978.
Paterson's CANADOC (Hull#627) by Davie Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., was launched April 26, 1961.
BENSON FORD (Hull#245) of the Great Lakes Engineering Works was launched in 1924.
In 1982, carferry service from Frankfort, Michigan ended forever when railroad service to that port was discontinued and the remaining boats (ARTHUR K. ATKINSON, VIKING, and CITY OF MILWAUKEE) were laid up. CITY OF MILWAUKEE is preserved as a museum ship by the Society for the Preservation of the CITY OF MILWAUKEE.
On 26 April 1902, M. P. BARKLOW (wooden schooner, 104 foot, 122 gross tons, built in 1871, at Perry, Ohio), loaded with salt, was anchored off South Bass Island in Lake Erie to ride out a gale. Nevertheless she foundered and four lives were lost, the skipper, his wife, their son and one crewman.
On 26 April 1926, THOMAS GAWN (2-mast wooden schooner-barge, 171 foot, 550 gross tons, built in 1872, at Lorain, Ohio as a 3-mast schooner) sprang a leak and sank at River Rouge, Michigan in the Detroit River. The wreck was removed the following month and abandoned. She had a 54-year career.
1902 The wooden schooner barge GRACE B. GRIBBLE was holed by ice and sank in Lake Erie off Point Pelee after the hull was punctured by an ice flow. Three sailors were lost.
1958 CIANDRA, a Great Lakes visitor from West Germany as early as 1953, ran aground in the St. Clair River at the south end of Stag Island on this date in 1958. Due to a dispute, there was no pilot on board at the time. The ship was stuck for about 3 hours. It later burned and capsized at Singapore as e) MESONGO on September 9, 1977, and was refloated and then scrapped in 1979.
1981 The Norwegian freighter ASKOT visited the Great Lakes from 1959 to 1962 and returned under the flag of Greece as DIAKAN MASCOT in 1972. It was observed lying off Aden, as c) TYHI with the engine room flooded on this date in 1981. The hull was later refloated and arrived at Gadani Beach, Pakstan, for scrapping on April 28, 1982.
4/26 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – The grounded Mississagi was successfully refloated on the St. Marys River Saturday following operations to offload approximately 2,000 tons of stone.
Mississagi was carrying more than 17,000 tons of stone while transiting downbound the St. Marys River from Bruce Mines, Ont. early Wednesday when it ran aground in Potagannissing Bay, approximately 4 miles northeast of De Tour Village.
Lightering operations into fleetmate Lewis J. Kuber began at 8 a.m. Saturday under the supervision of Coast Guard marine inspectors and pollution responders. The vessel was successfully refloated by 1 p.m. then anchored in a new location near Big Trout Island with no injuries or pollution.
While at anchor, the vessel underwent a thorough internal and external inspection by Coast Guard marine inspectors and commercial divers. The Coast Guard concluded that no primary structure on the vessel had been damaged. After inspections were complete, the vessel was cleared to depart anchorage at around 6:30 p.m. The Canadian Coast Guard concurred with the U.S. Coast Guard. The vessel will reload its cargo of stone in Bruce Mines.
USCG
4/26 - Toronto, Ont. – It appears to be final days for Captain John’s floating restaurant at last. Ports Toronto has agreed to a plan for having the unsightly waterfront landmark towed from its slip at the foot of Yonge St. by May 25 and is just “finalizing the plan to finance the proposal,” according to a spokesperson for the waterfront authority.
It now appears certain, although Ports Toronto would not confirm this, that a ship breaker will be paid to tow the 300-foot Jadran away so it can be scrapped and recycled into usable metal.
That process could cost Ports Toronto close to $500,000, given the complexity of the tow, likely through the Welland Canal, and the sorry state of the ship: A move would require two tugs, because the Jadran hasn’t had a working engine for years. Also, the ship needs to be stabilized and sealed to ensure any contaminants like lead and asbestos don’t escape into the environment.
The ship is now worth about $200,000 less now than it was during the original auction last summer, when it was purchased by entrepreneur James Sbrolla for $33,501, just because of slumping metal prices globally, marine experts say. That makes it less lucrative for a scrapper and, therefore, ups the price of towing it away, which veteran scrapper Wayne Elliott estimated at about $300,000 last summer.
He was the second bidder for the ship and is believed to be the winner this time around, although he was awaiting word from Ports Authority when contacted this week.
The complex case was supposed to be back before a Federal Court judge April 28 for approval of a plan to get rid of the troubled ship, on which owner “Captain” John Letnik owes well over $1 million in mortgage, property taxes, berthing and other fees that have been accumulating for years.
The court hearing has been rescheduled for May 11, the original deadline set by Ports Toronto for having the ship removed.
“We have now selected a proposal that meets all the requirements and we are certainly proceeding,” said Erin Mikaluk, the senior manager of communications for the port authority.
Sbrolla said he’s submitted another bid for the ship, in partnership with Priestly Demolition, undeterred by the fact his original offer fell apart when he failed to find a new berth for the ship, well away from Toronto’s waterfront, where it could be refurbished or scrapped.
There’s been considerable pressure to get the ship removed, after years of little progress, given that rust is now visibly eating away at its hull and another major condo tower, surrounded by a waterfront promenade and public park, is slated for the area immediately east of the ship.
The Star
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Apr 28, 2015 6:25:02 GMT -5
28 April 1856 - TONAWANDA (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 202 foot, 882 gross tons) was launched by Buell B. Jones at Buffalo, New York.
On 28 April 1891, the whaleback barge 110 (steel barge, 265 foot, 1,296 gross tons) was launched by the American Steel Barge Co. in W. Superior, Wisconsin. In 1907, she went to the Atlantic Coast and lasted until she suffered an explosion, then sank after burning, near the dock of Cities Service Export Oil Co., at St. Rose, Louisiana, on March 3, 1932.
The 660-foot-long forward section of Bethlehem Steel's a.) LEWIS WILSON FOY (Hull#717) was launched April 28,1977, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Renamed b.) OGLEBAY NORTON in 1991 and c.) AMERICAN INTEGRITY in 2006.
Nipigon Transport Ltd.'s straight deck motorship a.) LAKE WABUSH (Hull#223) by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., was christened and launched April 28, 1981. Renamed b.) CAPT HENRY JACKMAN in 1987, and converted to a self-unloader in 1996.
On April 28, 1971, while up bound from Sorel, Quebec, for Muskegon, Michigan, with a load of pig iron, LACHINEDOC struck Rock Shoal off Little Round Island in the St. Lawrence River and was beached.
On April 28, 1906, Pittsburgh Steamship Co.'s J. PIERPONT MORGAN (Hull#68) by Chicago Ship Building Co., was launched. Renamed b.) HERON BAY in 1966.
April 28, 1897 - The F&PM (Flint & Pere Marquette) Steamer NO 1, bound from Milwaukee for Chicago, ran ashore just north of Evanston. She released herself after a few hours.
The barge LITTLE JAKE was launched on 28 April 1875, at East Saginaw, Michigan. She was owned by William R. Burt & Co. Her dimensions were 132 feet x 29 feet x 9 feet.
On 28 April 1877, the steam barge C S BALDWIN went ashore on the reef at North Point on Lake Huron during a blinding snow storm. The barge was heavily loaded with iron ore and sank in a short time. The crew was saved by the Lifesaving Service from Thunder Bay Station and by the efforts of the small tug FARRAR.
1971 ZENAVA, the former REDFERN, ran aground, caught fire and sank off Burin, NF while under tow from Rose Blanche, NF to Marystown, NF. The former bulk canaller was being used to transport, freeze and store fish.
1976 The first ALGOSEA was inbound on its first trip to the Great Lakes when it hit the wall below Lock 1 of the Welland Canal and then, below Lock 2, the ship was blown sideways across the canal after problems with the cables. The ship was enroute to Port Colborne for conversion to a self-unloader; it was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey, in 2011 as SAUNIERE.
4/28 - Superior, Wis. – Before it was named the SS Meteor, before it became a museum open to tourists, Bob Brennan’s father sailed on the whaleback freighter now permanently berthed at Barker’s Island in Superior.
Brennan was among the 40 volunteers readying the ship for summer tours last Saturday, walking in the places his father walked in the 1930s when it was named the South Park. It was renamed the SS Meteor in 1943.
He noted the irony of a trip to the area 15 years ago, before he knew Barker’s Island was the ship’s final resting place. “I probably drove right by it,” he said.
He recently found a photo of his father, who also was named Bob Brennan, standing at the helm of the South Park — but he didn’t know the ship still existed until he looked it up on the Internet and learned that it had been renamed, he said.
After connecting with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, he traveled from his home in Anaheim, Calif., to help with the society’s annual SS Meteor Spring Work Weekend on the ship, which opens for tours in mid-May.
Like his father, Brennan also was a merchant mariner, but this weekend was the first time he had been on the same ship as his father, he said. He had a photo taken of himself standing in the same spot at the helm of the SS Meteor where his father stood for the photo in the 1930s, he said.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society’s annual weekend of improvement projects on the SS Meteor draws volunteers from all over, many of them divers who like to explore the shipwrecks along the North Shore, said Sara Blanck, director of Superior Public Museums.
Blanck created a list of needed work that included painting, cleaning up the exhibit area, going through documents, folding up flags and making beds. The volunteers that show up have a great skill set of engineers, welders, painters and mechanics, she said.
“It’s a museum director’s dream to have them here,” Blanck said. “The progress they’ve made is outstanding.”
The SS Meteor, constructed in Superior, is the last surviving whaleback freighter designed by Capt. Alexander McDougall. Saturday marked 119 years since the SS Meteor was launched — as the Frank Rockefeller — on April 25, 1896. It opened as a museum in 1972, but the maintenance on it was minimal, said Phil Kerber, president of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society.
The Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association hosted the cleaning weekend beginning in 2001, until it handed over the maintenance responsibility to the shipwreck preservation society in 2004. The society has been able to do more maintenance during the weekend because it’s a larger group, and members of the archeology association still join in to help during the weekend, Kerber said.
If someone wants to work on a historic ship, the weekend of projects is a perfect venue for that, Kerber said. “We have a job for everyone,” he said.
Although the recommendation is for volunteers older than 16, they made an exception for Duluth resident Ethan Rentschler, 11, this year because of his fascination with the ship.
Ask Ethan a question about the SS Meteor and he’ll respond with details about its unique qualities and size. He said he’s amazed at how the ship has held up, given its age, and by how small it is compared to modern vessels.
He’s done a lot of his own research by reading books on whaleback freighters since his first tour of the ship with his uncle. He wanted his own membership to the SS Meteor for a birthday present and wants to become a tour guide when he turns 15. He wants to follow his father, Dan Rentschler, by becoming a merchant mariner when he turns 18.
He’s been crossing off the days on a calendar until the SS Meteor’s cleaning weekend, his mom Sarah Rentschler said, adding, “He was up early like it was Christmas today.”
He spent the day folding flags and polishing brass instruments on the ship. His favorite moments were when he was able to be above deck, he said. His mom said he was most looking forward to polishing the brass.
“He said, ‘I hope no one else wants to clean the brass,’ ” she said.
Best of all, he’s been able to go places in the ship he wouldn’t normally be able to see on a tour. “I’ve been almost everywhere today,” he said.
Duluth News Tribune
Hamilton Harbour Queen lives to sail again
4/28 - Hamilton, Ont. – All aboard — the Hamilton Harbour Queen will sail again. The harbor cruiser could be back in open water as soon as June, says local businessman and new captain Albert Samee.
Samee bought the boat from the Waterfront Trust last week after learning that scrapyard owners were bidding on the out-of-commission ship — a fate he couldn't bear to imagine. "It's a part of Hamilton," he said Saturday, aboard the Queen.
He's already gutted the lower level and plans to completely refurbish the boat — complete with a new cedar dance floor, raised ceilings and an electronic awning.
Samee — who splits his time between Florida and Hamilton — is the president and owner of ELKO Industrial Trading Corp., which operates out of the old Westinghouse site on Aberdeen (near Innovation Park) and ships coil, structural and stainless steel across North America and overseas.
He owns property across the city, but says this boat is the project he's most excited about — this purchase was more about passion than business. "I don't look at it as a profit, I look at it as a part of the city," he says.
The Hamilton Harbour Queen provided sightseeing, dinner and party cruises for 10 years before the Waterfront Trust dropped the anchor for good last fall in the face of looming inspection and repair costs, including a government-mandated $250,000 dry-dock inspection.
In order to set sail as he intends to, Samee will now have to pay for that inspection. He says they are putting "good money into safety and will work very closely with Transport Canada."
Bob Charters, chair of the Trust, says the sale is "excellent news" for the city and the agency. "It stops us having to spend the amount of money we would have had to with the dry-docking. It would have been a real burden for us to have done that," he said.
The cash-strapped waterfront revitalization agency bought the 58-year-old former tug boat in 2005 for $500,000. It costs about $350,000 to run a year and lost about $16,000 in 2013. Charters would not say how much they sold it for.
While Samee is now the sole owner of the ship, Charters says the agency will "certainly" work with him to get it back up and running.
And Samee is confident in its potential — joking that it has been nearly impossible to get any work done so far with constant inquiries from passersby about the ship's fate. "The more I talk to people about it, the more I have a desire to do the best I can to it," he says.
If all goes well, the ship will be up and running by June and absolutely in time for the Pan Am Games, Samee says. And yes, he promises, he will keep the Hamilton Harbour Queen name.
Hamilton Spectator
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Apr 29, 2015 5:58:17 GMT -5
Freighter grounded near De Tour was outside shipping channel, says Coast Guard
4/29 - De Tour Village, Mich. – A Canadian bulk cargo freighter that grounded near Drummond Island last week was outside the marked channel when it struck a shoal, according to Coast Guard investigators.
Lt. Cmdr Michael Hjerstedt, investigations chief in Sault Ste. Marie, said the Coast Guard is still trying to determine why the 603-foot freighter Mississagi was outside the shipping lanes when it grounded in Potagannissing Bay about four miles east of De Tour Village about 1 a.m. Wednesday, April 22.
The ship spent the next four days stuck on the shoal before offloading about 2,000 of its 17,000 tons of stone cargo onto a barge on Saturday, April 25.
Hjerstedt said the ship suffered a surprising lack of physical damage during the grounding, which investigators determined did not cause any fuel, ballast water or other contaminants to leak into the surrounding water.
"Indications are leaning toward no monetary damage to the vessel," he said. "There was nothing released and we didn't note any hull breaches, which is very fortunate."
Lower Lakes Towing of Port Dover, Ontario, owns the Mississagi, a 72-year-old self-unloading bulk carrier. The ship made for its original destination of Bruce Mines, Ontario, before heading to Chicago after the five-hour weekend lightering operation was carried out under Coast Guard supervision.
Hjerstedt said the downbound Mississagi should have passed a shoal-marker buoy on its starboard side, but instead passed the buoy on its port side. The buoy marks a four-foot shoal outside the approximately 30-foot shipping channel. The ship's bow grounded on what was determined to be a mostly clay bottom.
Depending on the investigation results, the ship's owner could face a fine between $5,000 and $25,000, Hjerstedt said. Because the grounding happened outside the St. Marys River shipping channel, there was no vessel traffic disruption. The Coast Guard response involved two helicopter fly-overs and two cutters.
Hjerstedt must wrap his investigation within 120 days.
"Part of the process is looking at (crew) training and other factors," he said. "It will take a while before we develop conclusions about what the causes were."
Hjerstedt said vessel groundings are not terribly common, but do happen every few years around Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.
Elsewhere on the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard is investigating what caused a bulk freighter to run aground near Wellesley Island in New York's section of the St. Lawrence Seaway on Monday, April 20.
MLive
Great Lakes water levels: One lake to be almost 1 foot higher this summer
4/29 - The Great Lakes water levels forecasts show mixed expectations for this summer. One lake is expected to be much higher than last summer, while the other Great Lakes should be lower than last summer.
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are expected to be 11 inches higher this July as compared to last July. The lake level will also still be seven inches above the long term average for the peak summer water level.
Lake St. Clair, with high outflow from Lake Huron, will also top out higher this summer compared to last summer. Lake St. Clair is forecast to be three inches higher in July compared to last year, which will put it at eight inches above the long term average.
The rest of the Great Lakes will top out lower than last summer, with Superior and Erie still above the long-term average.
Lake Superior is forecast to not rise as sharply this summer and actually top out two inches lower than last summer. Lake Superior will remain above the long-term average. Lake Erie should peak about an inch lower than last summer. Lake Ontario is actually below the long term average now and should remain so through summer. The peak water level in July may be nine inches lower than last summer.
So the most dramatic rise in lake levels will still be seen on Lakes Michigan and Huron this summer. Lake Michigan-Huron should rise a foot from the current water level.
This water level forecast is based on many factors, one factor being near normal precipitation. If it turns out to be extremely wet or very dry, this forecast would be adjusted. But right now it looks like there is going to be plenty of water for fun in Michigan's Great Lakes this summer.
M Live
29 April 1896 - W. LE BARON JENNEY (steel tow barge, 366 foot, 3422 gross tons) was launched by F. W. Wheeler & Company (Hull #120) at West Bay City, Michigan for the Bessemer Steamship Company of Cleveland, Ohio. She went through eight owners during her career, ending with the Goderich Elevator and Transit Company, Ltd. who used her as a grain storage barge under the name K.A. Powell. She was scrapped in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1974.
On 29 April 1875, the wooden schooner CLARA BELL of Sandusky was wrecked in a gale off Leamington, Ontario. Captain William Robinson was drowned.
On April 29, 1975, American Steamship’s SAM LAUD entered service.
Launched this date in 1976, was the a.) SOODOC (Hull#210) by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd. Renamed b.) AMELIA DESGAGNES in 1990.
On April 29, 1977, while inbound at Lorain, the IRVING S. OLDS hit a bridge on the Black River, which extensively damaged her bow, tying up traffic for several hours .
A fender boom fell on the pilothouse of the steamer GEORGE M. HUMPHREY in the Poe Lock at the Soo in 1971.
On 29 April 1865, L.D. COWAN (wooden schooner, 165 tons, built in 1848, at Erie, Pennsylvania) was driven ashore near Pointe aux Barques, Michigan, in a storm and wrecked.
1909: AURANIA was the only steel hulled ship sunk by ice on the Great Lakes. The vessel was lost in Whitefish Bay after being holed and then squeezed by the pressure of the ice pack near Parisienne Island. The crew escaped onto the ice and pulled a yawl boat to the J.H. BARTOW.
1952: W.E. FITZGERALD hit the Burlington Lift Bridge at the entrance to Hamilton Bay after a mechanical problem resulted in the structure not being raised. The north span of the bridge was knocked into the water, resulting in traffic chaos on land and on the water.
1959: PRESCOTT went aground near Valleyfield, Quebec, while downbound in the Seaway only four days after the waterway had been opened. It got stuck trying to avoid a bridge that had failed to open and navigation was blocked until the CSL bulk carrier was refloated the next day.
1969: HOWARD HINDMAN ran aground at the Little Rapids Cut in the St. Marys River after the steering cables parted. The ship was released and temporarily returned to service but the vessel was badly damaged and soon sold for scrap. It came down the Welland Canal with a cargo of road salt on June 6, 1969, and was towed to Bilbao, Spain, with the HUMBERDOC, arriving on September 6, 1969.
1976: The British freighter GLENPARK was three years old when it first came through the Seaway in 1959. It was sailing as c) GOLDEN LEADER when it ran aground off Goto Island, southwest Japan while on a long voyage from Chungjin, China, to Constanza, Romania. The hull broke in two and was a total loss.
1998: The Panamanian freighter DENEBOLA first visited the Seaway in 1973. The ship was sailing as d) TAE CHON, under the flag of North Korea, when it was in a collision with the YANG LIN in thick fog on the Yellow Sea and sank. The vessel was enroute from Yantai, China, to Chittagong, Bangladesh, when the accident occurred and one life was lost.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on Apr 30, 2015 4:51:35 GMT -5
30 April 1894 - The TRUANT (wooden propeller tug, 73 foot, 28 gross tons, built in 1889 at Toronto, Ontario) burned to a total loss near Burnt Island in Georgian Bay. The fire started under her ash pan.
On 30 April 1890, the wooden dredge MUNSON and two scow barges were being towed from Kingston, Ontario, by the tug EMMA MUNSON to work on the new Bay of Quinte bridge at Rossmore, Ontario, six miles west of Kingston when the dredge started listing then suddenly tipped over and sank. No lives were lost.
IRVIN L. CLYMER returned to service April 30, 1988, after a two-season lay-up.
HOWARD HINDMAN of 1910, grounded heavily when her steering cable parted at Little Rapids Cut in the St. Marys River, April 30, 1969. Due to the extensive damage, she was sold in May of that year to Marine Salvage Ltd., Port Colborne, Ontario, for scrap and was scrapped at Bilbao, Spain in 1969.
The RED WING tow arrived at Kaohsiung, Taiwan on April 30, 1987, for dismantling.
On 30 April 1842, the side-wheeler COMMODORE BARRIE collided with the schooner CANADA about 10 miles off Long Point in Lake Ontario. The COMMODORE BARRIE became disabled and then sank about an hour and a half later. Her passengers and crew were rescued by the CANADA.
On 30 April 1878, ST. LAWRENCE (2-mast wooden schooner, 93 foot, 111 tons, built in 1842, at Clayton, New York) was carrying timber when she caught fire from the boiling over of a pot of pitch which was being melted on the galley stove. The vessel was well out on Lake Michigan off Milwaukee. The fire spread so rapidly that the crew had no time to haul in canvas, so when they abandoned her, she was sailing at full speed. The lifeboat capsized as soon as it hit the water, drowning the captain and a passenger. The ST. LAWRENCE sailed off ablaze and was seen no more. The rest of the crew was later rescued by the schooner GRANADA.
1909: RUSSIA foundered in heavy weather in Lake Huron not far from Detour, MI. The ship was en route from Duluth to Alpena and ran into a heavy gale. Sources vary on the loss to life.
1929: D.M. PHILBIN ran aground in a high winds and snow 6 miles west of Conneaut after mistaking the airport beacon for the Conneaut Light and stranding on a sandbar off Whitman's Creek. The hold was flooded to keep the hull safe and it was released with the aid of tugs on May 7. The vessel was renamed c) SYLVANIA prior to returning to service
1984: The fish tug STANLEY CLIPPER sank in a storm on Lake Erie southeast of Port Dover, near Ryerson Island and all three men on board were lost. The hull was located, refloated and rebuilt as the tug NADRO CLIPPER. It currently operates as c) A.I.S. CLIPPER and is often moored below Lock 1 of the Welland Canal when not in service.
1991: The hull of BEECHGLEN buckled while unloading corn at Cardinal, ON, with the bow and stern settling on the bottom. The ship was strapped together, refloated and towed to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs arriving at the shipyard on May 26.
1999: GLORY MAKOTOH, a Panamanian general cargo carrier, sank in the South China Sea off Hainan Island as d) FELIZ TRADER on this date in 1999. The vessel had been a Seaway trader in 1983 under the original name. Eight crewmembers were rescued from the lifeboats but 13 sailors were lost.
2000: The small passenger ship WORLD DISCOVERER visited the Great Lakes in 1975. It hit a reef or large rock off the Solomon Islands on April 30, 2000, and had to be beached on the island of Ngella. The 127 passengers and 80 crew were saved, but the ship was a total loss and potential salvors were driven off by a hostile local population.
4/30 - Oswego, N.Y. – American Fortitude, the massive, 690-foot, Great Lakes freighter that was docked at Oswego Harbor this winter, is leaving for the Canadian side of Lake Ontario this weekend, according to Zelko Kirincich, executive director of the Port of Oswego Authority.
The boat, which was built in 1953 and once one of the longest and fastest boats on the Great Lakes, will be scrapped.
Specifics on the names of American Fortitude's past owner and the interests who bought it are being kept under wraps. Kirincich said earlier this year it was owned by a Texas holding company, but did not offer a name.
"I am under a strict confidentiality agreement restraints, but can share the basic facts with you," said a source familiar with the deal.
"The vessel will definitely not be going back into service within the lakes or anywhere else. She is redundancy to today's economics operations and is committed to be responsibly recycled according to current conventions and environmental rules by (its) owners," the source said.
In 1978, American Fortitude (then called the Ernest T. Weir) replaced the ill-fated, SS Edmund Fitzgerald as the flag ship of the Oglebay Norton's Transportation Division fleet. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a November 1975 storm on Lake Superior and lost all of its 29 crew members.
Syracuse.com
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 1, 2015 6:04:02 GMT -5
5/1 - Every year, Doug Ellis sells hundreds of pairs of expensive steel-toed boots to miners, and a lot of hunting rifles.
"My business is built on mining money," said Ellis, who owns the Virginia Surplus sporting goods store. "It's what drives all these towns."
Ellis has operated the store in Virginia for 25 years, through three downturns in the mining industry.
People on the Iron Range are used to the booms and busts of the cyclical mining industry. But the latest downturn has Ellis and many others worried. They're bracing for the impending layoffs of 1,100 mineworkers later this spring. The job losses likely will significantly affect a regional economy that relies heavily on mining.
The loss of 1,100 jobs on the Iron Range might not seem like much compared to the 3,100 jobs that Target eliminated in the Twin Cities last month.
But in a region where mining makes up about 30 percent of the economy, the impact of the layoffs is enormous, said John Arbogast, vice president of the United Steelworkers union Local 1938 at Minntac in Mountain Iron.
"On the Iron Range, mining is everything," Arbogast said.
U.S. Steel has announced that it will lay off 700 employees from Minntac, the largest taconite producer in the state. About 400 workers at its Keetac mine in Keewatin also will lose their jobs.
That's nearly one-fourth of the 4,500 mining jobs on the Iron Range — jobs that on average pay more than $80,000, according to officials with the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.
"This isn't the Twin Cities. This is all we have, and they're good paying jobs," Arbogast said. "And these are hard-working people. They love living here. They love the fishing, the hunting — everything that comes with living on the Iron Range."
The miners aren't the only ones affected by the job cuts. A 2012 University of Minnesota Duluth study commissioned by the state and industry groups estimated that every mining job on the Range creates nearly two spinoff jobs.
That includes jobs at companies that service and supply the mining industry directly, as well as many in the region's restaurants, gas stations and retail stores.
Virginia is one of the largest of the nearly 20 small towns that line the Iron Range, second only to Hibbing. But the population of both has dropped by more than 4 percent since 2000.
Local residents and leaders hope the trend doesn't continue. But Virginia — surrounded on three sides by huge open pit mines — has long depended on those operations.
"When the mines catch a cold, we all catch pneumonia," Ellis said. "Everybody is impacted; nobody is exempt."
On the Iron Range, where people are hardened to the traditional boom and bust cycle, his attitude is typical.
"We're a resilient bunch, and anytime times are really tough, we always seem to find four wheel drive, dig ourselves out of the mud hole, and move on," Ellis said.
But some say the latest downturn seems different from the last one in 2009, when U.S. Steel also laid off about 1,000 workers, said Arbogast, the iron worker. John Arbogast of the steelworkers union local Dan Kraker | MPR News
"In '09, everything was down, it was recession; you could feel it coming," Arbogast said. "Now America's doing great, unemployment is at record, low-type levels, everyone's doing well and we're the ones getting hit on this.
"So that's what makes it tough."
After the last downturn, the global price of iron ore soared to over $190 a ton in 2011. In recent months, it has dropped to about $50 a ton.
The lower prices largely stem from decreased demand for steel in China, which until recently seemed to have a seemingly insatiable appetite for iron ore to produce steel, said Andrew Lane, an analyst for Morningstar.
"We've seen lower demand from China, and China consumes about half the world's steel," Lane said. "So as goes Chinese demand for both steel and iron ore, so go steel and iron ore prices on a global basis."
Lane said a global oversupply of iron ore and steel also is hurting Minnesota's taconite operations. The world's three largest iron ore miners ramped up production in the past decade, largely to meet Chinese demand they assumed would stay strong.
The strong U.S. dollar has also encouraged a surge in foreign steel imports into the United States, one of the few places where demand for steel is strong. Minnesota politicians allege that steel companies owned by foreign governments are illegally dumping the steel, or selling it in the United States for less than it costs them to produce.
"These things have come together in a perfect storm," said Tony Barrett, an economist at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
While some analysts predict the price of iron ore will drop further, Barrett thinks Minnesota's taconite iron ore industry will stabilize, for one simple reason.
"The world needs steel," he said. "I see the demand for steel recovering, and with that the demand for taconite."
The question everyone is asking on the Iron Range is when. Locals say if workers are only out of jobs for three to four months, the effect of the layoffs won't be too bad.
For Keewatin Mayor Bill King, however, every layoff and every closed business takes its toll.
"It just seems like a small part of the town dies away. Each time," King said. "You know, you lose this business, or a couple citizens move away, so it's hard, it's hard to watch."
Minnesota Public Radio News T
EDMUND FITZGERALD collided with the Canadian steamer HOCHELAGA at the mouth of the Detroit River, May 1, 1970, suffering slight damage at hatches 18 and 19.
STEWART J. CORT departed Erie on her maiden voyage at 0400 May 1, 1972. She was delayed by fog in Western Lake Erie.
The steel-hulled bulk carrier SHENANGO (Hull#62) was launched on May 1, 1909, by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan.
Scrapping began on the CHICAGO TRADER at Ashtabula, Ohio, on May 1, 1978.
The JOHN T. HUTCHINSON (Hull#1010) was launched at Cleveland, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. on May 1, 1943.
The IRVING S. OLDS sustained an eight-foot long crack across her spar deck and eight inches down one side in a storm on Lake Huron May 1, 1963.
LIGHTSHIP 103 (HURON) was launched at Morris Heights, New York by Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp. on May 1, 1920, for the U.S. Lighthouse Service. The SOO RIVER TRADER brought the first shipment of bulk cement to open the $18 million St. Lawrence Cement distribution dock at Duluth, Minnesota on May 1, 1982.
May 1, 1903 - The ANN ARBOR NO 1 sighted a burning vessel about 15 miles out of the Sturgeon Bay Ship canal, the steamer JOHN EMERY OWEN. The crew had already been picked off after the fire started, so the ANN ARBOR NO 1 put out the fire with her fire hoses. The NO 1 then towed the abandoned steamer to Sturgeon Bay and tied her up at the west end of the canal.
On 1 May 1875, CONSUELLO (wooden schooner, 103 foot, 142 gross tons, built in 1851, at Cleveland, Ohio) left Cleveland with a load of black stone for Toledo. Near Kelley's Island, a storm caused the cargo to shift and the ship capsized and sank. When she hit bottom, she jerked upright so the tops of her masts were above the water. Two of the crew, Fred Donahue and James King, were able to cling to the masts and they were rescued after about an hour and a half. Five others, including the captain and his wife, were drowned.
On 1 May 1876, the little steamer W.D. MORTON, which for two years had run as a ferry between Port Huron's Black River and Sarnia, left her dock for the Delaware River where she ran on a centennial excursion route for the exposition held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania She left the Lakes via the Erie Canal.
On 01 May 1858, OGONTZ (wooden propeller steamer, 343 tons, built in 1848, at Ohio City, Ohio) was purchased by Capt. A. E. Goodrich and George C. Drew for $5,600. This was the second vessel in the Goodrich Line. Just two years later, Capt. Goodrich had her machinery removed and she was sold to W. Crostin for $500. He converted her to a sailing vessel and she operated for two more years before she foundered in a storm.
1892: CELTIC, enroute from Fort William to Kingston with wheat and general cargo, sank in Lake Erie east of Rondeau after a collision with the steamer RUSSIA. The accident occurred in fog and one life was lost.
1909: ADELLA SHORES foundered with the loss of 14 lives in a Lake Superior storm while enroute from Ludington to Duluth with barreled salt.
1917: CASE began leaking on Lake Erie and was beached at East Sister Island, near Point Pelee and the ship caught fire when a lantern was knocked over. Some cargo was salvaged in August but the hull was left to break up in place and today the remains are scattered on the bottom.
1933: WILLIAM SCHUPP stranded on a shoal off Cockburn Island, Lake Huron, while enroute to Fort William in ballast. Once released, the vessel was repaired at Collingwood. It became MONDOC (ii) in 1945 and was scrapped at Deseronto, ON in 1961.
1940: ARLINGTON foundered in a Lake Superior storm on the second trip of the 1940 season. The wheat laden steamer was bound for Owen Sound went down stern first, taking Capt. Burke to his death. The rest of the crew survived and were picked up by the COLLINGWOOD.
1963: CAPE TRANSPORT was mauled overnight in a wild storm on Lake Huron off Harbor Beach. The steering gear was damaged, the radio knocked out and pilothouse windows were smashed. The HOLMSIDE, and later the RALPH S. MISENER, stood by. The ship reached a safe anchorage on May 2. Fleetmate OREFAX sustained damage to the forward cabins while upbound on Lake Huron in the same storm.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 4, 2015 5:24:40 GMT -5
5/3 - Two shipwrecks off the shores of Door County are nominated for state and national historic preservation. The nomination will be considered at the Wisconsin Historic Preservation Review Board Meeting on May 8 in Janesville, Wis.
The Success near Sevastopol and the Hanover near Gibraltar may join the list of about 2,300 places in Wisconsin deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. The National Park Service maintains the list nationally and the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) on the state level.
“Right now they’re protected under the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act,” said Tamara Thomsen, underwater archaeologist for the WHS. The act transfers title of the wreck to the state, making the site a public resource while preventing divers from salvaging the remains. “If it’s on the register, it gives federal level of protection, so should someone loot the wreck or damage it, then it gives us some application of the law to be able to keep it nice for future generations.”
The Maritime Trails division of the WHS tracks maritime culture and history, including a detailed list of all shipwrecks in the state. Six other shipwrecks in Door County are recognized on the register for historical preservation. Fifteen sites across the entire Green Bay area, including Marinette, Oconto, Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties, are also on the register.
Thomsen wrote the nomination for the Hanover after DNR Conservation Warden Mike Neal discovered the site while investigating an incident with a boat running into a shoal near the Strawberry Islands.
“They noticed that there was a wreckage in the area so he went to our database and there was nothing in the vicinity that was reported as a known shipwreck so we made plans to come up and take a look at what he had found. We went out and did a preliminary investigation and determined it matched the measurements of a vessel that was lost in the vicinity that was known as the Hanover,” said Thomsen.
At the time of the wreck, the waters near Gibraltar were uncharted. When the charts came out and named an area near Chambers Island to be Hanover Shoal, researchers assumed it was named after the sunken Hanover. But divers were unable to find it.
“In fact [the Hanover] is further east of there on the reefs south of the Strawberry Island chain,” said Thomsen.
The Success was built locally in Manitowoc and used in the lumber trade before sinking in Whitefish Bay while waiting out a storm. The Success was a scow-schooner, an “everyman’s” boat according to Thomsen.
“You didn’t have to have a whole lot of understanding of shipbuilding. They used to say, ‘If you could build a barn, you could build a scow’,” said Thomsen. This fact makes every scow-schooner slightly different, adding to their importance in understanding historical shipbuilding.
Thomsen believes that both the Success and the Hanover were buried until the past few years. Shifting sands caused by significant changes in lake levels caused the ships to be unearthed. Being buried in sand, the ships were not eroded or tampered with. The Success is still almost entirely intact.
“It’s sort of this Pompeii experience,” said Thomsen. “If you could salvage the ship machinery you could use it on another ship. So this ship must have been swallowed by the sand because there’s lots of pieces of machinery with it.”
Every time a ship came into port for repairs or to drop off cargo, the local newspaper reported it. The WHS combed through these records to get an idea for what was lost and when. If the society is notified of a wreck, they are able to reference this record to verify that they found the right ship.
In order for a shipwreck to be recognized as a state and national historic site, it must satisfy two criteria: the wreck has to further the understanding of historic shipbuilding and contribute to the broader history of Wisconsin. Shipwrecks do this by providing information on the cargo that was shipped and the people that participated in this maritime activity.
“They’re time capsules that went down with everything that would have been aboard at the time of sinking,” said Thomsen. “It gives us this glimpse of a brief point of time in history.”
If the state review board approves the nominations, they nominate the sites to the National Park Service. If a site is approved at the state level, it is usually approved at the national level as well.
The State Historic Preservation Review Board Meeting will take place at the Rock County Historical Society in Janesville on May 8.
Door County Pulse
Five things going on this season with Muskegon's S.S. Milwaukee Clipper
5/3 - Muskegon, Mich. – The S.S. Milwaukee Clipper isn't cutting across Michigan anymore, but it still stays busy. One of only two National Historic Landmarks in Muskegon – the other one is the U.S.S. Silversides submarine – the 110-year-old ferry is owned, preserved and operated by a nonprofit board in Muskegon. It's a floating display, museum and archives dedicated to the history of passenger ships on the Great Lakes.
Here's some news about what's going on with the Milwaukee Clipper this season:
1. Work continues to find a different location for the Clipper. The 361-foot, six-deck Great Lakes ferry right now sits on the Grand Trunk Dock at the foot of McCracken Street in the Lakeside Business District, but it's always supposed to have been a temporary berth. Muskegon County officials earlier this year were not upbeat about the chances of putting the ship at Heritage Landing in Downtown Muskegon. But S.S. Milwaukee Clipper Preservation, Inc. board member Jim Plant says the work continues to find a different place for the Clipper.
"We'd rather not be a stand-alone object," he said. He thinks the Clipper has much to offer in terms of tourism, or even as a meeting space or venue for events.
"Basically, Muskegon's next industry is tourism, and we think we could be a part of that," he said.
The nonprofit group that owns the ship continues to explore other avenues for re-location. "We've got a good, strong board now," Plant said.
2. How's this for a field trip? Plant reports that a school class from the Milwaukee area plans to travel to Muskegon May 1 on the current Milwaukee-Muskegon ferry service, the Lake Express, and then tour the Milwaukee Clipper in Muskegon before returning home. The Express and the Clipper ought to make for an interesting comparison. Plant will open up the Clipper before its regularly-scheduled season just for the students' field trip.
3. The book published last year about the Clipper's history recently got some love. The illustrated history of the ship was reviewed in the Spring 2015 edition of PowerShips magazine, published by the Steamship Historical Society of America.
"This is a beautiful book in two ways," reviewer William A. Fox wrote. "First, co-author Dr. Steven S. Demos, through his work with computer graphics has made the graphic presentation wonderful, including the enhancement of the photographs. Second, it is the beautiful work of the many volunteers of S.S. Milwaukee Clipper Preservation, Inc., through the pen of Marylouise Plant, bringing their affection for the ship to life through these pages."
4. An upcoming fund-raising event. The Clipper will hold a Country Club Brunch and benefit auctions Sunday, May 17 at the Muskegon Country Club, 2801 Lakeshore Drive. The Country Club Brunch will be held 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Live and silent auctions will be held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. A Love Muskegon basket will be raffled off. Tickets to the auction and brunch are available for $30 and can be purchased by calling 231-722-2375 or 231-744-5101.
5. Upcoming season schedule. Tours of the Clipper will be held 1-5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students. Children under the age of 5 are admitted free. Tours take 60-90 minutes and cover four of the ship's six decks.
Muskegon Chronicle / MLive T
On May 4, 1958, JOHN SHERWIN entered service. The SHERWIN has now been in lay-up for half of her life on the Great Lakes. She last sailed on November 16, 1981.
On her maiden voyage May 4, 1976, ST. CLAIR departed Sturgeon Bay for Escanaba, Michigan, to load 39,803 gross tons of iron ore pellets for Indiana Harbor, Indiana arriving there on May 5th.
OREFAX ran aground on May 4, 1963, way off course near Manistique, Michigan. She was lightered and pulled off by the Roen Salvage Co. and made her way to Toronto, Ontario, where she discharged her cargo and left for repairs.
The tanker VENUS, a.) MARTHA E. ALLEN of 1928 suffered an explosion on May 4, 1972, when the crew was cleaning tanks while at anchor waiting for the fog to lift about seven miles west of the Eisenhower Lock in the Seaway. Two explosions rocked the ship, killing her skipper, Captain Stanley, and injuring three crewmen.
On 04 May 1839, ATLAS (wooden schooner, built in 1836, at Dexter, New York) was carrying building stone from Chaumont Bay to Oswego, New York, when she foundered 6 miles from Oswego. The steamer TELEGRAPH rushed out of Oswego to assist her but only found a little flotsam. All five on board were lost: Capt. Asahel Wescott, Ortha Little, William Ackerman, John Lee and Asa Davis (a passenger).
1889: The new Canadian Pacific steamer MANITOBA was launched at Owen Sound.
1911: The STEPHEN M. CLEMENT sank the ERWIN L. FISHER in a collision on the Detroit River. The former last sailed as PEAVEY PIONEER and was scrapped in 1968-1969.
1968: The Swedish freighter BRORIVER made 9 trips to the Great Lakes in 1965-1966. It was sold and renamed d) THALIA later in 1966 and caught fire on the Atlantic on this date in 1968. The blaze originated in the engine room but gutted the ship. It was abandoned the next day and was eventually towed to Dakar, Senegal, where it was forced to anchor 8 miles out, as officials did not want it in the port. The vessel later sank at the anchorage.
Coast Guard assists 2 kayakers from Detroit River
5/4 - Cleveland, Ohio - The Coast Guard rescued two kayakers from the Detroit River after they were overturned by a wake from a large vessel Saturday.
The names of the individuals rescued are not being released by the Coast Guard.
At about 10 a.m. the kayakers, neither wearing lifejackets, were paddling in the Detroit River when they were over taken by a large vessel, and the vessel's wake overturned the kayak and caused the kayakers to enter the water. The individuals swam to the seawall in front of Coast Guard Station Belle Isle. One of the individuals self rescued and the other was pulled out of the water by the officer of the day.
Station Belle Isle personnel notified emergency medical services, which responded and treated the people for symptoms related to hypothermia. EMS released the individuals after treatment.
The Coast Guard reminds boaters of the importance of wearing lifejackets because an emergency situation similar to what the kayakers faced can happen at any time. Had these kayakers not been in the vicinity of Station Belle Isle, this emergency situation could have turned out much worse.
USCG
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 5, 2015 5:12:46 GMT -5
5/5 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – On Monday at 9 a.m., the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie concluded the domestic ice breaking effort known as Operation Taconite. With ice throughout the western Great Lakes nearly melted, ice breaking in support of commercial navigation is no longer required.
During the 122 days of the 2015 domestic ice breaking operation (02 Jan-04 May), Op Taconite resources (7 USCG cutters and 3 Canadian CG ships) delivered 3,181 hours of ice breaking to assist 677 vessel transits; 353 of these transits (200 US, 145 Canadian and 8 foreign-flagged vessels) required direct icebreaking assistance.
Ice breaking resources spent an additional 3,568 hours establishing and maintaining tracks in the ice-choked waterways of Georgian Bay, Straits of Mackinac, Green Bay, southern Lake Michigan, St Marys River and Lake Superior in its entirety.
It is estimated more than 23 million tons of dry bulk and liquid cargoes, valued at $829 million U.S., were shipped during the 122 days of the ice breaking operation. These commodities were crucial to sustaining industrial production and power generation for the Great Lakes region during the winter.
USCG
May 5, 1904 the Crisp Point Light on Lake Superior went into service.
WILLIAM CLAY FORD (Hull#300) was launched at River Rouge, Michigan, by Great Lakes Engineering Works, May 5, 1953, for the Ford Motor Co.
On May 5, 1980, the SHARON, a.) ARCHERS HOPE of 1945, grounded in the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River. She was freed on May 7th and proceeded to Monroe, Michigan, and was laid up there on May 8, 1980. No repairs were made and she never sailed again.
On May 5, 1914, the GEORGE F. BAKER was traveling down bound in Lake Superior in dense fog with 10,500 tons of iron ore from Ashland, Wisconsin. She ran hard aground on Sawtooth Reef off Eagle River, on Upper Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.
May 5, 1914 - An unusual cargo, two "Jack Johnsons" (Navy guns) were hauled by the PERE MARQUETTE 17.
The small schooner ST PETER was loaded with grain when she sank 35 miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 5 May 1874. The crew reached shore in the yawl.
The steam barge KITTIE M. FORBES was launched in Bay City, Michigan, on 5 May 1883. She was owned by Capt. William Forbes and named for his daughter. Her keel was laid on 1 December 1882. Her dimensions were 195 feet keel, 209 foot overall, 35 foot beam and 14 foot depth. Her engine was built by Samuel F. Hodge.
On 05 May 1902, MILWAUKEE (steel propeller freighter, 325 foot, 3,327 gross tons) was launched at the Chicago Ship Building Company (Hull #55) at South Chicago, Illinois, for the Western Transit Co. She lasted until 1940, when she was scrapped at Hamilton, Ontario.
1960: The coastal freighter FEDERAL EXPRESS had been built at Midland in 1944 as H.M.C.S. WEST YORK. It was hit at the dock in Montreal on this date in 1960 by the Swedish freighter POLARIS, drifted downstream and sank. The stern was raised August 12, 1960, and the remainder of the hull came up in pieces.
1964: The downbound bulk carrier ERNEST T. WEIR sustained damage to the port bow when it collided with tanker MERCURY in Lake St. Clair. The latter had sheered to the left, went aground after the accident and developed a list. Both ships were repaired and ERNEST T. WEIR survives today as the idle self-unloader AMERICAN FORTITUDE.
1978: JALAVIHAR first visited the Great Lakes in 1966 under the flag of India. It ran aground in the Red Sea as d) KATERINA on this date in 1978. After being released it continued to Palermo, Italy, where it was declared beyond economical repair and was eventually scrapped at Split, Yugoslavia.
2009: VICTORIA first came through the Seaway in September 2004. On May 5, 2009, the ship, loaded with 10,000 metric tonnes of rice and its crew of 11 Romanian sailors, were captured by pirates, about 75 miles south of Yemen and held hostage. After the payment of a reported $1.8 million ransom, the vessel was released on July 18, 2009. It was back on the Great Lakes in 2011.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 6, 2015 5:48:53 GMT -5
Final portion of Canadian Miner being removed; barging of scrap material to follow
5/6 - Sydney, N.S. – The last of the former laker Canadian Miner should soon be out of the water and the process of barging the scrap to shore will then begin.
Nova Scotia Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Geoff MacLellan said crews are currently removing the final portion of the derelict ship from the water.
"We're essentially down to the stern, which contains the four engines of the boat and the transmission unit that holds them all together," he said. "From that point we're left with the scrap metal from the vessel that is now on Scatarie (Island), as well as the camp setup, the generators, the heavy equipment that's out there that's been used for the operation, so we'll immediately switch to the barge process — removing things off Scatarie onto the mainland."
With the barge process likely to coincide with a portion of the lobster fishing season, MacLellan said the contractor doing the removal, RJ MacIsaac Construction of Antigonish, and government officials are co-ordinating the logistics of how that will work with the local fishing community.
"We're in full discussion with the local fishers and the community group that's been leading the way the whole time. Basically, we have to find a setup, a schedule and a game plan that's acceptable to them," he said. "We have to avoid at all costs the disruption of the very important lobster fishery and the fishing industry there in the Scatarie area."
The Miner ran aground on Scatarie Island in September 2011, while on its way to Turkey where it was supposed to be scrapped. The province began cleaning up the site last year but work was delayed when additional contaminants — asbestos and diesel — were found and had to be removed. Tough winter weather conditions in recent months also pushed the timeline ahead.
While the federal government has so far refused to contribute money to the removal of the Miner, MacLellan said his department is continuing to push them to do so.
"The additional contaminants have really added to the cost and the timeline and I'm hoping that (federal Transport Minister) Lisa Raitt will look at that and see the responsibility from the federal side," he said. "We really are encouraging them to take a second look."
MacLellan said the final cost of removing the Miner is not known at this point but did acknowledge that costs have increased from the original budget of $11.9 million. "We don't have a final number but certainly when we have that number we'll make it public," he said.
Cape Breton Post
5/6 - Washington, D.C. – Rep. Candice Miller (Mi.-10) issued the following statement after the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1987), which included a provision submitted by Rep. Miller authorizing the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard to design and build a new icebreaker for its Great Lakes fleet:
"Last winter, I had an opportunity to ride aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock on a regularly-scheduled ice breaking mission on Lake Huron. I was amazed to see, firsthand, the harsh conditions and challenges they faced as they worked to clear the vast amount of ice that blanketed the lake. They demonstrated such precision and skill, especially given that freshwater ice is much harder to break, making their mission in the Great Lakes more challenging.
"This past winter, for the second consecutive year, ice coverage on the Great Lakes was well above normal. In fact, this year saw a peak of 89 percent of the Great Lakes basin covered in ice - last year was even worse with 92 percent covered in ice. Commercial navigation on the Great Lakes is critical not only to the economies of the eight Great Lakes states, but to the U.S. and Canadian economies. In a strong economy, the Great Lakes can handle 200 million tons of cargo, support 227,000 jobs, contribute $33.5 billion to the economy, pay $14.1 billion in salaries, and provide $4.6 billion in tax revenues.
"Unfortunately, the Coast Guard's aging fleet on the Great Lakes - which includes only nine icebreaking-capable cutters - is challenging their vital mission to keep our waterways clear and safe, which is why I have included a provision in this authorization to allow the Coast Guard to add a new icebreaker to the Great Lakes fleet. Starting the acquisition process now will minimize the loss of operating hours on the water as older cutters undergo repairs and maintenance.
"The brave men and women who serve in the U.S. Coast Guard put themselves in harm's way and often face harsh conditions to secure our waterways, and we must ensure that they have the resources they need to safely do their job. I appreciate my colleagues' support for this provision and am hopeful that it remains intact as it moves through the full House and Senate."
The U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1987) authorizes Coast Guard and Federal Maritime Commission funding levels for two years and includes provisions to improve Coast Guard mission effectiveness, help modernize the Guard's aging vessels and other assets, and reform U.S. maritime transportation laws.
Military.com
In 1944 the HILDA (2) and the barge MAITLAND NO.1 started the rescue operation of freighter GEORGE M. HUMPHREY (1) which sank in a collision with the D.M. CLEMSON (2) in the Straits of Mackinac.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 7, 2015 5:48:28 GMT -5
5/7 - Cleveland, Ohio – Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway totaled 4.3 million tons in April, nearly 15 percent below the month’s long-term average. The heavy ice blanketing the lakes not only slowed the vessels that were in service, it delayed many vessels from sailing. Several U.S.-flag vessel operators held back ships rather than sit in ice because the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards do not have enough icebreakers to adequately cover the system.
“April was again proof positive that we need more icebreaking resources,” said James H.I. Weakley, President of Lake Carriers’ Association, the trade association representing U.S.-flag vessel operators on the Great Lakes.
“Even though domestic steel production has been slowed by dumped foreign steel and global overcapacity, the mills and power plants needed to be resupplied after the winter closure. Unfortunately, extreme ice conditions, especially in Whitefish Bay at the eastern end of Lake Superior, forced many vessels to wait until convoys could be formed and led through the ice fields.”
This is the second year in a row a brutal winter has slowed early season shipments of iron ore and other cargos on the lakes. As a result, Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) included a provision in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1987) approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that directs the U.S. Coast Guard to design and build a new, multi-mission icebreaker to enhance its capabilities on the Great Lakes.
“We thank Congresswoman Miller for recognizing the need for more U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers on the Great Lakes. This new icebreaker must be at least equal to the heavy icebreaking capabilities of the Mackinaw. We will be working with the entire Great Lakes delegation to ensure this provision remains in the final bill passed by the House and Senate.”
Through April, the Lakes/Seaway ore trade stands at 8.2 million tons, a decrease of 16.5 percent compared to the long-term average. Loadings out of U.S. ports on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are down more than 21 percent compared to their long-term average.
Lake Carriers’ Association
ALGOPORT (Hull#217) was launched at Collingwood, Ontario, by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., May 7, 1979 for Algoma Central Railway.
HUTCHCLIFFE HALL entered service on May 7, 1954.
A.M. BYERS (Hull#448) was launched May 7, 1910 at Cleveland, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. for the North American Steamship Co. (R.A. Williams, mgr.). Renamed b.) CLEMENS A. REISS in 1959 and c.) JACK WIRT in 1970.
May 7, 1903 - The Benton Harbor, Coloma & Paw Paw Lake Railway was purchased by the Pere Marquette Railroad.
May 7, 1929 - The Pere Marquette notified Ludington it was interested in buying the frontage on Pere Marquette Lake that had been used by the Monroe Body Company. The city council asked $25,000 for the property, and the railroad agreed. Work on the No. 3 slip began a few months later.
On 7 May 1874, the schooner JENNIE MATHEWS was launched at Hardison's yard in Port Huron, Michigan. The launch started very slowly but with the help of men pulling on ropes, the vessel slid into the Black River nicely. Her first skipper was Capt. McGifford and her owner was Mr. Hardison. On 07 May 1954, official ground-breaking ceremonies were held for the Mackinac Bridge. It was completed three and a half years later.
1891: The new Canadian Pacific steamer MANITOBA, although built in 1889, had been laid up due to a recession and finally sailed on her maiden voyage on this date in 1891.
1935: A fire aboard ALEXANDER LESLIE at the port of Erieau, Ont., killed one member of the crew and injured two others.
1965: CEDARVILLE and TOPDALSFJORD collided in fog in the Straits of Mackinac. Ten lives were lost when the former, a self-unloader in the Bradley fleet, sank. The latter, a Norwegian freighter, had been a Seaway trader since 1960. Later, on May 11, 1984, as d) JIN XIAN QUAN, it sank the SEA CARRIER, another former Seaway trader as SVANEFJELL, in the Strait of Formosa off Taishan Island. TOPDALSFJORD was last noted as e) CHANGHI and was deleted from Lloyd's Register in 2005.
1998: CANADIAN ENTERPRISE loaded a record 32,366 tons of road salt at Goderich for delivery to Milwaukee.
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Post by yachtsmanwilly on May 8, 2015 4:22:49 GMT -5
5/8 - Cleveland, Ohio – Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 1.8 million tons in April, a decrease of 9 percent compared to the month’s 5-year average, and a drop of 30 percent compared to 2012, the last April in which ice conditions were not near arctic.
Heavy ice cover on the Lakes was the major factor behind the decreases. The ice formations were so formidable that the U.S.-flag Class V lakers that are heavily engaged in the stone trade collectively delayed their sailings by 60 days compared to 2014. Class V lakers are vessels that range in length from 600 to 649 feet and can transit rivers such as the Cuyahoga in Cleveland or the Saginaw River in Michigan.
Cold temperatures also slowed the resumption of mining at several quarries. Only 510,000 tons of aggregate and fluxstone had moved by mid-month.
Efforts to get more icebreaking resources on the Lakes are moving forward. Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) included a provision in the Coast Guard Authorization Bill approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that directs the U.S. Coast Guard to design and build a new, multi-mission icebreaker to enhance its capabilities on the Great Lakes.
The past two winters have been so brutal that millions of tons of various cargos have gone undelivered and that has cost the economy hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and thousands of jobs.
Lake Carriers’ Association
5/8 - Rogers City, Mich. – Of the 18 years he spent sailing, Rogers City resident Leonard Gabrysiak can't recall a foggier day than May 7, 1965. Visibility was so low aboard the SS Cedarville that Gabrysiak, now 84, remembers he and other crew members could barely see 5 feet in front of them.
That day proved to be a deadly one for 10 men of the 35-member crew of the Cedarville, which sank into the icy depths of the Straits of Mackinac exactly 50 years ago today.
"My wife used to wake me up in the middle of the night, and I'd be fighting myself or having nightmares about jumping off the boat and getting off the boat before it went down," he said. "I finally got over it."
The Cedarville, built in 1927, was the third-largest freighter lost on the Great Lakes, according to the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council, a private, nonprofit volunteer organization.
The 600-foot ship sank after an oceangoing Norwegian freighter, the Topdalsfjord, collided with it. According to the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council, the Cedarville remains on its starboard side, nearly broken in two, in 105 feet of water.
For Gabrysiak, the day remains vivid in his mind. "My memory is sharp," he said. The ship was hauling more than 14,000 tons of limestone, Gabrysiak said, and was traveling through the Straits of Mackinac when the crash happened.
Gabrysiak, who was the wheelsman, recalls that the captain had trouble contacting the captain of the Norwegian freighter, which was in the vicinity.
"It hadn't anchored and we hadn't anchored, either," he said. "We altered our course numerous times to get away from it, and we happened to get hit. The Norwegian ship backed off in the fog and that's the last I saw of it."
Gabrysiak said his crew dropped the anchor, but there was a sizable hole in the ship. Crewmembers rushed to cover it with collision tarp, but it wouldn't hold so they decided to try and beach the ship on shore.
"Suddenly the ship shuddered a little bit and started tipping to the side," he said. "The captain shut the engine off and I went out on the port side and it started to roll. ... The boat rolled right over and I got pulled down in the suction. I was down underwater and didn't think I was going to come back up."
A German ship was in the area and rescued the crewmembers who survived.
Gabrysiak said the water's temperature was only 37 degrees and doctors marveled at the fact he survived the incident. "I don't even remember how many days I was in the hospital," he said. "I was pretty banged up."
Saturday, the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City will hold a service at 2 p.m., honoring the ship's crewmembers. Seven of them are still living. Attendees will ring a bell for those who were lost in the shipwreck.
"I don't want to forget the people, who are now 55 or 56 years old, who were only 5 or 6 at the time," he said. "Losing a father at that age, I couldn't imagine. Let's remember all those who sacrificed their lives on the Great Lakes."
Detroit Free Press
5/8 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – Congress is considering whether to build another icebreaker to serve the Great Lakes, a move that's sure to please shipping companies singing the blues over ice-related drops in iron ore shipments.
On April 30, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved an appropriations bill that would authorize the U.S. Coast Guard to build a new Great Lakes icebreaker of yet-to-be-determined size.
The U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015, which authorizes Coast Guard spending for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, includes a provision for the new cutter submitted by outgoing Rep. Candice Miller (R-Harrison Township).
Vessel operators have been lobbying for a new heavy cutter in earnest after the 2013-2014 winter plunged the region into a deep freeze that resulted in historic ice cover and job losses around the region related to spring shipping delays.
Great Lakes ice cover peaked at 92 percent in 2014 and 89 percent in 2015.
This year, iron ore shipments were 60 percent below the March's 5-year average and 15 percent below April's "long-term" average, according to the Lake Carriers Association (LCA), which represents U.S. flag lake freighters.
Watch Coast Guard cutter slice past 20-foot ice on thawing Lake Erie Coast Guard cutter Neah Bay of Cleveland breaks ice on Lake Erie near Vermilion, Ohio on March 13, 2015. The cutter was breaking jams that may cause inland flooding. The crew encountered ice stacks as high as 20-feet.
"We will be working with the entire Great Lakes delegation to ensure this provision remains in the final bill passed by the House and Senate," said association president James H.I. Weakley, in a press statement.
Miller, whose name has been floated as a possible Michigan gubernatorial candidate, said the Coast Guard's "aging" Great Lakes fleet, which consists of 9 icebreakers, is "challenging their vital mission to keep our waterways clear and safe."
"Starting the acquisition process now will minimize the loss of operating hours on the water as older cutters undergo repairs and maintenance," she said in a statement.
The LCA wants to see any new cutter mirror the capabilities of the USCG Mackinaw, a 10-year old heavy cutter launched in April 2005. The Mackinaw was one of several cutters busy in Lake Superior last month trying to clear a path through a wind-driven ice field that trapped nearly a dozen ships in Whitefish Bay for days after the Soo Locks opened for the season.
Through April, ore trade on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway stands at 8.2 million tons, a decrease of 16.5 percent compared to the long-term average, according to the LCA, which says loadings out of U.S. ports on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are down more than 21 percent compared to long-term averages.
MLive
5/8 - Toronto, Ont. – It is the oldest ship ever discovered in Toronto, an early 19th-century schooner found this week by archeologists doing a routine exploration of the site for a condo development near Fort York Blvd. and Bathurst Street.
It the ship’s day, everything south of Front Street would have been underwater, with several wharves jutting into the lake, the largest of which was the Queen’s Wharf, a major commercial hub built in 1833.
“We suspect this ship was scuttled deliberately to provide a scaffold for the workers building the wharf,” said David Robertson, senior archeologist at Archeological Services Inc.
The archeological dig began in early March with the intent of documenting the wharves built there in the early 1800s, Robertson said. On Monday, they discovered the wooden skeleton of the schooner.
Only a small portion of the ship remains: the ship’s keel, or spine — which runs about 15 metres from bow to stern — and a portion of the hull.
They also found possible debris from the crew, mostly broken ceramic plates that would have ended up at the bottom of the ship. That is what archeologists used to date the vessel.
“This is a very exciting discovery. It is not too often we come across (vessels) from 1830, particularly in landfill rather than the water,” historian and York University archivist Michael Moir said.
“This is Toronto’s maritime heritage,” he added. “It’s discoveries like this ship that remind us of how Toronto grew and developed into the city is today.”
Studying it “will give us some insight into aspects of 19th-century ship-construction techniques,” Robertson said. They will continue to expose and document the ship and the sections of the Queen’s Wharf they have already found on the Concord Adex development site, he said.
The ship’s future remains under discussion, he said, but it would be difficult to preserve.
One possibility being explored, Robertson said, is using 3D imaging technology to create a model of what the ship may have once looked like.
This is only the fourth ship to have been unearthed in Toronto, though it is believed there may be many more beneath the paved streets.
Toronto Star
The 1,000-foot COLUMBIA STAR was christened May 8, 1981, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for Columbia Transportation Div., Oglebay Norton Co.
EDGAR B. SPEER (Hull#908) was launched May 8, 1980, at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. for Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. (U.S. Steel Corp., mgr.), after long delay because of labor strife.
FRED R. WHITE JR was christened May 8, 1979, named for Oglebay Norton's then vice-chairman of the board.
On May 8, 1979, the ASHLAND struck the north entry pier of the Duluth Ship Canal while outbound loaded. Thick ice blowing in from Lake Superior had interfered with her maneuverability. She dropped her anchor to lessen the impact but drifted over the flukes ripping a two by five foot hole in her bottom port side forward. She was inspected and repaired at the Duluth Port Terminal. One anchor was lost.
CHAMPLAIN's starboard side was damaged when she sideswiped the Swedish steamer BROLAND near the lower end of the St. Clair River cut-off, May 8, 1963.
May 8. 1936 – The Pere Marquette Railway Co. announced plans to construct a new $1 million ferry dock at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The 3-masted wooden schooner FRANK C. LEIGHTON was launched at 10:30 a.m. on 8 May 1875, at Dunford & Leighton's yard in Port Huron, eight months after work on her began. She was launched complete except for her mizzen mast, which was just about ready to go in position. She was named for Capt. Leighton's son. Her dimensions were 138 foot keel, 145 foot overall, 26 foot beam and 12 foot depth. She cost $20,000 and was owned by Dunford & Leighton.
The 254-foot wooden freighter AMAZON was launched at A. A. Turner's yard at Trenton, Michigan, on 8 May 1873.
On 08 May 1929, GEORGE W. PARKER wooden propeller sandsucker, 105 foot, 143 gross tons, built in 1903, at Marine City, Michigan by A. Anderson for Fishback Plaster Co., formerly a.) L. G. POWELL) was destroyed by fire and sank in the channel 6 miles south of Algonac, Michigan. Her crew escaped in the yawl.
1916: S.R. KIRBY was downbound in a Lake Superior storm when it was struck by two huge waves, broke its back and foundered. The composite hulled freighter sank quickly and only two of the 22 on board survived.
1918: The Norwegian freighter POLLUX came to the Great Lakes in 1907. It was torpedoed as b) DUX by U-54 about 7 miles northwest of Godrevy Lighthouse while carrying coal from Swansea, UK to LaRochelle, France.
1934: The hull of the first CANADOC was punctured when the ship went hard aground at St. Joseph's Island. The vessel was later freed, drydocked and repaired.
1938: JAMES B. FOOTE hit a dock at Chicago, under tow of the tug KANSAS, while loaded with corn for Sorel. The rudder, stock and a propeller blade were lost.
1942: The Hall Corp. canaller MONT LOUIS was torpedoed and sunk in the Caribbean by U-162 with the loss of 13 lives. Only 8 survived by clinging to the wreckage. The ship was carrying bauxite from Dutch Guiana to Trinidad when it was attacked and it sank so quickly that the lifeboats could not be launched. 1949: E.C. COLLINS and HENRY FORD II were in a collision in the St.Clair River.
1967 ELIN HOPE had been chartered to the Ontario Paper Company to carry newsprint from Baie Comeau to New York from 1950 to 1953. The ship came to the Great Lakes as b) PROCYON in 1961 and arrived at Madras, India, as c) KR ASHOK with the cargo of coal on fire on this date in 1967. The vessel settled on the bottom during firefighting operations. It was refloated May 19 and eventually scrapped at Madras in 1968.
1978: The third OUTARDE went aground in the St. Lawrence near Buoy 41-M and was not released until May 16. There was only minor damage to the ship.
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