Today in Great Lakes History

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3/3 - Cleveland, Ohio – The 2016 shipping season on the Great Lakes began on March 2 when the tug Dorothy Ann and barge Pathfinder loaded 14,600 tons of iron ore at Cleveland Bulk Terminal for delivery to ArcelorMittal Cleveland at the end of the navigable portion of the Cuyahoga River. That much iron ore will keep the mill in operation for about one day.

The vessel could have delivered another 4,600 tons, but the Cuyahoga River is notorious for silting up over the winter, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not dredge the river again until mid-May.

The next vessel to get underway will be the cement carrier G. L. Ostrander and barge Integrity on March 7. The pair will depart Milwaukee and sail to Chicago, where it will load 3,300 tons of slag for delivery to Alpena, Michigan. There it will then load 14,000 tons of cement for delivery to Detroit, Toledo and Cleveland.

The iron ore trade out of Escanaba, Michigan, is expected to resume on March 16 when the Joseph L. Block loads 34,000 tons for delivery to Indiana Harbor.

The locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, will open on March 25 and iron ore, low-sulfur coal and grain will again begin flowing from Lake Superior ports.

For the first time in a number of years the movement of dry-bulk cargo on Lake Michigan did not stop this winter. Two cement carriers, the Bradshaw McKee / St. Marys Conquest and Prentiss Brown / St. Marys Challenger, continued to move product from Charlevoix, Michigan, to Chicago, Milwaukee and Grand Haven, Michigan.

In 2015, U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters moved 87.2 million tons of cargo, a decrease of 3 percent compared to 2014. The iron ore trade was down more than 10 percent because of record levels of foreign steel being dumped into the U.S. market, but legislation recently signed by President hateful muslim traitor, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, promises to reign in tariff evasion and other unfair trade practices. In total it takes more than two tons of iron ore, fluxstone and other Lakes-delivered raw materials to make a ton of steel, so restoration of fair trade in steel is key to the future of Lakes shipping.

Lake Carriers’ Association





Big ships are in Milwaukee for the winter, but they're leaving soon

3/3 - Milwaukee, Wis. – With some help from a mild winter, the Great Lakes shipping season is about to get underway — putting boats and crews to work earlier than usual. Currently, two of the largest lake freighters — Stewart J. Cort and Burns Harbor — are docked at the Port of Milwaukee for winter maintenance and repairs.

The ships will probably leave Milwaukee in the next couple of weeks, according to port officials. "This winter has been incredibly mild, so the ice cover on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior is pretty open," said Port Director Paul Vornholt.

Winter is the only time of year you can get a close-up look at 1,000-foot ships in Milwaukee because, other than being docked here for maintenance and repairs, the biggest ships on the Great Lakes don't stop at the port on Jones Island during their regular sailing season.

If one of the big ships were stood on its end, it would be taller than the U.S. Bank building.

The winter work could involve almost anything, from replacing a ship's galley stove to rebuilding engines that cost millions of dollars.

On average, about $500,000 worth of work is done on each vessel over the winter. Local contractors and out-of-state specialty firms dig into the massive 16-cylinder engines that power the ships and run nearly continuously in the sailing season.

The winter docking area generates revenue for the City of Milwaukee and area businesses, including slip fees and money spent on repairs. "I jokingly refer to it as the Port of Milwaukee's 'bed and breakfast' for ships," Vornholt said.

Everything has to be finished before the sailing season starts, usually about March 25, because delays could cost a ship's owners thousands of dollars an hour in lost time.

The winter repairs have their own challenges, including the weather. It's not work for the careless, either, as decks get icy and heavy machinery is repaired under difficult conditions.

"It's like anything else. You have good days and bad days, but the summers are great," said Jerry Achenbach, superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, a Traverse City, Mich., college that trains ship officers.

Fifteen American companies operate 56 U.S.-flag vessels on the Great Lakes. The business ebbs and flows with the economy, but last year the ships moved 87.2 million tons of cargo, down about 3% from the year before.

Each ship has a crew of about 25 people. While the overall employment number isn't huge, job openings are expected in the near future.

"One thing for sure is we have an aging population, so there are opportunities for a young person to start in our industry," said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers' Association, based in Rocky River, Ohio.

Great Lakes Maritime Academy graduates can expect a salary of about $65,000 a year, or more if they work an extended sailing season, according to Achenbach.

"If you don't want to be a ship's officer, and are interested in working on the deck of a ship, probably your best bet would be to contact any of the maritime labor unions that have apprentice programs," he said.

Journal-Sentinel





Fit-out schedule released by American Steamship Co.

3/3 - American Steamship Co. has released its fit-out schedule. Not scheduled to sail, at least for the time being, are St. Clair, Indiana Harbor and American Courage, all of which ran last year. However, John J. Boland, which was laid up for 2015, is scheduled to come out in the spring. Adam E. Cornelius is also expected to remain laid up at Huron, Ohio. Long-term layup will also continue for American Victory and American Valor.

The keel was laid on March 3, 1980, for the COLUMBIA STAR (Hull#726) at Sturgeon Bay, Wis., by Bay Shipbuilding Corp. She now sails as AMERICAN CENTURY.

At midnight on 3 March 1880, DAVID SCOVILLE (wooden propeller steam tug/ferry, 42 foot, 37 gross tons, built in 1875, at Marine City, Mich.) burned at the Grand Trunk Railway wharf at Sarnia, Ontario. Arson was suspected. No lives were lost.

1947: NOVADOC of the Paterson fleet was lost with all hands (24 sailors) off Portland, Maine, while en route from Nova Scotia to New York City with a cargo of gypsum. The ship had also sailed as NORTHTON for the Mathews and Misener fleets.

1958: The tanker DON JOSE, formerly the ITORORO that operated on the Great Lakes for Transit Tankers & Terminals in the early 1940s, was destroyed by a fire, likely in a loading mishap, at Talara, Peru.

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In 1944, the U.S.C.G.C. MACKINAW (WAGB-83) was launched by the Toledo Ship Building Company (Hull #188) at Toledo, Ohio. Her name was originally planned to be MANITOWOC. MACKINAW was retired in 2006.

CECILIA DESGAGNES, a.) CARL GORTHON, departed Sorel, Quebec, on March 4, 1985, bound for Baie Comeau, Quebec, on her first trip in Desgagnes colors.

March 4, 1904 - William H. Le Fleur of the Pere Marquette car ferries was promoted to captain at the age of 34. He was the youngest carferry captain on the Great Lakes.

In 1858, TRENTON (wooden propeller, 134 foot, 240 gross tons, built in 1854, at Montreal, Quebec) burned to a total loss while tied to the mill wharf at Picton, Ontario, in Lake Ontario. The fire was probably caused by carpenters that were renovating her.

On 4 March 1889, TRANSIT (wooden 10-car propeller carferry, 168 foot, 1,058 gross tons, built in 1872, at Walkerville, Ontario) burned at the Grand Trunk Railroad dock at Windsor, Ontario on the Detroit River. She had been laid up since 1884, and the Grand Trunk Railroad had been trying to sell her for some time.

In 1871, FLORENCE (iron steamer, 42.5 foot, built in 1869, at Baltimore, Maryland) burned while docked at Amherstburg, Ontario at about 12:00 p.m. The fire was hot enough to destroy all the cabins and melt the surrounding ice in the Detroit River, but the vessel remained afloat and her engines were intact. She was rebuilt and remained in service until 1922 when she was scrapped.

1976 - The former British freighter GRETAFIELD of 1952, a Great Lakes visitor for the first time in 1962, hit the breakwall entering Cape Town, South Africa, as c) SIROCCO I and received extensive bow damage. It was sold to Taiwanese shipbreakers and departed May 15,1976, arriving at Kaohsiung July 5 for dismantling.

1983 - The former Danish freighter MARIE SKOU of 1962, inland for the first time in 1966, caught fire in the engine room and was abandoned by the crew south of Sicily as b) CLEO C. The vessel was towed to Malta on March 9 and scrapped there beginning in April.

1986 - The onetime Greek freighter YEMELOS, built in 1962 as MIGOLINA and renamed in 1972, first came inland in 1973. It was abandoned as e) TANFORY off Trincomolee, Sri Lanka, en route from Kandla, India, to Chittagong, Bangladesh, with salt and bentonite. The ship was presumed to have sunk.

1995 - The tug ERIE NO. 1, a) DUNKIRK, b) PEGGY M., c) RENE PURVIS sank at the dock in Toronto. It was raised by a crane June 18, 1995, but the cable snapped, dropping the hull on the dock breaking the tug’s back. The vessel was broken up at that location in late 1995.

2011 - LOUIS JOLLIET caught fire at Montreal during winter work. The ex-St. Lawrence ferry was being used as an excursion vessel.


Twin Ports Navy cadets launch fundraiser to buy Coast Guard cutter

3/4 - Duluth, Minn. – A one-time "Queen of the Fleet" for the U.S. Coast Guard may find a permanent home in the Twin Ports, if a local fundraising effort is successful.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet was the last remaining World War II-era ship in active duty when it was decommissioned in 2011. The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps' Twin Ports Division this week launched an effort to raise the $250,000 needed to purchase the cutter and bring it to the Duluth-Superior harbor from its current home in Anacortes, Wash.

The Acushnet would serve as a permanent training vessel for Navy Cadets, but it has the potential to be a point of interest for residents and tourists, a scientific research vessel for universities, an assistance vessel for rescues and large events, and a training vessel for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, said Ltjg. Davan Scott, commanding officer of the Twin Ports Division.

"(The Acushnet) has quite a storied history behind it. Duluth, being that it's the world's largest freshwater harbor, it makes sense to have something like this in the Twin Ports," Scott said.

The Acushnet began its service as the USS Shackle in the U.S. Navy in 1943, when one of its first missions was to help clear the channels of debris left by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It became the Acushnet in the U.S. Coast Guard beginning in 1946. Its service included rescuing 18 crew members on one of two ships broken in half during the 1952 New England storm that found notoriety in the film, "The Finest Hours."

The Acushnet was created to meet the challenges of World War II, at a time when U.S. citizens were coming together rather than dividing, said Steven Lindsey of Keene, N.H., a former Coast Guardsman with an interest in maritime preservation.

"This was our country at its best, I think," Lindsey said. "This ship comes from a time when everyone pulled together and we were one as a people as we ever were. That ship was one of the products of that time. I think it would be cool for the veterans, if we could keep this reminder around for them."

The training and skills learned in the Navy Cadets is "the real deal," Scott said.

With units in 47 states and more than 12,000 members, the Navy Cadets provides training for teenagers between 13 and 18 years old using the Navy's curriculum, including the completion of boot camp at Camp Dodge, Iowa. The Twin Ports Division specializes in medical and firefighting training, Scott said.

Although Scott spent several years in the Twin Ports Division before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 2006, the Navy Cadets is a volunteer organization — joining doesn't mean the child has enlisted in the military, he explained. The Twin Ports Division has existed since 2002 and has 23 cadets — with four new cadets soon to join the unit — and four officers, with a fifth officer also joining soon, he said.

The unit trains at the American Legion in West Duluth during the winter, and on the Sundew, a decommissioned Coast Guard cutter now privately owned in Duluth, during the summers. But changing locations seasonally is difficult, Scott said.

Purchasing the Acushnet would provide the Twin Ports Division with a permanent training location and would provide a location for other Navy Cadet units to train as well. Three boats are in use on other Great Lakes for Navy Cadet training, he said.

After searching for a vessel for six years to purchase, a former Twin Ports Navy Cadet came across the Acushnet a little more than a month ago and passed the information on to Scott.

"As far as the size of the vessel, the specifics of the vessel, after six years, this was the dream vessel we've been looking for, everything and then some that we would require for our training purposes and additional missions we'd use the vessel for," Scott said.

They've spent the past month searching for available grant funding, as well as setting up a Go Fund Me page for donations. The price tag on the vessel is $250,000 and Scott said they estimate it would cost a total of $550,000 to purchase the ship and the needed items for it, such as insurance, and get it to the Twin Ports.

After being decommissioned in 2011, the Acushnet was sold into the private sector. After sitting in the shipyard for several years, the shipyard has been trying to sell it, he said. Scott and other staff are planning to travel to the shipyard in a few weeks for an inspection of the Acushnet.

If purchased, the Acushnet will be sailed from Washington to the Twin Ports via the Panama Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we've come across and in six years, this is the first time we've found a vessel in (this) quality, this history and this amount of benefit it can increase not only for our unit, but for Duluth and the region," Scott said.

After helping to clear the Pearl Harbor channels, the Acushnet saw action with landings in Okinawa and Iwo Jima during World War II. Once transferred to the Coast Guard, its work continued. It was involved in 27 drug busts and served in the International Ice Patrol as well as New England, the west coast and Alaska.

On Feb. 18, 1952, two ships split into two parts during a storm off of Cape Cod, Mass. The rescue of the SS Pendleton's crew was immortalized in the book and film, "The Finest Hours." The Acushnet was among the vessels who rescued the crew off of the second ship in distress, the SS Fort Mercer.

"We want to honor this ship's history because this is a living piece of history and to preserve that," Scott said.

Touching on the ship's World War II history, the ship can prepare a new generation for the military and their futures, said Lindsey, who visited Duluth while serving with the Coast Guard on the Great Lakes in the 1980s.

"It's a symbolic gesture that this place matters, this piece of history matters, that what went on before with World War II and what went on with the Fort Mercer rescue and the other rescues and later when it went to Alaska to become the fishermen's friend in the Bering Sea — the Acushnet coming over the horizon in Alaskan waters and some doomed fishing boat taking on water and they couldn't keep up with it and they knew they were done, but when you saw that cutter heading for you, you knew all wasn't lost," Lindsey said. "Preserving that hope, that's really important, to give people hope."

For more information, visit gofundme.com/4rrqkt8k or www.twinportsnscc.com.

Duluth News Tribune


Report: U.S., Michigan face dire consequences if Soo Locks fail

3/4 - Washington, D.C. – A U.S. Department of Homeland Security report indicates a 6-month shutdown of the Poe Lock in Sault Ste. Marie, if one occurred, would plunge the nation into recession, closing factories and mines, halting auto and appliance production in the U.S. for most of a year and result in the loss of some 11 million jobs across the nation.

The report, obtained by the Free Press through the Freedom of Information Act, paints a grim picture of the outcome of any long-term shutdown of the Poe, the only one of the so-called Soo Locks able to handle the 1,000-foot-long vessels that each year move millions of tons of iron ore from mines in Wisconsin and northern Michigan to steel mills dotting the lower Great Lakes and beyond.

And while the Poe may not be imminently threatened with such a closure, there also is no question that it and the other operational shipping lock at the Soo, the smaller MacArthur, have seen more delays and closures in recent years, prompting shipping companies and manufacturers to agitate for a second Poe-sized lock – authorized by Congress some 30 years ago, but never adequately funded – to finally be built.

“The beauty of what (Homeland Security) has done is they’ve done a high level analysis of the impacts -- not just regionally, but nationally,” said James H.I. Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association, a trade group representing companies that ship on the Great Lakes.

[yachtsmanwilly]

3/7 - Duluth, Minn. – Troubled Essar Steel Minnesota has been sued again, this time by the companies that provided the potential Nashwauk taconite company with giant haul trucks and front-end loaders that allegedly haven't been paid for.

The suit, filed in State District Court in Itasca County, claims that Essar owes New York-based Axis Capital Funding more than $27.6 million in accelerated rents, damages and other fees under a lease agreement Essar has violated.

The suit, filed last month, also claims Essar owes Nebraska-based ESML Funding $1.3 million.

The suit claims Essar hasn't made monthly payments for 10 different Caterpillar trucks and loaders — the giant pieces of equipment that lift ore-bearing rock out of mine pits and haul it to the processing plant.

Essar Steel Minnesota "has failed to make full and timely payments of rents and other amounts due under the master lease agreement," the lawsuit alleges.

An Essar official did not immediately respond to comment on the suit or the company's future.

It's not the first time Essar has been sued by vendors and contractors for not paying its bills. Several companies filed suit in 2014 when Essar stopped paying bills on the partially built taconite mine and processing plant. The company said it secured $850 million in new funding in late 2014, paid off unpaid bills and restarted work in earnest in 2015, appearing to be on the way toward completion.

But that money apparently wasn't enough to finish the job, and work on the project stopped again in late 2015 with apparently more bills left unpaid.

Essar in January said that not only construction workers on the plant were being pulled off the job, but that they were also laying off employees hired recently in anticipation of a 2016 startup that now won't happen.

Even the state of Minnesota has had a hard time getting Essar to pay up on a loan, with the company threatened by Gov. Mark Dayton with a lawsuit if it didn't repay a $65.9 million state grant.

Essar on Dec. 31 inked an agreement with the state on a repayment schedule to avoid litigation. Essar was supposed to start making payments in February with $10 million paid by the end of March.

So far, that hasn't happened, said state Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township.

"To my knowledge they haven't repaid any of the state money as of yet," Anzelc said.

Anzelc said Essar did repay a $6 million loan to the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.

The state and IRRRB money was owed since October because Essar failed to live up to an agreement to create jobs at an iron and steelmaking facility in Nashwauk by that date. The company has moved ahead with building a taconite plant at the Nashwauk site, but has shelved plans to make iron and steel at the site.

The money from the state was awarded from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, through Itasca County, to pay for roads and railroad track as well as gas, water, sewer and electrical lines to the sprawling plant site. The money was an incentive for Essar to go beyond processing taconite and add value and jobs to Iron Range ore by actually making iron and steel at the site. The company, however, dropped plans to build the iron and steelmaking facilities, forcing the state to recall the loans.

Future uncertain

Now, the future of the entire project seems uncertain, with work stopped for months and no sign of progress. With iron ore prices in the basement and a glut of ore on the world market, many companies are idling mines, making it a tough economic environment for Essar to open a new one.

"This is about the third time they have run out of money. But this time the feeling is that it's permanent," Anzelc said.

Essar officials in January said the latest construction shutdown and layoffs would be only temporary but that any recall of workers "will depend on several factors over the coming weeks." Those factors included the company's ability to find even more funding to continue work on the project.

So far, Essar has made no announcement that additional financing has been secured.

Ground was broken in 2008 on the $1.9 billion project that promised to be the first all-new full-scale taconite iron ore operation in the state since the late 1970s. But work has occurred in fits and starts and the facility remains unfinished.

Essar's debts to the state, vendors and contractors aren't its only outstanding problems. In September, a federal judge entered a $32.9 million judgment against the firm after a jury agreed Essar violated a contract to purchase natural gas to serve its Nashwauk taconite project. Essar is appealing that order.

Essar Steel Minnesota is a subsidiary of Mumbai, India-based Essar.

Duluth News Tribune





Duluth break out to begin Monday

3/7 - U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder will commence spring break out operations in the Duluth-Superior area Monday March 7. These operations will continue periodically over the next few days and weeks to prepare regional waterways for the start of the Great Lakes commercial navigation season.

Initially, ice breaking operations will occur inside the Duluth and Superior Harbors. The ice breaking work will expand in coming weeks to prepare Two Harbors, MN, Taconite Harbor, MN, Silver Bay, MN, and Thunder Bay, Ontario for commercial ship movements.

Unlike the past two winters, this year was unseasonably warm. Regional ice cover is not as expansive nor did it reach traditional thicknesses. The forecast for the next seven to ten days calls for temperatures conducive to rapid deterioration of ice. All snowmobile, All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) operators, ice fishermen, and other recreational users of the ice should recognize the instability of the ice, plan their activities carefully, and use caution near the ice, especially in proximity to charted navigation areas.

USCG





Cutters to tackle St. Marys River ice Monday

3/7 - On Monday March 7, U.S. Coast Guard cutters Biscayne Bay (St Ignace) and Katmai Bay (Sault Ste. Marie) will begin spring break out operations in the St. Marys River in preparation for the 2016 shipping season. These operations will start in the lower river and move north towards the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

These ice breaking operations will involve work in the up bound channel, also known as the Middle Neebish Channel, from Detour Reef Light north to Nine Mile Point. It will also involve the southern segments of the West Neebish Channel, from Mud Lake Junction Light north towards Sawmill Point and the channel’s northern segment from Nine Mile Point south to Light 45. The ice bridges above and below the Neebish Island ferry crossing will not be impacted initially by this ice breaking work. The West Neebish Channel in its entirety will be opened prior to the March 25th opening of the Soo Locks. U.S. Coast Guard personnel will work with EUP Transit Authority officials to ensure adverse impact to the three ferries is kept to a minimum throughout the break out process.

USCG


ALGOSOO suffered a serious fire at her winter mooring on the west wall above Lock 8, at Port Colborne, Ontario on March 7, 1986, when a conveyor belt ignited, possibly caused by welding operations in the vicinity. The blaze spread to the stern gutting the aft accommodations. The ship was repaired at Welland and returned to service on October 6.

TEXACO BRAVE was launched March 7, 1929, as a) JOHN IRWIN (Hull#145) at Haverton-Hill-on-Tees, United Kingdom by Furness Shipbuilding Co.

On 7 March 1874, the wooden tug JOHN OWEN (Hull#28) was launched at Wyandotte, Michigan, by the Detroit Dry Dock Company for J. E. Owen of Detroit, Michigan.

On 7 March 1896, L. C.WALDO (steel propeller freighter, 387 foot, 4,244 gross tons) was launched at W. Bay City, Michigan by F. W. Wheeler (Hull #112). She had a long career. She was rebuilt twice, once in the winter of 1904-05 and again in 1914, after she was stranded in the Storm of 1913. She was sold Canadian in 1915, and renamed b.) RIVERTON. In 1944, she was renamed c.) MOHAWK DEER. She lasted until November 1967, when she foundered in the Gulf of Genoa while being towed to the scrap yard at La Spezia, Italy.

ANN ARBOR NO 1 (wooden propeller carferry, 260 foot, 1,128 gross tons, built in 1892, at Toledo, Ohio) got caught in the ice four miles off Manitowoc, Wisconsin in February 1910. She remained trapped and then on 7 March 1910, she caught fire and burned. Although she was declared a total loss, her hull was reportedly sold to Love Construction Co., Muskegon, Michigan, and reduced to an unregistered sand scow.

1969: The British freighter MONTCALM, a Seaway trader when new in 1960, made 29 trips to the Great Lakes to the end of 1967. A truck in #1 hold got loose on this date in an Atlantic storm 420 miles southeast of Halifax in 1969 causing a heavy list and a 12 foot gash in the hull. A U.S.C.G. helicopter dropped extra pumps and the ship reached Halifax and safety. The vessel later became a livestock carrier and arrived at Chittagong, Bangladesh, for scrapping as c) SIBA EDOLO on August 8, 1988.

1973: BISCAYA was a Danish flag freighter that first came inland in 1965. It was sailing as c) MARGARITA, and under Greek registry, when it sank following a collision with the ANZOATEGUI, a Venezuelan reefer ship, while in bound about 39 miles off Maracaibo, Venezuela on March 7, 1983. It was carrying barytes, a mineral used in oil-drilling fluids, from El Salvador.

1982: OCEAN LEADER came to the Great Lakes in 1980 and ran aground upbound near Sault Ste. Marie on November 11 when the radar malfunctioned. Later, in 1982 as c) FINIKI, the then 7-year old ship hit an underwater obstruction 10 miles west of the Moruka Light, while en route to Paramaribo, Suriname. The vessel reached Georgetown, Guyana, and was declared a total loss. It was reported as scuttled in the Atlantic off Jacksonville, Fla., on or after December 9, 1982.


3/6 - Catawba Island – Nothing says spring is on the horizon quite like the ferries being able to transport you to the islands of Lake Erie.

Miller Ferry announced last Thursday that their runs to and from the islands were scheduled to begin Friday. The start comes much earlier than in previous years thanks to the warmer weather and lack of ice prohibiting the vessels from traveling.

"Getting off to an early March start is key for the entire island this year," said Miller Ferry owner Julene Market. "There's so many exciting new projects and so much that goes into them. Whether it's supplies or workers, we're very happy to help further the progress."

NBC24


3/5 - On Monday March 7, U.S. Coast Guard cutters Mackinaw and Mobile Bay will commence spring breakout operations in the bay of Green Bay. These operations will likely occur in some areas used by recreational users such as but not limited to the Fox River and southern Green Bay, the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, Little Bay De Noc, and the entrance to Marinette and Menominee. In the coming weeks, these ice breaking efforts will increase in frequency as ice conditions deteriorate and the needs of commercial navigation require.

Unlike the past two winters, this year was unseasonably warm. Regional ice cover is not as expansive nor did it reach traditional thicknesses. The forecast for the next seven to ten days calls for temperatures conducive to rapid deterioration of ice.

USCG

[yachtsmanwilly]

3/8 - Duluth, Minn. – Someday, people strolling or biking the harborfront in Duluth might be able to do so along a revitalized promenade linking Bayfront Festival Park and Canal Park.

The stretch is envisioned as a complement to the Lakewalk on the other side of Canal Park — a way to traverse and enjoy the harborfront that also connects its attractions.

It would capitalize on what some people, including former mayor Don Ness, see as tremendous economic opportunities that exist in the presently quiet spaces behind the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

For it to happen, though, Duluth will have to address its dock wall problem.

Failing dock walls are revealing themselves in the form of sinkholes and cordoned-off zones that restrict pedestrian access to parts of the harborfront. Some of the hazards behind the DECC are urgent enough to cause city officials to weigh safety and liability concerns.

“It’s been on everybody’s radar screen,” said Dan Russell, the longtime executive director of the DECC. “But infrastructure repairs aren’t very glamorous.”

A recent data request from the News Tribune to the city of Duluth served to illuminate ongoing, behind-the-scenes talks by city officials about the struggling health of a dock wall that wraps behind the Great Lakes Aquarium all the way east to the Aerial Lift Bridge. It supports sidewalks, parking lots, charter and fishing boat docks, the Minnesota Slip and both its blue pedestrian bridge and the berth of the William A. Irvin, the popular out-of-service lake freighter that drew 25,000 people last October alone for its Haunted Ship Tour.

Among the documents received by the News Tribune from the city was an engineering consultant’s report from last June that concluded “urgent” attention was recommended for five of 11 spans that make up the lengthy stretch of dock wall. Divers have studied problematic areas near the blue pedestrian bridge, where the seawall was constructed of heavy timbers and dates back to the late 1800s, said the city’s chief administrative officer, David Montgomery, during a recent follow-up interview.

“Over time, water gets in there and it’s moving water,” Montgomery said. “It just starts chewing away at the stuff behind these things and it creates the sinkholes and the instability on some of the land side of the dock wall.”

Even the newest steel sheet pilings are corroding and faltering in varying degrees along the seawall. Montgomery and Russell both described what Russell called a “washtub effect” in Superior Bay that has served to compromise the wall. The water in the bay flows with the current of the St. Louis River Estuary. Behind the DECC, the water roils when there is weather from the south, causing waves to crash against the dock walls. Every ship that enters under the Aerial Lift Bridge raises the water in the bay, even if just slightly, via displacement.

After decades of that kind of stress and activity, the water is breaching spaces in wood and steel and seeping behind a dock wall that is a patchwork structure built in several different eras — with varying types of construction and materials indicative of the times they were installed.

City crews have become accustomed to filling sinkholes in the lawn dockside of the William A. Irvin. The holes usually are no more than knee-deep, Montgomery said, adding, “We’ve filled them in; we’ve repaired some, but ultimately the answer is going to be the dock walls have to be replaced.”

Concern about sinkholes

When Justin and Sarah Steinbach bought the Vista Fleet in 2011, they believed they were on solid ground. Sarah had been groomed by having worked previously in management for the fleet, and the couple saw growth opportunities for the city’s long-trusted sightseeing venture.

They’ve realized a lot of that potential by keeping their boats in impeccable condition and capitalizing on their 5,000-square-foot gift shop and ticket office located in the DECC.

“We do a lot of retail,” Justin Steinbach said earlier this month amid some offseason renovation work within the store. “This is such an amazing space that was underutilized.”

But the couple wasn’t aware of the faltering infrastructure where they dock their cruise ships and load their passengers.

“It was shocking to me when we first started learning of the issues that have been deferred for, I would say, the last two decades,” Steinbach said. “But it sounds like the city is taking it more seriously.”

In a short walk along the seawall, Steinbach pointed out the buckling and heaving sidewalks that are a symptom of the dock wall’s deterioration. An outbuilding across from the DECC on Harbor Drive that used to house some of the fleet’s passenger services is no longer in use except as storage, Steinbach said. It sits on the corner rounding into the Minnesota Slip — the most perilous zone along the entire seawall.

A concrete patio at the corner of the slip that used to feature umbrella-shaded tables is now fenced off by the city, which owns a lot of the property along the dock wall. Harbor Drive itself has shown none of the sinkholes or deterioration that exists in the earth that’s closer to the dock wall.

According to emails between city officials last summer, the Vista Fleet was asked to cease activity in its outbuilding last June, around the same time city workers fenced off the adjacent patio in advance of Grandma’s Marathon.

“We need to barricade that area immediately, preferably before Grandma’s this weekend,” wrote city architect Tari Rayala in an email last June to a colleague.

Later the same day, that colleague, city Property and Facilities Manager Erik Birkeland, wrote another city official, Director of Public Administration Jim Filby Williams, to say, “We are doing our best to handle this serious liability potential for the city. … This is a discussion that we should continue as a collapse at this area would be a major issue for the City and potentially more expensive than the actual fix itself.”

To fix what amounts to a sinking corner at the entrance to the slip would cost $3 million, according to several emails shared among city employees.

The city also is considering a temporary alternative in the form of a $200,000 wooden “relieving platform” that would allow for safe boarding and unloading of Vista Fleet passengers. The platform would be anchored to something other than the dock wall and its cribbing. Filby Williams recommended in an email that the city set aside money in the 2016 budget for the platform project.

“We’re in the process of having those conversations,” Montgomery said. “We’re going to err on the side of safety, because the last thing we want is to have 15 people standing in that area and have at that point a catastrophic collapse of that corner piece.”

Steinbach said the plan is for his business to tear down what he admits is a sinking storage building in due time, but he is loathe to characterize the sinkholes as something worse than they are. What ground penetrating radar can pick up as voids in the earth, Steinbach described as “small tripping hazards” in the lawns around the seawall. City workers fill them as they arise.

“They’re no big deal,” Steinbach said. “I don’t want people to avoid coming down here.”

When he spoke with the News Tribune recently, Steinbach said he was not aware of the relieving platform being considered for construction as early as this spring.

He did point out that the summer’s biggest attraction, Tall Ships 2016, will be docking vessels all along the dock wall behind the DECC. He indicated a seam delineating wooden dock wall from steel pilings and said the nose of one of the tall ships will come right to that point.

Steinbach is among those who sees vast potential for development behind the DECC, saying, “They could really make something cool here.”

A question of the slip

It was former mayor Ness who fostered a vision for the area behind the DECC that would fill in the Minnesota Slip and also reconfigure Harbor Drive to create an entirely new pedestrian connection between Bayfront Festival Park and Canal Park.

That vision is now in the hands of Mayor Emily Larson, who took office in January, and her administration. Any rejuvenation of the dock wall is dependent on the direction the city takes with the Minnesota Slip. It’s not inclined to spend money to fix the dock wall only to later fill in the slip.

“We have a new administration and that project is being re-evaluated,” Montgomery said. “There are all sorts of issues around it. Leaving it the way it is and filling it in both have their pluses and minuses.”

Montgomery said he expects Larson to make a decision on the slip sometime this year.

Russell said the DECC isn’t fond of the idea of moving its William A. Irvin. There would be loads of other landowners and parties involved and innumerable issues with filling in the slip, including issues related to pollution in the sediment at the bottom of the slip.

Raw industrial activity dating back 150 years resulted in contaminants settling at the bottom of the slip and bay that figure to require dredging or capping parts of the harbor floor. To fill in the slip would be the ultimate capping of those contaminants and cost a lot of money.

To simply rebuild the entirety of dock wall will cost anywhere between $10 million and $15 million, Montgomery said. In their emails, city officials said they consider the work something that could be included in state bond funds made available for fundamental infrastructure needs by the Minnesota Legislature in 2018.

Montgomery said the city has been tracking the dock wall for years — in the way the state transportation department watches the integrity of a bridge, he said. To hear the DECC’s Russell say it, the time for quick and temporary fixes would appear to be over.

“It’s just aging infrastructure,” Russell said. “It needs a major investment to stabilize all of it.”

Duluth News Tribune





Sarnia Harbor set to undergo $2-million dredging project

3/8 - Sarnia, Ont. – More improvements are planned for the Sarnia Harbor in the coming months. City officials are gearing up for a $2-million dredging project in an effort to ensure water depths remain adequate for commercial shipping traffic accessing the harbor for berthage, repairs and cargo transfers.

Environmental studies have indicated 25,000 cubic feet of silt will need to be dredged, said Peter Hungerford, the city's director of economic development and corporate planning.

But relocation plans for the sediment still need to be determined before dredging can began in the harbor this year. The city is also preparing for a $450,000 upgrade to the electrical services located at the west end of Seaway Road. During the winter, lay-up vessels are dependent on the harbor's power services. Last year, the city started electrical improvements to the harbor by replacing some transformers.

“Once that's done, we'll have a reliable source of power and we'll be good for 20 to 30 years,” Hungerford said Sunday.

Hungerford offered up the update on the city-owned harbor during the annual mariners' service held at St. Paul's Anglican Church Sunday.

Often referred to as the “sailors' church,” St. Paul's tin steeple used to help guide ships into the St. Clair River by reflecting the light coming from the Fort Gratiot lighthouse.

The church's steeple guided ships from 1868 until 1902 when the church was relocated from the corner of Livingston and Victoria streets to Michigan Avenue.

Every year St. Paul's still holds a mariners' service before the start of the navigation season, attracting sea cadets, Canadian Coast Guard members and guest speakers to honor those who did and continue to work and serve on the waters.

For Hungerford, the invitation to be this year's guest speaker couldn't have happened at a better time with the city's harbor ownership anniversary coming up later this month.

“We've had the harbor for almost two years now,” he said.

The harbor includes the government and east docks behind Paddy Flaherty's, the north slip at the end of Exmouth Street, and the Sidney Smith Wharf and nearby warehouses located on the Point Lands.

The federal government transferred the harbor as part of an $8.7-million divestiture deal with the city in March 2014. But the roots of a city-owned harbor trace back two decades when the federal government first broached the subject of a divestiture with the municipality.

“Back in the middle of the 1990s, I would never have thought it would be a 20-year process,” Hungerford said.

City politicians were steadfast over the years in their desire to secure $8.7 million for the harbour to cover off anticipated maintenance costs, as well as legal expenses.

Some of those funds have already been used for harbor improvements, including the installation of energy-efficient fixtures at the north slip and the remediation of two warehouses containing asbestos.

“We've had a busy couple of years,” Hungerford said.

Last year, 85 commercial vessels and the Canadian Coast Guard utilized the harbor, drawing in revenue of $550,000 from berthage fees, electricity sales and leases.

Sarnia Observer


EUGENE P. THOMAS (Hull#184) was launched March 8, 1930, at Toledo, Ohio by Toledo Shipbuilding Co., for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co.

March 8, 1910 - A fire from unknown causes destroyed the ANN ARBOR NO. 1 of 1892. The hull was sold to Love Construction Co., of Muskegon, Michigan.

On 8 March 1882, the tug WINSLOW left Manistee to tow the NORTHERN QUEEN to Marine City for repairs. NORTHERN QUEEN had collided with LAKE ERIE the previous autumn and then sank while trying to enter Manistique harbor. Robert Holland purchased the wreck of NORTHERN QUEEN after that incident.

1981 MEZADA of the Zim Israel Line first came to the Great Lakes in 1966 after it had been lengthened to 676 feet. The vessel had been built in 1960 and foundered after breaking in two about 100 miles east of Bermuda on March 8, 1981. The 19,247 gross ton bulk carrier was traveling from Haifa to Baltimore with a cargo of potash and 24 lives were lost while only 11 sailors were rescued.

[yachtsmanwilly]

3/9 - Toronto, Ont. – Algoma Central Corp. is retiring five bulk-commodity freighters, joining a growing list of shipping companies paring their fleets amid a slump in demand for coal and iron ore.

The St. Catharines, Ont.-based company made the call to retire the vessels ahead of schedule as it faces an oversupply of ships serving the steel mills and mines around the Great Lakes, said Peter Winkley, Algoma Central’s chief financial officer.

Two more bulk ships will be made idle when seven new, more fuel-efficient vessels are delivered by 2017 and 2018, Mr. Winkley said.

Coal shipments on the St. Lawrence Seaway fell by 41 per cent in 2015, leading an overall drop in cargo volumes of 9 per cent. Iron ore shipments rose by 5 per cent, said St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., which does not count cargo that stays within the Great Lakes.

On the world’s ocean-shipping routes, the picture is even darker. The Baltic dry index, a closely watched economic indicator and a measure of global shipping rates for ore, coal and grain, recently sank to a 30-year low amid a plunge in demand for industrial commodities and an oversupply of ships.

As its factories slow down, China is cutting about 1.8 million coal- and steel-worker jobs over the next five years.

Now, the world’s shipowners, which expanded their fleets in the wake of the financial crisis with mistaken expectations for a sustained economic boom, are sending a record number of ships to the scrapyard.

“It’s the worst time in the last 30 years,” said Basil Karatzas, of Karatzas Marine Advisors in New York.

But companies looking to slash expenses and squeeze money out of idle vessels are faced with low prices and poor demand for scrap metal at the world’s main ship-breaking yards in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These yards and others in Central and South America are working at full capacity.

“If steel prices are low and nobody wants to buy steel plate, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Mr. Karatzas said.

For now, scrap-steel prices are too low for Algoma Central to send the five ships to the wrecker. The surplus ships, four of which were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, will remain tied up at ports along the Great Lakes, Mr. Winkley said.

Algoma Central saw its profit more than cut in half in 2015, but is still making money. The same cannot be said for most of its international counterparts, where bankruptcies, forced takeovers and alliances rule.

Charter rate for ships that carry bulk commodities have plunged to as little as $1,000 (U.S.) a day, compared with operating costs of about $7,000, Mr. Karatzas said.

A stock index of dry-bulk-shipping companies compiled by Bloomberg has fallen by 74 per cent since the beginning of 2014, compared with a 9-per-cent rise in the benchmark S&P 500 stock index.

Star Bulk Carriers, a Greece-based company with a fleet of 76 ships that carry coal, ore and other dry commodities on the oceans, highlighted this week the depth of the problems facing the world’s shipping companies. The Nasdaq-listed company posted a $460-million loss for 2015, and announced a list of measures it was taking to weather what its chief executive officer call a “depressed market.”

The company said it would delay the purchase of five ships and push back $188-million in spending, in addition to 11 vessels already on deferral. The company last month cancelled the purchase of two new ships and has sold 10 vessels in the past year.

“The last 12 months have proven to be the most challenging market for dry-bulk-shipping over the last 30 years, with lacklustre demand and persistent oversupply,” said Petros Pappas, Star Bulk’s CEO.

The company’s losses are forecast to persist until 2019, according to JPMorgan analyst Noah Parquette. He said Star Bulk might need to take new steps to raise capital if shipping rates remain weak.

Toronto Star


3/9 - Duluth, Minn. – Slowly but surely the price of iron ore traded on the world market has been going up in 2016, seemingly bucking predictions from industry experts and analysts who expected ore prices to remain in the tank this year and most of 2017.

Then, on Monday, the price of iron ore jumped nearly 20 percent in one shot, apparently a single-day record since data has been kept starting in 2009.

Iron ore, which sank as low as $38 per ton in December, topped $55 and even hit $63.74 in one market Monday, the highest since last June.

The Monday spike came after Chinese government officials announced plans to bolster their sagging economy, hinting that they would continue to push for growth — thus increasing demand for steel and its main ingredient, iron ore.

The iron ore price increase is "nothing short of breathtaking," said New York-based Bespoke Investment Group in an industry report Monday.

Iron ore isn't alone — oil, copper and other commodities also have spiked up in recent weeks. So far, no one is sure if the dire predictions for 2016 were wrong or if the early-year improvement is the anomaly.

The recovered price still is a long way from the $190-per-ton record prices iron ore hit four years ago. Still, the higher prices are good news for beleaguered Minnesota iron producers, especially those who depend on selling to another company to make steel, like Cliffs Natural Resources and Magnetation. Cliffs stock closed at $3.42 per share on Monday, up 63 percent since March 1 and up 171 percent since the Cleveland-based iron ore producer hit rock bottom at $1.26 per share on Jan. 12. (Cliffs once rocketed to nearly $100 per share in 2011.)

U.S. Steel's stock price has nearly doubled from $6.83 on Feb. 11 to $13.55 at closing Monday.

The increased price could indicate that more steelmakers are buying ore to make more steel. And if that continues it could mean some of the 2,000 Iron Range steelworkers currently laid off could return to their jobs. Currently, seven of Minnesota's 11 major iron-ore-related businesses are shuttered due to the worst downturn since the early 1980s. A state Department of Employment and Economic Development spokeswoman on Monday said there are about 3,800 unemployed people across the Iron Range.

But analysts for Goldman Sachs cautioned against betting on a major recovery. While supply was briefly slowed due to disruptions in shipments from Brazil and Australia, the company said there is no sign of truly increased demand for iron ore by steelmakers.

Sceptics say there is too much steel capacity in the world, and way too much iron ore capacity, to expect a sustained rebound in price for either.

"We have yet to find evidence of higher-than-expected steel demand — whether in the order books of individual steel producers or in the official data for new orders. Based on the information currently available, the seasonal increase in demand appears only marginally stronger than last year," Goldman Sachs said in a Sunday report, adding they expect iron ore prices to return to the "low to mid $30s'' for the rest of 2016 and beyond.

Sceptics say the iron ore rebound has been pushed by so-called short covering — investors who bet prices would fall but who see rising prices and buy in to cut their losses.

The American Iron and Steel Institute on Monday reported that domestic steel production was up for the first week in March compared to the same week last year.

Some 71.5 percent of the steel industry capacity was being utilized last week, up from 68.9 percent for the same week in 2015.

Industry utilization of steelmaking capacity was down to near 60 percent by the end of 2015, meaning one-third of the industry sat idle.

Duluth News Tribune


Shipwreck diver Elmer Engman to be honored

3/9 - Duluth, Minn. – It was a TV movie about scuba divers raising a sunken submarine that inspired Elmer Engman to try scuba diving in the big lake in his backyard. While watching that movie nearly 50 years ago, Engman and a friend of his, both in high school in Duluth at the time, saw an ad for a scuba diving class.

"We signed up the next day to take scuba diving lessons and that was a hard class," he said — so challenging that half of the 20 students dropped out before the end. "Back then, scuba gear was pretty antiquated. You had to be physically fit just to survive Lake Superior with the diving gear that we had ... and try to stay warm too because it got chilly."

For his first time diving, Engman and his friend borrowed scuba gear and walked the short distance from his house on 15th Avenue East to the lakeshore. They had only one pair of diving gloves between the two of them, so they each wore one glove. Diving into Lake Superior in November, they lasted only a few minutes before their ungloved hands became so cold they had to get out of the water.

"We didn't know what to expect. We knew it was going to be cold, but not that cold," he said.

On a subsequent dive, they found two bottles of champagne in Lake Superior. They didn't know how the bottles got there, but Engman guessed that someone put them in the lake to cool and the bottles drifted away. Too young to drink alcohol, they gave the bottles away — but the discovery was a sign of things to come.

"Lake Superior still has a lot of secrets," he said. "You've just got to get out there and look."

Forty-eight years later, Engman has written three books on diving — including a guide to western Lake Superior shipwrecks that was the go-to guide for years — and has taught diving in the Northland for 44 years. He also created the Gales of November conference on shipwrecks in 1988 as a way to bring divers together.

"Diving has always been an interesting, relaxing sport. You never know what you're going to see when you're in the water," the 64-year-old Proctor resident said.

To recognize Engman's efforts, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society will honor Engman with the Dive Community Contribution Award during its banquet Saturday at the Upper Midwest Scuba and Adventure Travel Show in the Twin Cities.

"Icons in our dive community open doors to new diving experiences for all of us and few have opened more doors than Elmer Engman," states the letter nominating him for the award.

Phil Kerber, president of the society, said Engman has been the "go-to guy" when it comes to diving. Ships are built to last a long time and shipwrecks have a story to tell, he said — and Engman has helped tell that story with his guides to Lake Superior shipwrecks.

"It helps a lot of the people that have that interest in maritime history. It keeps those types of things alive," Kerber said.

Engman said he was surprised to learn he was receiving the award.

"I've been plugging along all these years and, getting an award for it is kind of exciting," he said. He's operated Viking Diver for the past nine years and previously had a scuba gear shop in Duluth, all while working for Minnesota Power for 33 years.

In the beginning, he didn't think diving would become a lifelong passion.

"It was kind of one of those decisions in your life that takes a completely different path," he said.

Engman had been interested in shipwrecks for a long time and he made his first visit to a shipwreck — the Samuel P. Ely — in 1969, not long after starting to dive. He explained that the Ely is a good shipwreck to visit for a first-timer because its location close to the breakwall in Two Harbors means it's shallow, safe and relatively intact.

"At that time, the ship turned 100 years old. It was an amazing feeling swimming across the deck that sailors walked on 100 years ago. It's hard to put into words," he said.

Visiting the Ely isn't scary because of its location, he said.

"Granted, you do have wrecks that are a little creepy. It depends on visibility. If you can see everything, everything is fine. But if you can't that makes things a little more hazardous," he said.

After visiting shipwrecks for a while, Engman decided to write a book describing wrecks in Lake Superior. It began as drawings of the shipwrecks and the wreck locations; then he began to add photos of the wrecks.

"In the '70s, there wasn't a lot of information about shipwreck history or even where the wrecks were, and that's where I got interested in doing research and actually doing a dive guide for Lake Superior shipwrecks — because I was told, 'Yeah, the wreck is right over there,' (but you'd) go there and there's nothing there," he said. That frustration spurred the book.

Engman has visited the wreck of the Thomas Wilson near Duluth hundreds of times and was part of the group that raised its anchor that now sits in Canal Park. His book, "In the Belly of the Whale," focuses on the Wilson, a whaleback freighter.

In his early days of scuba diving, he found a lantern in the engine room while diving aboard the Wilson with a friend.

"I was hanging on to it like this," he said holding his arm out, "going down to the engine. My buddy sees that and thinks I'm a ghost of a crewmember with this lantern. I scared the crap out of him," he recalled with a laugh.

Engman has taught diving all over the Northland, wherever there was a school pool he could use for the class, and he continues to be active in teaching in the Twin Ports. He still runs into students that he taught 30 years ago, he said.

Duluth News Tribune



In 1905, the JAMES C. WALLACE (Hull#334) of the Acme Steamship Co., (A.B. Wolvin, mgr.), was launched at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. Purchased by the Interlake Steamship Co. in 1913, she was scrapped at Genoa, Italy in 1963.

On 09 March 1933, all nine steamers of the Goodrich Transit Company were seized by federal marshals under a bankruptcy petition. These steamers were CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, CAROLINA, ALABAMA, ILLINOIS, CITY OF BENTON HARBOR, CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS, CITY OF ST. JOSEPH, CITY OF HOLLAND, and the CITY OF SAUGATUCK.

AMOCO ILLINOIS was launched March 9, 1918, as a) WILLIAM P. COWAN (Hull#724) at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co.

NOTRE DAME VICTORY (Hull#1229), was launched on March 9, 1945, at Portland, Oregon, by Oregon Shipbuilding Co., just 42 days after her keel was laid. She became the b.) CLIFFS VICTORY and sailed on the Great Lakes from 1951 until 1985.

WIARTON was launched March 9, 1907, as a) THOMAS LYNCH (Hull#73) at Chicago, Illinois, by Chicago Ship Building Co., for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. She was used as part of a breakwall at the Steel Co. of Canada Dock in Hamilton. The GROVEDALE of 1905, and HENRY R. PLATT JR of 1909, were also used.

March 9, 1920 - The PERE MARQUETTE 3 sank off Ludington after being crushed by ice.

On 9 March 1858, the propeller ferry GLOBE was being loaded with cattle at the Third Street dock at Detroit, Michigan. In the rush to get aboard, the cattle caused the vessel to capsize. All of the cattle swam ashore, although some swam across the river to the Canadian side.

1985: The Norwegian freighter TRONSTAD first came to the Great Lakes as a pre-Seaway visitor in 1957. It returned on another 12 occasions after the new waterway opened in 1959. The vessel was sailing a d) CRUZ DEL SUR when it was confiscated by U.S. authorities for drug smuggling and brought to Miami on this date in 1985. The 30-year old ship was towed out into the Atlantic and scuttled off Miami on December 19, 1986.

2007: The Greek freighter WISMAR was built in 1979 and came through the Seaway in 1980. It lost power below Lock 2 of the Welland Canal while upbound on August 30, 1980, and had to drop anchor. It was sailing as h) GRACIA from Thailand to Dakar, Senegal, with a cargo of rice, when the engine failed in heavy weather in the Indian Ocean on February 27, 2007. The crew took to the lifeboats and was rescued. The former Great Lakes visitor was last seen on March 7, adrift, with a 20-degree list to port, and likely soon sank.

[yachtsmanwilly]

3-9-2016 John Kerwitz makes rare appearance on the Flybridge Forum. Allegedly promises to finish great adventure story and get Willy information about broken steering column on truck. Film at 11.

CHARLES E. WILSON (Hull#710) was launched March 10, 1973, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp., for American Steamship Co. Renamed b.) JOHN J. BOLAND in 2000.

The ADAM E. CORNELIUS, built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works (Hull#53) in 1908, was renamed b.) DETROIT EDISON on March 10, 1948. In 1954, she was renamed c.) GEORGE F. RAND and in 1962, the RAND was sold to Canadian registry and renamed d.) AVONDALE. She was scrapped at Castellon, Spain in 1979.

FORT HENRY (Hull#150) was launched March 10, 1955, at Collingwood, Ontario by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., for Canada Steamship Lines Ltd.

KINSMAN VENTURE was launched March 10, 1906, as a.) JOHN SHERWIN (Hull#617) at West Bay City, Michigan by West Bay City Ship Building Co.

On 10 March 1881, the propellers MORLEY and A. L. HOPKINS were purchased by the Wabash Railroad Company from the Morley Brothers of Marine City, Michigan.

The N. K. FAIRBANK (wooden freighter, 205 foot, 980 gross tons, built in 1874, at Marine City, Michigan) was sold by Morley & Morse to Captain H. Hastings on 10 March 1884.

The tug RIVER QUEEN sank at her dock in Port Huron, Michigan during the night of 10 March 1885. She was raised the following day and one of her seacocks was discovered to have been open that caused her to fill with water.

CADILLAC (steel ferry, 161 foot, 636 gross tons) was launched on 10 March 1928, by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan (Hull #260) for the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Company. The ferry company claimed that she was the largest and most powerful ferry in North American waters. When she was launched, the Ambassador Bridge and the tunnel, which connects Detroit and Windsor, were being constructed. She was placed in service on 25 April 1928, and had a varied history. From 1940 to 1942, she ran as a Bob-lo steamer. In 1942, she was sold to the U. S. Coast Guard and renamed b.) ARROWWOOD (WAGL 176) and used as an icebreaker. She was rebuilt in 1946, renamed c.) CADILLAC, and served as a passenger vessel on Lake Erie. At the end of the 1947 season, she was tied up to the dock for use as a restaurant. She went through a couple of owners until she finally arrived at the scrappers' dock in Hamilton, Ontario on May 26, 1962 for breaking up.

In 2000, the HARMONIOUS, a Panamanian freighter dating from 1977, visited the Great Lakes in 1978 and returned on several occasions through 1986. It was lost on the Arabian Sea as c) KASTOR TOO while traveling from Aqaba, Jordan, to Visakhapatnam, India, with a cargo of phosphate on March 10, 2000. The crew of 18 were rescued by the nearby container ship MILDBURG.

[Avenger]

Well, at least it's good to see the flightless one back.

[yachtsmanwilly]

3/11 - Cleveland, Ohio – The Board of Directors for the Port of Cleveland met Thursday morning to review and approve an agenda focused heavily on maritime in advance of the 2016 shipping season.

The board approved a new services agreement with Spliethoff Transport BV to operate the Cleveland-Europe Express (CEE), the only scheduled liner service for containerized and breakbulk cargo between the U.S. Midwest, Europe, and connecting points worldwide. The CEE has established Cleveland as North America’s inland-most hub for trade with Europe, establishing scheduled maritime commerce between the two regions for the first time in over 40 years. In 2015, the service increased overall tonnage five-fold and container volumes by four-fold as compared with 2014.

The new agreement with ship owner Spliethoff Transport BV of the Netherlands ensures an average of at least two ships per month with direct service between Cleveland and Europe during the shipping season. The new agreement also provides that after the 2017 shipping season the Port will cease direct investments in the CEE and Spliethoff will bear all costs of operating the CEE going forward.

“The Port’s new services agreement with Spliethoff to operate the Cleveland-Europe Express meets all of our strategic goals for the service in 2016,” said Will Friedman, Port of Cleveland’s President and CEO. “We’ve maintained the frequency and high quality of the service while cutting costs to the Port and continuing to position Cleveland and the Great Lakes to compete in the global economy.”

The board also approved renewal of Federal Marine Terminals, Inc. (FMT) as a terminal operator for the 2016 shipping season. FMT will again lease Warehouses A, 24, 26, and the maintenance shed. FMT handles primarily non-containerized steel shipments and various project cargoes. “We are pleased to renew FMT for 2016 and plan to work aggressively with them to maximize their throughput despite ongoing headwinds in the steel and commodities markets”, said Port CEO Will Friedman. The board also approved a services agreement with engineering and design firm Hull & Associates for ongoing engineering work at Confined Disposal Facility (“CDF”) 12 to continue implementation of the Port’s innovative sediment management plan. Hull will prepare construction plans and bid documents for improvements at the CDF to allow for receipt of all the material dredged from the Cuyahoga Ship Channel in 2016.

“Our new two-year agreement with Spliethoff, strategic investments in environmental infrastructure and our continued partnership with FMT sets the stage for growth and sustainability as we continue connecting Cleveland, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest to the world,” said Chris Ronayne, chair of the Port of Cleveland’s Board of Directors.

Port of Cleveland


The keel was laid March 11, 1976, for the 660-foot-long forward section of the BELLE RIVER (Hull#716) at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp. Renamed b.) WALTER J. McCARTHY JR in 1990.

L'AIGLE was launched March 11, 1982, as a.) ERRIA PILOT (Hull#308) at Imabari, Japan by Asakawa Zosen Co. Renamed b.) KOYAMA 3 in 1983, c.) IONIAN EAGLE in 1989. Purchased by Soconav in 1991, renamed d.) LÕAIGLE. Sold, renamed e.) ALAM KERISI in 1996, f.) SALDA in 1999, and sails today as the tanker g.) ARAL.

Sea trials were conducted on March 11, 1956, on Paterson's new canaller LACHINEDOC.

The tug RIVER QUEEN was sold to Ed Recor of St. Clair, Michigan on 11 March 1886.

1904: The wooden-hull Lake Erie car ferry SHENANGO NO. 1 caught fire and burned following an engine room explosion on March 11, 1904. The vessel had been frozen in the ice off Conneaut since January 1 and one member of the crew perished in the blaze.

1912: FLORA M. HILL sank in Lake Michigan en route to Chicago after being caught in an ice floe that crushed the iron hull. The vessel had been built as at Philadelphia in 1874 as the lighthouse tender DAHLIA and rebuilt and renamed at Milwaukee in 1910 for Lake Michigan service.

[yachtsmanwilly]

Tug in New York sinking was former Great Lakes tug Curly B

3/14 - The U.S. Coast Guard says it has suspended its search for two tugboat crewmen who are missing and presumed dead after the boat crashed into a barge north of New York City.

The 90-foot tugboat Specialist hit a barge at around 5:20 a.m. Saturday near where the new Tappan Zee Bridge is being built. Specialist is the former Great Lakes tug Curly B. It sailed the lakes between 1977 and 2006 for Calumet Marine Towing (CURLY B), Kindra Lake Towing (BUCKLEY) and Lake Michigan Contractors.

The Coast Guard says its search was suspended at sunset, around 7 p.m. Saturday. Coast Guard search and rescue mission coordinator Rodger Krass says it was a "very difficult decision."

Three men were aboard the tugboat when it crashed around 5 a.m. It was one of three tugs pushing a barge down the Hudson when it hit a stationary barge that was part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project.

Rescuers found the body of 62-year-old crew member Paul Amon around 5:30 a.m. The two other crew members, including a 29-year-old man, remain missing.

ABC, Rich Nicholls





3/14 - Owen Sound Ont. – As the MS Chi-Cheemaun's 2016 sailing season fast approaches, work crews are busy completing the first off-season major renovations to the vessel's interior.

On Monday, truckloads of equipment will arrive at the harbor to be loaded onto the ship, which is in the midst of a major $2.4-million renovation to convert the cafeteria into a fine dining area.

"It is to the point now where we are getting ready to put all the new equipment in," Owen Sound Transportation Company chief executive officer Susan Schrempf said on Friday. "On Monday there are going to be several transport trucks from pretty much all over the continent, a 45-foot forklift, a boom truck and we are going to be putting a lot of the equipment that is arriving onboard and then it is installation after that."

The work involves completely changing the footprint of the dining area, with all the structural work now complete and some flooring done. The galley, or kitchen, is the only portion of the area that is not being changed.

The carpeting, tables, chairs, decorative pieces and the equipment used in the servery area are all to arrive by truck on Monday.

"The dining area itself has had surface renovation done, but this is a complete revisioning of how the space is used," said Schrempf. "We took the original design of the ship . . . and we have been trying to make it do things it wasn't designed to do, for instance the fine dining."

The work is to make seven specific lighting zones, create a bar area and a clear division between the fine dining and general dining areas.

"The best part is you are not lining up in sort of a corral anymore to be served food," said Schrempf. "It is a different kind of concept where you can go to the hot food area, you can go to the grab and go area, you can go to the beverage area and carry on through."

Schrempf said the work is to all be complete in time for the start of the sailing season, which kicks off with the Scenic City Order of Good Cheer Cruise on April 30. The Mayor's Breakfast on May 4 will also use the newly renovated area, while the ship's annual Spring Cruise to Tobermory is May 5.

"We do have to plan these things at least a year in advance in order to get all the work done over the winter," said Schrempf. "The last thing we want to do is have planned work create any kind of an issue with our start-up date."

The renovations to the cafeteria are just the first stage in a three-year plan to renovate the interior of the ferry. When the Chi-Cheemaun is docked for next winter's layover, there are plans to upgrade the forward lounge, which will include a "proper" entertainment area.

The next year, there are plans to renovate the aft lounge, which houses the children's play area, gallery space and where other events are held.

In last month's budget, the Ontario government pledged to invest in the upgrades to the Chi-Cheemaun as well as dredging in the Moosonee area for the navigation routes of the Owen Sound Transportation Company's MV Niska 1. The government didn't disclose a dollar figure for the work, but Schrempf pegged the cafeteria work at about $2.4 million. The estimated cost for the other work to the lounge areas could not be divulged as much of that work still has to go to tender.

The interior renovations also coincide with a First Nations-themed branding on the exterior of the ferry. Last May, a First Nations-themed vinyl decal was installed on the Chi-Cheemaun's smokestack. In the spring, another decal will be installed around the front of the bow.

"You will see the same colours and a lot of the same imagery inside the ship as you are seeing outside the ship," said Schrempf. "That will of course carry through the entire ship through the next couple of years."

Scremphf said all the work, along with a more extensive entertainment lineup, is part of the company's vision to convert the ferry from simply a transportation vessel into a tourist destination.

"We are trying to improve the experience because we are also selling for our round trips, for people who just want the walk-on experience," said Schrempf. "There has to be more to do, more to see, a more pleasant feel to the vessel."

Already the work appears to be paying off, with ridership up significantly last season when compared to a year earlier.

"I don't think we are going to see as big a leap in traffic as we saw last year when we were up eight per cent in vehicles and almost 11 in passengers," said Schrempf. "You don't normally see that happen two years in a row, but we would be quite happy with a two or three per cent increase this year over last year."

Owen Sound Sun Times


March 14, 1959 - The ANN ARBOR NO 6 returned to service as the b.) ARTHUR K ATKINSON after an extensive refit.

In 1880, the harbor tug GEORGE LAMONT sank with her crew of three off Pentwater, Michigan after being overcome by weather during a race with her rival, the harbor tug GEM. The LAMONT was the only steamer to disappear with all hands during the many races that took place among steamers during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

On 14 March 1873, the new railroad carferry SAGINAW went into the Port Huron Dry Dock Company's dry dock where her engine was installed along with her shaft and propeller. Workmen had to break up the ice in the dry dock to release the schooner MARY E. PEREW so that work could begin on the SAGINAW. The work was done quickly since SAGINAW was needed to fill in for a disabled ferry in Detroit. Mr. Francois Baby was granted a "ferry lease" between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan on 14 March 1843. He built the steamer ALLIANCE for this ferry service and Capt. Tom Chilvers was the skipper. In 1851, Capt. Chilvers leased the steamer from Mr. Baby and ran it on the same route until the late 1850s.

On 14 March 1878, the first vessel of the navigation season passed through the Straits of Mackinac. This was the earliest opening of the navigation season at the Straits since 1854.

1918 ISLAND QUEEN, a wooden-hulled Toronto Island ferry, was destroyed by a fire at Hanlan's Point in Toronto. The ship was valued at $25,000 and the hull was left to rot.

1962: MILLY made one trip through the Seaway in 1959. It had been launched at Stockton, CA on May 13, 1915, as PORTHCAWL and became d) MILLY in 1950. The 295 foot freighter, sailing as f) HEDIA, last reported March 14 near Galita Island on the Mediterranean close to Malta and en route from Casablanca, Morocco, to Venice, Italy, with a cargo of phosphate. It was posted as missing and then lost with all hands.

1993: The Freedom Class freighter SHAMALY was a year old when it came through the Seaway in 1969. It returned December 1, 1990, as c) WALVIS BAY for Ogdensburg, NY to load corn gluten The 9650 gross ton freighter ran aground south of Greece off Cape Morakis in 1993 en route from Piraeus to Scotland as d) LIPARIT BAY. The hull was not worth repairing and sold for scrap. Renamed e) NORA for the delivery tow, it arrived at Aliaga, Turkey, April 4, 1994, for dismantling and work began May 16.

1999: The Panamanian freighter EVANGELIA PETRAKIS was built in Muroran, Japan, in 1978 as N.J. PATERAS. It came through the Seaway in 1988 and was renamed c) AMER VED in 1990. It survived a grounding off Horsetail Bank, UK on November 19, 1996, only to suffer serious damage in a collision with the newly built, 57,947 gross ton, Maltese flag tanker SEAPRIDE I off Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates. The damage to the 21-year old freighter was not worth repairs so it arrived at Alang, India, for scrapping on June 19, 1999.

1964: MARIA G.L. went aground at Suno Saki, Japan, about 30 miles south of Yokohama, in fog. This Liberty ship had been a Great Lakes trader in 1961. It was enroute from Long Beach, California, to Chiba, Japan, with a cargo of phosphates and broke in two as a total loss.


3/13 - Port Huron, Mich. – After a nearly 3-month closure, the Great Lakes Maritime Center, 51 Water St., Port Huron, has reopened its doors to freighter enthusiasts. The center has been closed since Dec. 19.

Mike DeLong, director of operations for Acheson Ventures, said the closure corresponded to a slowdown in freighter traffic, particularly during the period from January to March when the Soo Locks are closed for maintenance.

“... Just trying to get us back to our core values of the maritime center, which is maritime education and freighter watching,” DeLong said.

The maritime center will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. After Memorial Day, the center will extend its hours to 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

While the maritime center began accepting visitors again Saturday, the freighter season officially kicks off March 19. “Next week, we’re having a blessing of the fleet at the Maritime Center, opening day of freighter season,” DeLong said.

“We do it every year and there’s a ceremony to bless all the sailors lost and those on the lakes currently.” The ceremony is at noon at the Maritime Center.

DeLong said the center also hopes to begin showing a maritime-themed film on Sundays. He said a date to begin those weekly showings has not yet been set.

Frank Frisk, maritime consultant and researcher for the center, said the BoatNerd.com website has continued to run throughout the facility’s closure.

Frisk said he’ll be available at the center starting Saturday during his usual hours — every morning for six hours. Frisk answers questions about and researches local maritime procedures, maritime history or genealogical questions about friends or relatives who may have worked on Great Lakes vessels.

“I’m there to support the public as a maritime consultant and researcher,” Frisk said.

DeLong said Backstreet Waterfront Deli also will return to the center.

Port Huron Times Herald


3/12 - Duluth, Minn. – Under normal conditions, a person might look onto Lake Superior this time of year and spot a U.S. Coast Guard cutter knifing through the ice several hundred yards offshore. But there's little reason to cut a channel in advance of the upcoming shipping season this year.

Talking aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder on Wednesday, Lt. j.g. Kristopher Thornburg spoke the obvious. "The warm weather is helping us out," he said.

Ice coverage on the Great Lakes was less than 8 percent this week according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's good news for the raw materials industries with the start of the shipping season looming March 25.

"The ice chart I'm looking at doesn't even show 100 percent in Thunder Bay, which is unusual," said Jim Sharrow, director of port planning and resiliency with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. "It's usually hard and fast, shore to shore there."

The ice that usually locks onto shore and grows inward toward the centers of the lakes barely materialized this winter.

It's a stark contrast to the past two ice-laden winters. Last April witnessed 18 vessels stranded in the ice in eastern Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay, and 2014 featured brutally cold temperatures and record ice coverage that didn't lift in some places until early June.

By comparison, Whitefish Bay this year is largely ice-free, said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the U.S. Coast Guard based in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. East of the bay, the approaches to the Soo Locks that link Lake Superior with the other Great Lakes will require some minor icebreaking on the St. Mary's River.

"Last year we were sitting at 82 percent, but with the warmer winter there's been nowhere near the ice-over," Gill said. "The ice is also deteriorating very quickly."

For perspective, consider the mesmerizing video seen by millions of viewers of ice stacking up along Duluth's Brighton Beach. Taken by Duluth's Dawn LaPointe in February, the imagery highlights something that does not normally occur, said Gill.

"Normally there's freezing onto the shorelines and formations melting in place," he said. "But because it never got super cold the formations broke free and have been drifting around."

The mild winter has El Niño to thank, said Carol Christenson, a Duluth-based meteorologist with the National Weather Service. She described the phenomenon of El Niño as warm equatorial surface waters sloshing around and serving to change atmospheric weather circulations.

As a result, "We didn't get nearly as much of the cold Arctic air," Christenson said.

But already, there are models that show a La Niña setting up later this year. A reverse condition to El Niño, "it typically means snowier and colder winters for us," Gill said.

Christenson wouldn't go so far as to say that, despite the weather service showing a greater than 50 percent confidence in La Niña setting up later this year. "El Niño almost always gives us warm winter temperatures," she said. "La Niña effects aren't as cut and dried."

In the meantime, the lack of ice cover means the shipping season figures to get off to an unencumbered start.

While there are no departure dates scheduled locally yet, the more than half-dozen ships in layup in the Twin Ports figure to be leaving around March 22-23 in order to be at the Soo Locks when they open. Gill expected several ships to be ready and waiting on both sides of the locks.

"The commercial traffic is quite happy," Gill said, "to let the ice break up on its own."

Duluth News Tribune

3/12 - Sturgeon Bay, Wisc. - The U.S. Coast Guard will present the Captain David P. Dobbins Award for recognition of outstanding action while conducting a search-and-rescue mission on the Great Lakes to the captain and crew of the motor vessel Joseph L. Block in Sturgeon Bay Saturday.

The award recipients are being recognized for their actions Aug. 24 2015, when, aboard the motor vessel Joseph L. Block, they responded to an urgent distress call and rescued a boater out of Lake Michigan after the boater’s 28-foot vessel began to sink 10 miles from Port Washington, Wisconsin.

The 728-foot ship, owned by Central Marine Logistics, was underway in the area and quickly diverted to assist. The crew located the sinking vessel and found the man in the water wearing a life jacket and waving his arms. The crew members reacted quickly, threw heaving lines and hoisted him safely onto their ship. From there, boat crews from Coast Guard Station Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Ozaukee County Marine Unit took him to Port Washington Municipal Marina for medical evaluation.

The Dobbins Award is named after Capt. David P. Dobbins, who was appointed the first superintendent of the U.S. Lifesaving Service of the Great Lakes in 1876. He distinguished himself by performing and organizing numerous heroic rescues during his career. In memory of his heritage, initiative and dedication, the award is presented to individuals who perform distinguished search and rescue acts on the Great Lakes.

USCG



The b.) RUTH HINDMAN was launched March 12, 1910, as a.) NORWAY (Hull#115) at Toledo, Ohio by Toledo Shipbuilding Co., for the United States Transportation Co. She was scrapped at Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 1978.

G.A. TOMLINSON was launched March 12, 1907, as a) D.O. MILLS (Hull#29) at Ecorse, Michigan, by Great Lakes Engineering Works for the Mesaba Steamship Co.

March 12, 1941 - The ferry CITY OF MIDLAND 41 arrived in Ludington, Michigan, on her maiden voyage. She loaded cars of paper at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and then picked up some cars of canned milk at Kewaunee, with Captain Charles Robertson in command.

On 12 March 1883, the steam barge R. MC DONALD was renamed IDA M. TORRENT.

1917: ALGONQUIN was built at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888 and saw service for several companies on the Great Lakes. The ship was torpedoed by U-62 when it was 65 miles off Cornwall, England, while west of Bishop's Rock and en route from New York to London with general cargo. It was the first American merchant ship lost due to enemy action in World War One.

1942: ¬CRAIGROWNIE was a World War One Laker and had been launched at Ashtabula on April 12, 1919. It was sailing as d) OLGA when torpedoed by U-126, 20 miles off Nuevital Light, Cuba, while en route from Port Everglades, FL, to Beracoa, Cuba. One crewmember was lost but 32 were rescued and taken to Cuba.

1947: EXANTHIA struck a mine in the Mediterranean while 12 miles from the island of Elba while traveling from Istanbul to New York. The ship was flooded and abandoned but reboarded and eventually towed to New York for repairs. The ship sailed for the American Export Lines and came to the Great Lakes on nine occasions from 1959-1961. After a few years in the James River Reserve Fleet, the vessel was taken to Brownsville, Texas, in 1975 and broken up.

1971: SUNCLIPPER, a Seaway trader in 1966, was built in 1953 as BOW BRASIL. It ran aground at Haifa Bay as f) CLIPPER when the anchors dragged in a storm. The ship was refloated April 10, and taken to Perama, Greece. It was sold “as lies” to Turkish ship breakers, and arrived at Istanbul, Turkey, for scrapping on August 29, 1972.

1985: LETITIA was the 96th and final addition to the British flag Donaldson Line. It made four trips through the Seaway in 1966 and three more in 1967. It was sailing as d) TEPORA when it caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico en route to Veracruz, Mexico, on March 12, 1985. The Honduran-flagged freighter was abandoned by the crew. The fire was apparently extinguished and the vessel reboarded. It was taken in tow but the blaze broke out again and the ship sank on March 14.

[yachtsmanwilly]

3/15 - The doors of the Soo Locks Visitors Center will be open from 9 am – 3 pm on the March 25 to celebrate the beginning of the 2016 shipping season. Light refreshments will be available.

Soo Locks Visitors Center Association


3/15 - Cliffs Natural Resources announced Monday that it plans to reopen its Northshore Mining operations in Silver Bay and Babbitt by May 15.

The company had announced last November that it would idle those operations, which employ about 540 workers, due to the continuing oversupply of iron ore in the U.S. and global markets - a situation that has caused several other mines on the Iron Range to idle as well.

In reopening Northshore, Cliffs "is taking such action based on its domestic customers' demand for iron ore pellets and consistent with its previously announced production plans for the year," the company announced in a news release Monday.

"The avalanche of unfairly traded steel hitting the U.S. since last year negatively affected our clients' production levels and, as a consequence, affected us. At this time, with the trade cases approaching their final stages and preliminary duties being announced, the volume of unfairly traded steel is starting to subside," Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs' chairman, president and CEO said in the news release. "As our clients' order books improve and their need for pellets approach more normal levels, we are pleased to announce that we are bringing back to work our dedicated employees at Northshore. ...

"In 2015, Cliffs developed at Northshore Mining a new product, the DR-grade pellets used as feedstock to (direct-reduced iron) production. As we restart operations at Northshore in May, we will also resume the production of DR-grade pellets."

Duluth News Tribune


3/15 - Brockville, Ont. – A Canadian naval vessel will make Brockville its temporary port of call later this year.

Brockville economic development director Dave Paul said he has confirmation that a Halifax-class frigate will be among the vessels visiting here in mid-September for the Tall Ships Brockville festival.

“This is of historic proportions inasmuch as Halifax-class warships don’t come up the river, let alone dock and stay,” said Paul. In fact, Paul believes, it will be the first time such a vessel stops here since 1959, when Queen Elizabeth II visited the area to open the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Brian Burns, co-chairman of the festival with Paul, was not sure whether another warship did dock here in the early days of Riverfest. The frigate coming here will most likely be the HMCS St. John’s, he said.

The ship will anchor in the river and shuttles will bring visitors to it, said Paul, who hopes to organize a special tour for Navy veterans.

The economic development director got confirmation of the frigate’s visit here from the Royal Canadian Navy in mid-February.

Tall Ships Brockville takes place September 16-18. More information on the festival is available online at www.tallshipsbrockville.com.

Confirmation of the naval vessel’s arrival brings to eight the number of ships booked for the September event. Organizers are still negotiating to bring in another vessel, a replica of a Viking ship from Scandinavia, Paul said,

The latest tall ships event, part of Tall Ships America’s Great Lakes challenge, is the latest attempt to recreate the glory of Brockville’s initial Tall Ships Festival in June 2013. It’s part of a ramp-up in festivities that began with last year’s All Ships Festival and is meant to culminate in a blockbuster event in 2017 marking Canada’s 150th anniversary.

“It’s right on par,” Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce tourism manager Steve Weir said Friday of those preparations, adding the frigate’s confirmation is “wonderful news.”

Organizers are awaiting news of a Celebrate Canada grant for September’s Tall Ships Brockville event, while they must also coordinate Canada 150 grant applications for next year’s bash.

The recent opening of the Aquatarium will enhance the tourist draw of September’s tall ships event, Weir believes. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to have some kind of celebration, the day the ships arrive, at the Aquatarium,” he added.

The aim of this three-festival buildup is to create a new signature festival for Brockville to succeed Riverfest, which ended in 2011 after a 29-year run.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to bring in tall ships on an annual basis, but every three or four years,” said Weir.

Brockville Recorder


3/15 - Duluth, Minn. – Cruise ships haven't made a stop in Duluth since the Yorktown in 2013, but that could soon change and maybe as soon as this summer. The Great Lakes Cruising Coalition says one of the main reasons that we haven't seen cruise ships in a while is that there aren't enough small cruise ships.

But after meeting with cruising companies over the last few months, the coalition is confident there will be cruise ships back in Duluth by 2017.

"There has been a shortage of small cruise ships. The Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway can only accept smaller ships because the size of the locks," said Stephen Burnett, Great Lake Cruising Coalition Executive Director.

"There is a very small number of small ship cruise lines. If you start hearing about the Norwegian cruise lines, you are talking about 4,000 people on these ships that can really only get into a few harbors," said Adele Yorde, Public Relations Director of the Duluth Port Authority.

The Port Authority says the Seaway has the longest queue of vessels waiting to be approved than ever before. But many of the ships in line cannot fit through the canals.

To combat the problem, one of the cruising companies is looking to build the first cruise ship specifically designed for the Great Lakes.

Port officials say they have been speaking with company owners about this issue for years and they feel as soon as these small ships are built, Duluth will once again be a cruise destination.

"We know where the inventories of the ships are, we know who's controlling them, and we know where they are sailing. So what we are trying to do is raid their areas. Go to the owners and the operators and say "hey look, you should bring your ship into the Great Lakes because there is money to be made here," said Burnett.

The Port Authority says another issue they are dealing with is the short summer tourism season here in the Northland.

The GLCC is in the process of proposing new itineraries that would not start and end in Duluth, but stop here.

Northland News Center


Help wanted: Fettes Shipping Inc.

3/15 - We are seeking candidates for the position of Marine Superintendent at Fettes Shipping Inc. with our office located in Burlington, ON.

Ideally the successful candidate should have Chief Engineer's experience, or at least work experience in the marine industry in the position of Engineering Officer or Managing Superintendent.

All interested candidates may fax, email or mail their resumes to: Fettes Shipping Inc.
3385 Harvester Rd. Suite 250
Burlington, ON L7N 3N2
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.



WESTCLIFFE HALL (Hull#519) was launched March 15, 1956, at Grangemouth, Scotland, by Grangemouth Dockyard Co. Ltd., for the Hall Corp. of Canada.

March 15, 1949 - The Ann Arbor carferry fleet was laid up due to a strike called by the boat crews. The fleet was idled until March 22nd.

On 15 March 1882, GRACE PATTERSON (wooden propeller tug/freighter, 111 tons, built in 1880, at Grand Haven, Michigan) was carrying lumber and lath when she stranded near Two Rivers Point, Wisconsin on Lake Michigan. She caught fire and was totally destroyed. Lifesavers rescued the crew.

Mr. Russell Armington died on 15 March 1837. He operated the first shipyard at St. Catharines, Ontario from 1828, until his death.

On 15 March 1926, SARNOR (wooden propeller freighter, 228 foot, 1,319 gross tons, built in 1888, at W. Bay City, Michigan, formerly BRITANNIC) caught fire at Kingston, Ontario near the La Salle Causeway. She burned to a total loss.

1942: The first SARNIADOC of the Paterson fleet was lost with all hands on the Caribbean en route from Trinidad to the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was apparently torpedoed by U-161 in the night hours of March 14-15, 1942, while in the south for the wartime bauxite trade.

1969: The bulk carrier ALEXANDER T. WOOD, remembered by many for its regular early Seaway service in the ore and grain trades as well as for a collision with the Finnish flag freighter MARIA in the Detroit River on August 12, 1960, was lost on this day in 1969 as VAINQUER. The latter had been to the Great Lakes in 1968 but sank following a boiler room explosion in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of one life. It was en route from Vera Cruz, Mexico, to New Orleans with a cargo of sugar.

1976: The rail car barge HURON rolled over and sank at the Windsor dock due to an uneven deck load. The 1875 vintage vessel had operated across the Detroit River as a steamer until March 1971 and then as a barge. It was refloated and returned to service.

1980: The Liberian vessel FRATERNITY was built in 1963. It visited the Great Lakes in 1967 and operated briefly as ARYA NIKU in 1975-1976 before becoming FRATERNITY again under Greek registry. Fire broke out in #1 and #2 cargo holds en route from Hamburg to Karachi on this date in 1980. An explosion followed the next day and the crew abandoned the ship in the Red Sea. The hull was beached March 17 around the border of Eritrea and Sudan but was refloated April 1 and deemed a total loss. After unloading at Sharjah, the hull was towed to Gadani Beach, Pakistan, arriving at the scrapyard on May 19, 1981.

1984: The Greek freighter ELINA likely made only one trip to the Great Lakes, coming inland in 1982 to load frozen meat at Kenosha, WI. It laid up at Emden, West Germany, on June 13, 1983, only to catch fire on March 15, 1984. The damage was extensive and the hull was towed into Gijon, Spain, for scrapping on April 23, 1984.