Today in Great Lakes History

[yachtsmanwilly]

11/13 - St. Catharines, Ont. – Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has partnered with Canada's CSL Group to develop a system to help facilitate a vessel's approach and entrance into locks along the St. Lawrence Seaway system.

Initial deployment of the lock entry assist system technology will be on board the CSL St-Laurent, a 22,600 gross tonnage Trillium class bulk carrier owned by Montreal-based CSL. The ship operates on the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes.

The company said the system comes in response to the increasing size of vessels operating on the seaway and lakes.

"When entering the locks along the seaway, the clearance for larger vessels is minimal, and the lock entry itself has become increasingly difficult. Damage to both the ship and the lock walls can be avoided by facilitating the ship's approach path to the locks, thereby making the operation safer, faster, and altogether more efficient," a company release said.

The system uses high performance global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to measure the ship's position to centimetre accuracy as it enters a lock.

"Speed adaptive controls, together with allocation of the thruster and rudder, ensures that the vessel enters the lock in a consistent manner every time, while minimizing the influence of external forces from wind and current,” stated Joonas Makkonen, Wärtsilä's vice-president of voyage solutions. “During the entry, the system automatically controls the vessel's lateral position and heading, allowing the operator to focus on controlling the speed of the vessel, the release said.

A customized touch screen interface is also being developed to simplify the operation and improve situational awareness.

"CSL is committed to working with qualified partners and regulatory agencies to improve operational safety and efficiency for vessels sailing the seaway and Great Lakes system," said Frédéric Jauvin, vice-president of global technical services. "We believe that modern technology supports this ambition, and Wärtsilä's lock entry assist system represents a positive step forward for us and for the industry as a whole." The two companies has worked closely for years and CSL's fleet includes a number of Wärtsilä solutions.

St. Catharines Standard


In 1952, the 626-foot SPARROWS POINT successfully completed her sea trials and departed Chicago on her maiden trip. The new Bethlehem boat, the largest boat to enter the lakes via the Mississippi River Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, was under the command of Captain Wilfred Couture and Chief Engineer James Meinke. She was lengthened to 682 feet in 1958, converted to a self-unloader in 1980, renamed b.) BUCKEYE in 1991, converted to a barge in 2006, renamed c.) LEWIS J. KUBER.
ARAB (2-mast wooden schooner, 100 foot, 158 tons, built in 1854, at Buffalo, New York) beached on 01 November 1883, near St. Joseph, Michigan, during a storm, but quick work by salvagers got her free. However on 13 November 1883, while being towed to Racine, Wisconsin, she capsized and sank well off of Arcadia, Michigan. One man lost his life, an engineer who was desperately trying to start her pumps when she rolled.

On November 13, 1976, the TEMPLE BAR (later LAKE WABUSH and ALGONORTH) arrived at Singapore, where she was lengthened 202 feet.

CONDARRELL was laid up for the last time on November 13, 1981. Built in 1953 as a.) D. C. EVEREST, she was renamed b.) CONDARRELL in 1982.

GEORGE HINDMAN was in collision with the British salty MANCHESTER EXPLORER on Lake St. Louis, above the Lachine Lock in 1956. Built in 1921, as a.) GLENCLOVA, renamed b.) ANTICOSTI in 1927, c.) RISACUA in 1946, d.) GEORGE HINDMAN in 1955, and e.) ELIZABETH HINDMAN in 1962. Scrapped at Duluth, Minnesota, in 1971.

J. P. MORGAN JR (Hull#373) was launched November 13, 1909, at Lorain, Ohio, for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co.

HOMER D. WILLIAMS was involved in a collision with the steamer OTTO M. REISS at Duluth November 13, 1917.

In 1984, HOMER D. WILLIAMS was towed to Thunder Bay, Ontario, by the tug MALCOLM for dismantling.

On 13 November 1870, the schooner E. FITZGERALD left Port Huron on her maiden voyage to load lumber at Au Sable, Michigan, for Chicago. She was commanded by Capt. A. McTavish.

On 13 November 1883, H. C. AKELEY (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 240 foot, 1,187 tons, built in 1881, at Grand Haven, Michigan) was carrying corn from Chicago to Buffalo when she encountered a heavy storm off Holland, Michigan. She took the disabled tug PROTECTOR in tow but let her go when her own rudder broke off. AKELEY anchored but started to sink when she fell into the troughs of the waves. The disabled schooner DRIVER managed to save 12 of the crew who had taken to AKELEY's yawl before she went down. 6 lives were lost.

Captain W. H. Van Dyke was born at Escanaba, Michigan, on November 13, 1871, and spent most of his life on the Great Lakes (he joined the crew of a schooner at the age of 15). He first captained the Pere Marquette Line Steamer PERE MARQUETTE 8 then, in 1916, he joined the Pere Marquette carferry fleet. His first command was the str. PERE MARQUETTE 15. Then for 10 years he served as master of the PERE MARQUETTE 17, and after the launch of the CITY OF FLINT 32 in 1929, he served as master of the PERE MARQUETTE 22.

On 13 November 1865, CLARA PARKER (3-mast wooden schooner, 175 foot, 425 gross tons, built in 1865, at Detroit, Michigan) was fighting a losing battle with storm induced leaks, so she was beached 400 yards off shore near the mouth of the Pigeon River, south of Grand Haven, Michigan. The local Lifesaving Service plucked all 9 of the crew from the rigging by breeches buoy after the vessel had gone down to her decks and was breaking up.

On 13 November 1888, LELAND (wooden steam barge, 148 foot, 366 gross tons, built in 1873, at New Jerusalem, Ohio) burned at Huron, Ohio. She was valued at $20,000 and insured for $15,000. She was rebuilt and lasted until 1910.

JAMES DAVIDSON (steel propeller bulk freighter, 587 foot, 8,349 gross tons, built at Wyandotte, Michigan, in 1920) entered service on 13 Nov 1920, for the Globe Steamship Co. (G. A. Tomlinson, mgr.) when she loaded 439,000 bushels of wheat at Duluth, Minnesota, for delivery to Buffalo, New York. She was the last ship built at Wyandotte, Michigan.

An unnamed salty (formerly RANGUINI) arrived at Milwaukee's heavy lift dock on Saturday night, 13 Nov 1999, to load a large desalinization filtration system built in Milwaukee for Korea. The vessel entered the Seaway in ballast for Milwaukee on 09 Nov 1999. The following day, the crew rigged scaffolding over the side so the new name BBC GERMANY could be painted on the ship.

The Toledo Blade published the following vessel passages for Detroit on this date in 1903: -Up- VOLUNTEER, AMAZON, HARLOW, 12:30 Friday morning; ROCKEFELLER, 4:20; MARISKA, 4:40; FRENCH, 5:20; CONEMAUGH, 6; S M STEPHENSON, FAUSTIN, barges, 7:30; OLIVER, MITCHELL, (sailed), 7:50; AVERILL, 8.

1909: The steamers CHARLES WESTON and WARD AMES collided in lower Whitefish Bay. The former, which had been at anchor waiting to head downbound through the Soo Locks, ran for shore but settled on the bottom. The ship was saved, repaired and last sailed as c) SAUCON for Bethlehem Transportation before being scrapped at Hamilton, ON in 1950.

1909: JAMES H. HOYT went aground on a reef about two miles off the northeast corner of Outer Island after the engine was disabled in a snowstorm. The vessel was refloated November 29 and later became the BRICOLDOC.

1929: BRITON was wrecked in Lake Erie off Point Abino. The stranded vessel was battered for two days before being abandoned as a total loss.

1934: WILLIAM A. REISS (i) stranded off Sheboygan while inbound with 7025 tons of coal from Toledo. The ship was refloated November 17 with heavy damage and considered a total loss.

1942: H.M. PELLATT, a former Great Lakes canal freighter, was sailing as f) SCILLIN under the flag of Italy, when it was hit by gunfire from the British submarine H.M.S. PROTEUS while 9 miles off Kuriat, Tunisia, and sank.

1956: The downbound and grain-laden GEORGE HINDMAN and the upbound MANCHESTER EXPLORER collided in fog on the St. Lawrence above Lachine and both ships were damaged.

1958: LUNAN, a Pre-Seaway trader on the Great Lakes, sustained major bottom damage in a grounding on the St. Lawrence near Murray Bay. The ship was refloated, towed to Lauzon for repairs and it returned to service as b) MARIDAN C. in 1959.

1967: SANTA REGINA, the first American saltwater vessel to use the St. Lawrence Seaway, put into San Francisco with boiler problems and machinery damage while headed from Los Angeles to Saigon, South Vietnam as f) NORBERTO CAPAY. The vessel was sold at auction and towed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for scrapping in 1969.

1971: The small St. Lawrence freighter C. DE BAILLON, better known as a) DONNACONA NO. 2 and b) MIRON C., went aground at Mont Louis and was a total loss.

1975: There was a boiler explosion on the Egyptian freighter CLEOPATRA after leaving Hartlepool, England, for Alexandria, Egypt, and 8 crewmen were severely injured with at least one fatality. The former Victory Ship first traveled through the Seaway in 1963. It was scrapped at Gadani Beach, Pakistan, in 1981.

1976: OCEAN SOVEREIGN lost steering at Sault Ste. Marie and was wedged into the wall at the Soo Locks. The rudder was damaged and the Greek saltie had to be towed to Lauzon, Quebec, for repairs. The vessel initially traded inland as a) BOLNES in 1970 and returned as b) OCEAN SOVEREIGN for the first time in 1973. It was scrapped at Ulsan, South Korea, as d) MARIA JOSE after being blown aground from the anchorage during Typhoon Vera on September 27, 1986.

1979: A steering failure put VANDOC aground at Harvey Island in the Brockville Narrows. The vessel spent time at Port Weller Dry Docks after being released.

1996: JOLLITY reported it was taking water in the engine room (Pos: 17.47 N / 119.20 E). The ship was was taken in tow two days later and reached Hong Kong on November 18. The vessel was scrapped at Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 1999.

1997: ARCADIA BERLIN visited the Great Lakes in 1971 when it was a year old. The ship was carrying bagged cement and sailing as f) ALLISSA when it collided with and sank the Ukrainian vessel SMENA off Yangon, Myanmar. The former was apparently laid up with collision damage and scrapped at Alang, India, in 1998.

2002: WILFRED SYKES was inbound with a cargo of limestone when it went aground in Muskegon Lake. Some of the cargo was lightered to PERE MARQUETTE 41 and the stranded ship was pulled free.

[yachtsmanwilly]

11/14 - Ads have been appearing on maritime broker sites for the former USCG cutter Bramble, most recently at Port Huron as an operational museum ship.

Bramble (WLB-392) is one of the 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942-1944 for the United States Coast Guard.

View one of the ads at this link: www.yachtworld.com/boats/1944/cutter-zenith-dredge-co--3254442


ALGOBAY (steel propeller bulk freighter, 719 foot, 22,466 gross tons, built at Collingwood, Ontario in 1978) departed Sept Iles, Quebec on 14 Nov 1978, with an iron ore pellet cargo for Sydney, Nova Scotia when she collided with the 90,000 ton Italian-flag ore carrier CIELO BIANCO. The Collingwood-built tug POINTE MARGUERITE, which was towing the big salty, was unfortunately crushed between the two vessels and sank, killing two crewmembers.
On November 14, 1934, the WILLIAM A. REISS grounded off Sheboygan and was declared a constructive total loss. Built as the a.) FRANK H. PEAVEY in 1901, renamed b.) WILLIAM A. REISS in 1916. She was scrapped at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1935.

Cracks across the ENDERS M. VOORHEES' spar deck were first noticed in a storm on Lake Superior November 14, 1942. Her fleetmate NORMAN B. REAM came to her assistance by releasing storm oil which helped calm the seas so the crew of the VOORHEES could run cables the length of her deck and winch them tight to arrest the cracking. She proceeded to the Soo escorted by the REAM and later sailed to the Great Lake Engineering Works for repairs.

The THOMAS WILSON (Hull#826) was launched November 14, 1942, at Lorain, Ohio, for the U.S. Maritime Commission.

The U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender MESQUITE (Hull#76) was launched November 14, 1942, at a cost of $894,000, by Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Co. at Duluth, Minnesota. MESQUITE ran aground off Keweenaw Point on December 4, 1989, and was declared a total loss. MESQUITE was scuttled off Keweenaw Point on July 14, 1990.

On November 14, 1952, the SPARROWS POINT, b.) BUCKEYE entered service for Bethlehem Steel Corp. Reduced to a barge at Erie, Pennsylvania, and renamed c.) LEWIS J KUBER in 2006.

On 14 November 1879, C G BREED (2 mast wooden schooner, 140 foot, 385 tons, built in 1862, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was carrying 24,000 bushels of wheat from Detroit to Buffalo when she capsized and sank in a sudden squall near Ashtabula, Ohio in Lake Erie. 5 lives were lost, but 3 were saved. The three survivors were rescued by three different vessels.

In 1940, following the Armistice Day Storm, The CITY OF FLINT 32 was freed by the tug JOHN F. CUSHING assisted by the PERE MARQUETTE 21.

In 1990, Glen Bowden (of MWT) announced that he would suspend cross-Lake Michigan ferry service indefinitely. On 14 November 1886, the steamer BELLE WILSON was crossing Lake Ontario with a load of 11,800 bushels of oats when a severe gale and snowstorm blew in. The vessel lost her rudder and the crew rigged sails, but these were blown away. Then they rigged a drag made of 600 feet of line and a log to help maneuver the vessel and they headed for Oswego, New York. This lasted for 12 hours, but the chain parted at 3:00 a.m. and the vessel was driven ashore at Ford's Shoals, 4 miles east of Oswego harbor. No lives were lost.

On 14 November 1892, the 2-mast, 95 foot wooden schooner MINNIE DAVIS was rammed on a dark night by the 2-mast, 117 foot wooden schooner HUNTER SAVIDGE near Amherstburg, Ontario. The DAVIS sank, but no lives were lost. The wreckage was removed in May 1893.

1922: The composite hulled freighter JOS. L. SIMPSON was upbound on Lake Ontario from Ogdensburg to Milwaukee when it stranded at Tibbett's Point. The repair bill was close to $12,000 but the vessel returned to service and last operated in 1957 as YANKCANUCK (i).

1933: The wheat laden D.E. CALLENDAR stranded in Lake Erie off Long Point and was a total loss. The hull was salvaged in 1934 and laid up at Toledo. It was taken to New Orleans during World War Two for reconstruction as a barge but the change was never registered and the hull was likely scrapped.

1933: The wooden tug FLORENCE sank off False Duck Island in a storm that brought snow, high winds and waves on Lake Ontario. All 7 on board were saved and taken aboard the barge PETER G. CAMPBELL.

1943: RIVERTON stranded at Lottie Wolf Shoal, Georgian Bay and declared a total loss. Later salvaged and repaired, it returned to service as MOHAWK DEER.

1960: ISLAND KING II was destroyed by a fire while laid up for the winter at Lachine, QC. The vessel had been built as DALHOUSIE CITY and operated across western Lake Ontario between Toronto and St. Catharines from 1911 until the end of the 1949 season before being sold and moving to Montreal.

1966: The Liberian freighter FREIDA went aground at Poe's Reef, Lake Huron, and had to be lightered by MAITLAND NO. 1. The ocean ship began Great Lakes terading as c) SEAWAY STAR in 1960 and returned as d) DEALMOUTH in 1962 and as e) FREIDA earlier in 1966.

[skycheney]

Nov 14, 2018 7:32:01 GMT -5 yachtsmanwilly said:

11/14 - Ads have been appearing on maritime broker sites for the former USCG cutter Bramble, most recently at Port Huron as an operational museum ship.

Bramble (WLB-392) is one of the 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942-1944 for the United States Coast Guard.

View one of the ads at this link: www.yachtworld.com/boats/1944/cutter-zenith-dredge-co--3254442

LET'S BUY IT!!!

That's enough boat for all of us.

[yachtsmanwilly]

I WANNA BLOW THE HORN! I WANNA BLOW THE HORN! ARE WE THERE YET?? I'm in! ws

Yesterday Pat calls me and says theres the biggest ship she's ever seen in Manitowoc along the harbor wall. Its the newest LCS 15 USS BILLINGS fueling up (750,000 gallons) and topping off freshwater and dumping black water before making endurance runs on sea trials. Harbor assist was done by a Selvick tug from Sturgeon Bay...

www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=41_tW5i9Ic3GsQWGpKOADA&q=LCS+15&btnK=Google+Search&oq=LCS+15&gs_l=psy-ab.3..35i39j0l3j0i22i30l6.4111.6710..9852...1.0..0.223.1059.0j6j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....6..0i131j0i67j0i131i67j0i20i263.vfrFlGTYa4w



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11/15 - Cleveland, Ohio – Lake Carriers’ Association (LCA), the trade association representing U.S.-flag vessel operators on the Great Lakes since 1880, has issued the following statement on passage of the 2018 U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act, which includes the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA):

“Lake Carriers’ Association is pleased with the Senate passage of the 2018 U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act including the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA). VIDA is the result of many stakeholders coming to the table to craft this final version. VIDA is a good balance, achieving protection of both the economy and the environment. Importantly, it includes Great Lakes-specific provisions that provide the flexibility to establish uniform practices and standards more protective of our Great Lakes. Over the next few years, LCA looks forward to engaging with our government and regional partners to develop practical and implementable regulations to meet the letter and spirit of the bill.”

Lake Carriers’ Association


In 1883, the schooner E. FITZGERALD, Captain Daniel Lanigan, went ashore and was completely covered with ice. The crew of six drowned while attempting to make shore in the yawl. A couple days after the loss, Mrs. Lanigan received a prophetic letter from her son stating he was tired of sailing and this would be his last trip.
On 15 November 1871, EVERGREEN CITY (wooden propeller freighter, 193 foot, 624 gross tons, built in 1856, at Cleveland, Ohio) was carrying lumber camp supplies when she was driven on to the southwest coast of Long Point on Lake Erie by a westerly gale. She hogged and broke up. Most of her cargo and fittings were stolen over the winter. Surprisingly, she was recovered and rebuilt in 1872-1873, but only lasted until 1875, when she was abandoned at Buffalo, New York.

The cargo mid-body of the then-under construction GEORGE A. STINSON was towed from Toledo, where it was built, to Lorain, Ohio, in 1977.

PAUL THAYER left Lorain on her maiden voyage November 15, 1973, light for Escanaba, Michigan to load iron ore. Renamed b.) EARL W. OGLEBAY in 1995.

On November 15, 1974, W. W. HOLLOWAY struck an embankment at Burns Harbor, Indiana, causing extensive damage.

Departing Duluth on November 15, 1909, the BRANSFORD encountered a gale driven snowstorm. She battled the storm the entire day only to end up on the rocks near Siskiwit Bay on Isle Royale.

On 15 November 1894, ANTELOPE (wooden schooner, 56 foot, 32 gross tons, built in 1878, at Grand Haven, Michigan) capsized in a storm while trying to make harbor at Grand Haven, Michigan. 4 lives were lost.

November 15, 1924 - The carferry PERE MARQUETTE was renamed PERE MARQUETTE 15.

On 15 November 1875, The Port Huron Times reported that "there is little doubt but that the scow SUTLER GIRL has been lost with all hands on Lake Erie. She has now been overdue two weeks."

On 15 November 1869, W. W. ARNOLD (wooden schooner, 426 gross tons, built in 1863, at Buffalo, New York) was carrying iron ore when she was driven ashore near the mouth of the Two Hearted River on Lake Superior during the great gale of November 1869. The violent storm tore the schooner apart and she sank quickly losing all hands (11) including several passengers.

On 15 Nov 1905, the W. K. BIXBY (steel straight-deck bulk freighter, 480 foot, 5,712 gross tons, later b.) J.L. REISS, then c.) SIDNEY E. SMITH JR) was launched at Wyandotte, Michigan, for the National Steamship Co. (M.B. McMillan). She lasted until 1972, when she was wrecked at Sarnia, Ontario, in a collision with the PARKER EVANS.

1901: The consort barge JOHN SMEATON broke loose of the steamer HARVARD and came ashore on the rocks off Au Train, Mich., and rested in 4 feet of water. The crew was safe and the ship released at the end of the month by Reid Wrecking and went to Superior for repairs.

1909: The Canadian freighter OTTAWA foundered stern first off Passage Isle, Lake Superior when the cargo of grain shifted. The crew, while they suffered terribly, were able to reach the safety of Keweenaw Point in the lifeboats after 12 hours on the open lake in wild seas.

1915: A. McVITTIE took out the gate at Lock 12 of the Third Welland Canal leading to a washout.

1919: J.S. CROUSE was enroute from Glen Haven to Traverse City when fire was discovered around the stack. The blaze spread quickly. The ship burned to the water line and sank in Sleeping Bear Bay, Lake Michigan.

1920: The wooden hulled steamer MAPLEGULF broke her back in a Lake Ontario storm. It was considered beyond economical repair and beached at Kingston.

1931: A storm forced the wooden passenger and freight steamer WINONA back to Spragge, Ontario, and the next day the ship was found to be on fire over the boiler. The vessel was towed from the dock to protect a pile of lumber and it became a total loss.

1952: The newly-built tanker B.A. PEERLESS lost power and went aground below the Detroit River Light. It was refloated on November 17.

1975: The ocean tanker GATUN LOCKS made one trip through the Seaway in 1959. The vessel was lying at Piraeus Roads, Greece, as c) SUNARUSSA when it was gutted by a fire. The hull was sold for scrap in 1977 and broken up at Laurion, Greece, beginning on April 26, 1977.

1981: ALFRED was gutted by a fire off Benghazi, Libya, after the blaze broke out in the engineroom. The hull was scuttled 100 miles out in the Mediterranean on November 24. The ship had been on the Great Lakes earlier in the year and first traveled inland as a) ALFRED REHDER in 1972.

1994: The Turkish freighter FIRAT was blown ashore at Port Everglades, FL by Hurricane Gordon when the anchors failed to hold. The ship was a beach attraction until lightered and released on November 26. FIRAT first came through the Seaway in 1990 and was scrapped at Alang, India, in 1997, after sailing 27 years under the same name.

2007: CALUMET was damaged when it struck a wall at Cleveland while moving to the salt dock. It was sold for scrap and departed for Port Colborne two days later.

[skycheney]

Nov 15, 2018 7:01:42 GMT -5 yachtsmanwilly said:

Yesterday Pat calls me and says theres the biggest ship she's ever seen in Manitowoc along the harbor wall. Its the newest LCS 15 USS BILLINGS fueling up (750,000 gallons) and topping off freshwater and dumping black water before making endurance runs on sea trials. Harbor assist was done by a Selvick tug from Sturgeon Bay...

I probably told you this before, but when the 1st of these was out in the lake for testing in 2006 or 7, I was crossing from Sturgeon Bay to Frankfort. I was about half way across, when they called me and asked that I alter course. They told me that they put out "one hell of wake" and that they would "pull er back" as they passed. It was still a big wake but we had no problems. These things are fast.

Remember the one that waked all of the boats at anchor out at Chambers Island a few summers ago? I think they actually ended up paying a few repair bills for that one.

[yachtsmanwilly]

I remember those incidents; I have yet to see one under way. At 50mph they gotta be impressive! ws


11/16 - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a measure that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to set rules requiring that ocean-going ships entering the Great Lakes treat ballast water before the water is released into the lakes.

The new policy is contained in a funding bill for the U.S. Coast Guard, and it comes after conservationists and the shipping industry have sparred for years over regulation of ballast water, a pollutant.

Under the measure, the EPA would regulate ballast water and the Coast Guard would enforce the rules. The bill keeps many clean water protections while making it more difficult for states to enact protections that go beyond the federal measure.

Three new non-native species have been discovered in the Great Lakes in the last four years. In all, the lakes have been damaged by more than 180 invasive and non-native species, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This “biological pollution” has included quagga and zebra mussels, which have decimated fish populations and spurred algae outbreaks, including an outbreak that polluted the public drinking water supply of Toledo, Ohio, for two days in 2014.

The EPA removed ballast water from the list of industrial pollutants in the 1970s that would be regulated under the Clean Water Act. The thinking at the time: The water in tanks were not pollution because they contained only seawater.

Read more and view images at this link: www.jsonline.com


11/16 - Traverse City, Mich. – How do you make a log cylindrical? Simple. You cut it so it has four sides, then again so it has eight, then 16, then 32 and finally make it a proper cylinder.

Although, in the case of the 47-foot-long, 3,700-pound white pine that’s on it’s way to becoming the newest mast for the schooner Madeline, the final shape will be more reminiscent of a cone.

Maritime Heritage Alliance volunteers are about a week into the month-long process of carving the mast, which will be the fifth for the schooner. “The maintenance is the hard part,” said Rod Jones, who has been one of the Madeline’s captains for more than 25 years. “Most volunteers haven’t done something like this. How do you learn what they did in the 1800s?”

The Madeline is a reconstruction of an 1845 schooner that was the first non-Native American school in Traverse City. The schooner is owned by the Maritime Heritage Alliance and was launched in 1990 after five years of construction. A total of 165 volunteers put in 40,000 hours to build the 56-foot, twin-mast craft.

Read more and see photos at this link: www.record-eagle.com


On 16 November 1870, BADGER STATE (3-mast wooden bark, 150 foot, 302 tons, built in 1853, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) stranded and wrecked at Sleeping Bear Dune on Lake Michigan during a storm.
The tug portion of the PRESQUE ISLE (Hull#322) built by Halter Marine Services, New Orleans, Louisiana, was up bound in the Welland Canal on November 16,1973, en route to Erie, Pennsylvania, to join with the barge.

FRED R. WHITE JR (Hull#722) was launched in 1978, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

On 16 Nov 1909, the JAMES S. DUNHAM (steel propeller bulk freighter, 420 foot, 4,795 gross tons, built in 1906, at W. Bay City, Michigan) encountered heavy seas and began hitting bottom where charts indicated 35 feet of water, even though she was in ballast and only drawing 17 feet of water. Rather than risk tearing the bottom out of her, the captain decided to beach her at Marble Point, just east of the Bad River outlet. After the heavy snow showers cleared, a message in a bottle was floated ashore to an observer.

The steel bulk freighters SIR JAMES DUNN and GEORGIAN BAY in tow of the Panamanian tug MC THUNDER arrived at Aliaga, Turkey for scrapping on 16 Nov 1989, 129 days after departing Thunder Bay.

On 16 November 1887, PACIFIC (wooden propeller freighter, 187 foot, 766 gross tons, built in 1864, at Cleveland, Ohio) was loaded with lumber bound from Deer Park, Michigan, for Michigan City, Indiana. After leaving the dock, she grounded on a shoal due to low water levels. The nearby Lifesaving Service took her crew off and then returned for the captain's dog. She was broken up by a gale on 19 November.

In 1892, the ANN ARBOR NO 1 arrived at Frankfort, Michigan on her maiden trip.

November 16, 1990 - MWT ceased operations, ending more than a century of carferry service. The last run was made by the BADGER, with Capt. Bruce Masse in command.

In 1981, Interlake's JOHN SHERWIN entered lay-up in Superior, Wisconsin and has not seen service since.

On 16 November 1869, ADELL (2-mast wooden schooner, 48 foot, 25 gross tons, built in 1860, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was driven ashore during a storm about a half mile below Bay View Pier near Milwaukee. Her skipper had every penny he owned sunk into that vessel. He was able to salvage her rigging and spars and left them on the beach overnight. The next day he returned and found that all had been stolen during the night.

On 16 Nov 1883, MANISTEE (wooden side-wheeler, 184 foot, 677 tons, built in 1867, at Cleveland, Ohio) broke up in a gale west of the Keweenaw Peninsula off of Eagle Harbor, Michigan. This is one of Lake Superior's worst disasters. Estimates of the number who died range from 23 to 37.

1901: The wooden freighter ELFIN-MERE was damaged by fire at Green Bay after a lamp exploded in the engineroom. The crew got away safely although an engineer was burned. The vessel was rebuilt the following year and returned to service in 1903 as b) CHARLES B. PACKARD.

1908: PASCAL P. PRATT was carrying anthracite coal from Buffalo to Milwaukee when it caught fire in the engineroom off Long Point, Lake Erie. The blaze spread quickly and the wooden vessel was beached. All of the crew got away safely. The hull burned to the waterline and the remains sank.

1923: GLENSTRIVEN, loaded with 160,000 bushels of oats, was wrecked at Cove Island, Georgian Bay in wind and fog. The vessel was enroute to Midland and was salvaged December 5 by the Reid Wrecking Co. The damage was too severe to repair and the hull was scrapped at Collingwood in 1924.

1927: JOLLY INEZ stranded at Saddlebag Island in the False Detour Channel and was abandoned.

1964: THOMAS F. COLE and INVEREWE collided in heavy fog off the southern end of Pipe Island in the St. Marys River. Both ships were repaired but the latter was later lost as d) THEOKEETOR off Mexico following another collision on June 20, 1973.

1965: The LAWRENCECLIFFE HALL sank in the St. Lawrence after an early morning collision with the SUNEK off Ile d'Orleans. The former, a laker in the Halco fleet, rolled on its side but all on board were saved. The ship was refloated in March 1966, repaired and returned to service. It later sailed as DAVID K. GARDINER and CANADIAN VENTURE before scrapping at Alang, India, in 2005. SUNEK received bow damage but this was repaired and this ship was scrapped at Barcelona, Spain, as b) NOTOS in 1979.

1967: CALIFORNIA SUN, a Liberty ship, made one trip through the Seaway in 1966. It suffered an engineroom explosion off Nicobar Island on the Indian Ocean and was gutted. The abandoned ship was taken in tow by JALARAJAN, a familiar Seaway salty, and delivered to the Seychelles.

1978: MONT ST. MARTIN was battered by a storm on Lake Erie and escorted to Southeast Shoal area by the STEELTON.

1978: NYX visited the Great Lakes in 1958 and returned through the Seaway in 1959. It sustained severe fire damage at Sidon, Lebanon, as c) DOMINION TRADER. It was subsequently blown aground by strong winds November 30-December 1 and broke in two.

1979: ALDORA dragged anchor while off Port Weller and was blown aground, only to be freed the same day. This ship was scrapped at Vado, Italy, in 1985-1986.

1979: SARONIC SEA was also anchored off Port Weller when it dragged anchor and stranded at the foot of Geneva Street in St. Catharines. The hull was not refloated until December 6. The ship had first visited the Great Lakes as RAVNANGER in 1964 and was later a victim of the war between Iran and Iraq, being shelled with mortar fire at Basrah on September 25, 1980.

1986: CARINA, an SD-14, first came through the Seaway in 1969. It was abandoned by the crew as d) HYMETUS when the hull cracked in heavy weather 180 miles SSE of Hong Kong while enroute to Shanghai, with steel. The ship sank the next day in the South China Sea.

2009: CSL ASSINIBOINE went aground near Cardinal. It had to be lightered and was released on November 21.

[yachtsmanwilly]

On this day in 1939, in a 24-hour-period, there were 132 transits of the Soo Locks. There were 71 upbound passages and 61 downbound passages.
On this day in 1952, Mrs. Ernest T. Weir smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of the largest freighter built on the Great Lakes and the 690-foot ERNEST T. WEIR slid down the ways at the Lorain yard of American Ship Building Company. The new vessel had a crew of 38 under the command of Captain W. Ross Maitland and Chief Engineer C. F. Hoffman.

On 19 November 1897, NAHANT (wooden propeller freighter, 213 foot, 1,204 gross tons, built in 1873, at Detroit, Michigan) caught fire while docked near Escanaba, Michigan. Firefighters were hampered by sub-zero temperatures, and she burned to a total loss. The fire jumped to the dock and did $300,000 worth of damage. Two of the crew were burned to death. The wreckage of the vessel was still visible from the Escanaba lighthouse 100 years later.

American Steamship's SAM LAUD (Hull#712) was launched on this date in 1974 at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

The keel for JOHN T. HUTCHINSON (Hull#1010) was laid November 19, 1942, at Cleveland, Ohio for the U.S. Maritime Commission.

The Kinsman Transit Co.'s steamer MERLE M. McCURDY was laid up for the last time at Buffalo, New York, on November 19, 1985. She was scrapped at Port Colborne, Ontario, in 1988.

On 19 November 1842, the wooden schooner BRANDYWINE was carrying flour in a storm on Lake Erie when she capsized and then drifted to the beach near Barcelona, New York. One passenger's body was found in the cabin, but the entire crew of 6 was lost.

More incidents from the terrible storm swept the Lakes in mid-November 1886. On 18-19 November of that year, The Port Huron Times listed the vessels that were known to have foundered in that storm. Here is the list of vessels that foundered as it appeared on 19 November 1886. "The barge EMERALD near Kewaunee, 5 lost. The barge F M DICKINSON near Kewaunee, 3 lost. Two unknown schooners (one supposed to be the HELEN) near Port Sherman. One unknown schooner near Hog Island Reef. The barge NORTH STAR near East Tawas, the fate of the crew is unknown." The list then continues with vessels ashore. "The barge WALLACE and consort on Choclay Beach, east of Marquette. The schooner SOUTH HAVEN near Pt. Sherman. The schooner MARY near Blenheim, Ontario. The schooner PATHFINDER near Two Rivers, the cargo and vessel are a total loss. The schooner CUYAHOGA and two scows in North Bay. The schooner P S MARSH and an unknown schooner at St. Ignace. The schooner HARVEY BISSELL near Alpena. The propeller CITY OF NEW YORK near Cheboygan. The schooner KOLFAGE near Goderich, Ontario has broken up. The propeller NASHUA on Grass Island, Green Bay. The barge BISSELL near Kewaunee. The schooner GOLDEN below China Beach. The propeller BELLE CROSS and barges across from China Beach. The schooner FLORIDA on Marquette Beach is a total loss. And the barges BUCKOUT, MC DOUGALL, BAKER, GOLDEN HARVEST near East Tawas.

The schooner HATTIE JOHNSTON sailed from Milwaukee loaded with 26,000 bushels of wheat on the night of 19 November 1879, and then a severe gale swept Lake Michigan. After two weeks, she was presumed lost with all hands. Aboard were Capt. D. D. Prouty, his wife and 8 crewmen.

On 19 Nov 1886, the steamer MANISTIQUE was towing the schooner-barges MARINETTE and MENEKAUNEE, all loaded with lumber, in a NW gale on Lake Michigan. The gale lasted three days. The barges broke loose after a long fight against the elements and both were wrecked near Frankfort, Michigan. Six of the seven aboard the MARINETTE were lost including the woman cook and her 13-year old daughter. MENEKAUNEE broke up before the Lifesaving Service could get to her and all seven aboard died. When the Lifesaving Service arrived on the beach, they found a jumbled mass of lumber and gear and the ship's dog keeping watch over the dead bodies. The dog also died soon after the Lifesaving crew arrived.

EMPIRE MALDON (steel tanker, 343 foot, 3,734 gross tons) was launched on 19 November 1945, by Sir James Laing & Sons, Ltd., at Sunderland, United Kingdom for the British Ministry of War Transport She was sold to Imperial Oil Co. of Canada in 1946, and renamed IMPERIAL HALIFAX and served on the Maritime Provinces-East Coast trade. In 1969, she was purchased by Johnstone Shipping, Ltd., of Toronto and served on the Great Lakes. She lasted until 1977, when she was scrapped by United Metals, Ltd. in Hamilton, Ontario.

On Friday morning, 19 Nov 1999, shortly after leaving the ADM dock in Windsor, the salty AVDEEVKA lost power in the Fighting Island Channel of the Detroit River. The main engine on the vessel quit while she was abreast of Grassy Island and she began drifting downstream. The stern anchor was dropped and then the port side bow anchor. She began swinging towards the middle of the channel with her stern outside the channel when the main engine was restarted and she headed back upstream for the Belle Isle anchorage. Once in the anchorage a team from the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the vessel to investigate. She was released the next day. It is reported that the vessel lost power due to main fuel valve being left closed after routine maintenance during her stay at the ADM dock.

1904: PHILIP MINCH caught fire 8 miles off Marblehead, Ohio, and sank in the navigation channel. All on board got off safely and rowed to Sandusky in the lifeboat. The remains were dynamited in 1906.

1914: C.F. CURTIS foundered in Lake Superior, 7 miles east of Grand Marais, with the loss of 14 lives. The towing barges ANNIE PETERSON and SHELDON E. MARVIN also went down after the trio ran into high winds and snow.

1956: The year old West German freighter WOLFGANG RUSS was beached in the St. Lawrence near Ile d'Orleans after a collision with the Cunard Line vessel ASIA. The former was inbound for Sorel and had to lightered and taken to Lauzon for repairs to the large hole in the side of the hull. The vessel began Great Lakes visits with the opening of the Seaway in 1959 and made 28 inland trips to the end of 1967. It arrived off Gadani Beach, Pakistan, for scrapping as b) KOTRONAS BEACH on Feb. 4, 1980.

1977: The Canada Steamship Lines self-unloader FRONTENAC grounded off Grassy Island in the St. Lawrence and about 5,000 tons of ore had to be lightered to the SAGUENAY to float free.

1979: The Liberian freighter DANILA was damaged when it struck the west pier while inbound at Port Weller in fog. The vessel first visited the Seaway as a) MAERSK CAPTAIN in 1976 and was back as b) DANILA in 1979. The ship was scrapped at Alang, India, as d) JAY BHAVANI in 1991-1992.

On 18 November 1869, EQUATOR (wooden propeller package freighter, 184 foot, 621 tons, built in 1857, at Buffalo, New York) was trying to pull the schooner SOUTHWEST off a reef near North Manitou Island on Lake Michigan. A storm swept in and EQUATOR foundered in the relatively shallow water. She was thought to be unsalvageable but was re-floated in 1870. Her hull was extensively rebuilt and became the barge ELDORADO in 1871, while her engine was used in the tug BISMARCK.
The CARL D. BRADLEY was lost in a violent storm on Lake Michigan on November 18, 1958.

The CANADIAN OLYMPIC's sea trials were conducted on 18 November 1976. Her maiden voyage was on 28 November 1976, to load coal at Conneaut, Ohio for Nanticoke, Ontario. Her name honors the Olympic Games that were held at Montreal that year.

The bow and stern sections of the vessel that was to become the STEWART J. CORT were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding Division, Litton Systems, Inc., Pascagoula, MS, as hull 1173. That 182 foot vessel, known as "STUBBY" was launched on 18 Nov 1969. "STUBBY" sailed under its own power from the Gulf of Mexico through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Welland Canal to Erie, Pennsylvania where the sections were cut apart by Erie Marine, Inc. and the 818 foot mid section was added -- making the Lakes first thousand footer.

The ASHCROFT was launched November 18, 1924, as a) GLENIFFER.

On 18 November 1873, the tug CRUSADER was launched at 1:20 p.m. at the Leighton & Dunford yard in Port Huron, Michigan. Her dimensions were 138 foot overall, 125 foot keel, 23 foot beam, and 12 foot depth. She was built for Mr. G. E. Brockway of Port Huron.

On 18 November 1842, CHICAGO (wooden passenger & package freight sidewheeler, 105 foot, 166 tons, built in 1837, at St. Joseph, Michigan) was struck by a gale between Ashtabula and Conneaut in Lake Erie. She lost both of her stacks and became unmanageable when her fires went out. She was driven ashore about 3 miles east of Silver Creek, New York and was wrecked. About 60 persons were on board and amazingly no lives were lost.

On 18 November 1882, DROMEDARY (wooden propeller, 120 foot, 255 gross tons, built in 1868, at Port Dalhousie, Ontario) burned to a total loss at the dock at Hamilton, Ontario when her banked fires overheated. She was owned by Burroughs & Co. No lives were lost.

A terrible storm swept the Lakes in mid-November 1886. On 18-19 November of that year, The Port Huron Times listed the vessels that were known to have foundered in that storm. Here is the list as it appeared on 18 November 1886. "The barge CHARLES HINCKLEY is ashore near Alpena. The schooner P S MARCH is ashore at St. Ignace. She will probably go to pieces. The schooner THOMAS P. SHELDON is ashore about 10 miles north of Alpena. The crew was rescued by the tug HAND. The schooner NELLIE REDINGTON is reported going to pieces at Two Rivers. Three of her crew reached harbor all right, but the other 7 men on board are in danger of their lives. The coal barges F. M. DICKINSON and EMERALD were driven ashore at Kewaunee, Wisconsin Wednesday morning [17 Nov]. Three of the DICKINSON's crew were drowned, the other four floated ashore on a plank. The EMERALD's crew started ashore in the yawl, but 5 were drowned.

On 18 November 1881, the schooner JAMES PLATT left Bay City with a cargo of lumber for Chicago. However, she was wrecked on Lake Michigan during a terrible snowstorm during the first week of December and never made it to Chicago. The storm lasted two full days and six of the crew survived but the rest were lost.

The ANN ARBOR NO 4 ran aground on Green Isle, the island in Green Bay to the north of her course between Sturgeon Bay and Menominee on 18 Nov 1913. ANN ARBOR NO 3 pulled her off undamaged after about 2 hours work.

1911: TURRET CAPE stranded near Cove Island, Lake Huron and was not released until 1912. It last sailed as c) WALTER INKSTER and was scrapped at Port Dalhousie in 1959.

1926: The passenger and freight carrier MONTREAL was built at Toronto in 1902. It caught fire and burned near St. Joseph de Sorel in the St. Lawrence River while operating late season in a freight only capacity. The superstructure was destroyed and the vessel was beached. Five deckhands, believed trapped in the bow area, died.

1958: CARL D. BRADLEY sank in Lake Michigan with the loss of 33 lives.

1970: SILLERY, a Canadian freighter that operated on the St. Lawrence, was heavily damaged aft due to an engineroom fire while enroute from Sept-Iles to Montreal. The ship was a total loss. The bow was later removed and transplanted to sistership CACOUNA which received collision damage on July 6, 1971. The latter was later lost on Lake Michigan as c) JENNIFER on December 1, 1974.

2006: JOHN G. MUNSON hit the Shell Fuel Dock at Corunna and knocked about 200 feet of the structure into the St. Clair River.

On 17 November 1884, PHOENIX (wooden propeller wrecking tug, 173 gross tons, built in 1862, at Cleveland, Ohio) caught fire in one of her coal bunkers at 7 a.m. while she was tied up to the C. S. R. Railroad slip at Amherstburg, Ontario. Several vessels, including the Dunbar tug SHAUGHRAUN and the steam barge MARSH, tried to save her. The SHAUGHRAUN finally got a line on her and pulled her away from the dock and towed her near Norwell’s wharf where she burned and sank.
On 17 Nov 1969, the RIDGETOWN (steel propeller bulk freighter, 557 foot, 7,637 gross tons, built in 1905, at Chicago, Illinois as WILLIAM E. COREY) was laid up at Toronto for the last time with a load of grain. In the spring of 1970, Upper Lakes Shipping, Ltd. sold her to Canadian Dredge & Dock Co., Ltd. of Toronto. She was sunk at Nanticoke, Ontario, for use as a temporary breakwater during the construction of harbor facilities in the summer of 1970. Still later, she was raised and sunk again in the summer of 1974, as a breakwater to protect marina facilities at Port Credit, Ontario.

On November 17, 1984, the EUGENE P. THOMAS was towed by the TUG MALCOLM to Thunder Bay, Ontario, for scrapping by Shearmet.

In the morning of 17 November 1926, the PETER A.B. WIDENER (steel straight-deck bulk freighter, 580 foot, 7,053 gross tons, built in 1906, at Chicago, Illinois) was running up bound on Lake Superior in ballast when it encountered strong Northeasterly winds. About six miles Southwest of the Rock of Ages Light on Isle Royale, the captain gave orders to change course for Duluth, Minnesota. There was no response because the wheel chains had parted from the drum, thus disabling the rudder. Repairs cost $4,000.

On 15 Nov 1972, the MICHIPICOTEN (steel straight-deck bulk freighter, 549 foot, 6,490 gross tons, built in 1905, at W. Bay City, Michigan, as HENRY C. FRICK) departed Quebec in tow of Polish tug KORAL for scrapping in Spain. The tow encountered bad weather and the MICHIPICOTEN broke in two during a major fall storm on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Her forward section sank on 17 November off Anticosti Island, and the after section sank the next day.

The propeller JOHN STUART burned about two miles from Sebawaing, Michigan, at 9:00 p.m., 17 November 1872. She had been aground there for some time.

On 17 November 1887, ARIZONA (wooden propeller package freighter, 189 foot, 962 gross tons, built in 1868, at Cleveland, Ohio) was carrying oils and acid used in mining operations when her dangerous cargo caught fire as she approached the harbor at Marquette, Michigan, in heavy seas. Poisonous fumes drove all of the crew topside, leaving the vessel unmanageable. She ran against the breakwater and the crew jumped off. The burning steamer "chased" the crew down the breakwater toward town with the poisonous fumes blowing ashore. She finally beached herself and burned herself out. She was later recovered and rebuilt.

On 17 November 1873, the wooden 2-mast schooner E.M. CARRINGTON sank in nine feet of water at Au Sable, Michigan. She had a load of 500 barrels of flour and 7,000 bushels of grain. She was recovered and lasted another seven years.

On 17 November 1880, GARIBALDI (2-mast wooden schooner, 124 foot, 209 tons, built in 1863, at Port Rowan, Ontario) was carrying coal in a storm on Lake Ontario. She anchored to ride out the storm, but after riding out the gale for 15 hours, her anchor cable parted and her crew was forced to try to bring her into Weller's Bay. She stranded on the bar. One of the crew froze solid in a standing position and his ghost is supposed to still haunt that area. The vessel was recovered and rebuilt. She lasted until at least 1898.

1902: The wooden steamer ROBERT WALLACE sank 13 miles out of Two Harbors while towing the barge ASHLAND.

1922: CITY OF DRESDEN was anchored off Long Point due to high winds and some of the cargo was thrown overboard. The ship beached on the west side of Long Point and broke up as a total loss. One sailor perished.

1922: MALTON went aground on Main Duck Island in Lake Ontario and was stuck until November 30.

1936: The steering cable of the SIDNEY E. SMITH gave way entering the harbor at Fairport, Ohio, and the ship stranded on the break wall. While released on November 22, the heavily damaged vessel was broken up for scrap the following year.

1939: VARDEFJELL, which inaugurated regular Great Lakes service for the Fjell Line in 1932, was torpedoed and sunk as b) KAUNAS 6.5 miles WNW of Noord Harbor, N. Hinder Light, River Schelde.

1996: SEADANIEL went aground at Duluth due to high winds after the anchors dragged. The ship was released, undamaged, by tugs. It last visited the Great Lakes in November 1998 and arrived at Alang, India, for scrapping on May 5, 1999.


11/17 - Lake Huron – An international team of shipwreck hunters today announced their discovery of the Manasoo, a steel steamer that sank in Lake Huron 90 years ago this fall - a deadly tragedy blamed in part on the shifting of a huge herd of cows it was ferrying from an island to the mainland.

The 178-foot steamer sank abruptly on Sept. 15, 1928. Sixteen of the 21 people on board died, along with the 115 cows and one bull that had been loaded onto the boat from Canada's Manitoulin Island, which lies east of Michigan's Drummond Island in the U.P.

The five survivors - the captain, three sailors, and the cows' owner - drifted on a raft for 60 hours. They were suffering from exposure and in rough shape when they were found by another steamer in the Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron which is slightly separated from the big lake by Canada's Bruce Peninsula.

On June 30 of this year, shipwreck hunters Ken Merryman and Jerry Eliason, both from Minnesota, and Cris Kohl from Windsor, Ontario, found the Manasoo sitting in just over 200 feet of water near the Georgian Bay port town of Owen Sound.

They describe the wreck as "amazingly intact," with her pilot house and unusual mid-ship staircase seemingly untouched.

Read more and view photos at this link: www.mlive.com/expo/life-and-culture/erry-2018/11/14401ed0dd7630/90yearold-shipwreck-caused-by.html


11/17 - A first-of-its-kind initiative between the United States Coast Guard and Lake Carriers’ Association has had MH-65 Dolphins and MH-60 Jayhawks whirring above Interlake Steamship Co. vessels since May.

The rescue exercises, intended to simulate real-life medical evacuations, are the result of a joint agreement between the two maritime organizations which became official Oct. 31, 2017.

“The experience gained by both Coast Guard and Lake Carriers’ crews will greatly enhance both organizations’ capabilities,” Rear Admiral Joanna M. Nunan, commander, 9th Coast Guard District, said at the time the agreement was announced. “The opportunity to build familiarity and proficiency with hoisting from Great Lakes commercial vessels will better prepare our pilots for hoist operations during time-critical emergencies.”

Training with the USCG Air Stations in Detroit and Traverse City has been a great opportunity for both the Coast Guard crews and Interlake’s shipboard crews, says Paul Christensen, director of operations and security at Interlake, the largest privately held U.S. Flag-fleet on the Great Lakes.

“A year ago we had a medical emergency aboard a vessel and the USCG was able to come out to get the sailor the medical attention he needed,” says Christensen. “Even though the evacuation went well, this training allows our crews to have an understanding how to safely work with Coast Guard helos.”

James H.I. Weakley, president of Lake Carriers’ Association, the industry group that represents U.S. flagged vessels on the Great Lakes, says he was pleased to formalize the program with the Coast Guard and “get it off the ground.”

“Amazingly, this is the first time in the country this program has been implemented,” Weakley says. “The key to its success has been and will continue to be the execution at the operational level. The response by Interlake and both Coast Guard Air Stations has exceeded my expectations. It will pay dividends for our sailors and for those in other parts of the country, as the Coast Guard aviators leave the Great Lakes better trained and more proficient.”

Capt. Steve Hughes is master of Interlake’s 826-foot M/V Lee A. Tregurtha, one of the vessels that has participated in a handful of hoist exercises on Lake Huron this season. He says the training is very relevant to what might happen on a bulk carrier moving cargo nonstop from March to January. Participating in these exercises has also been a welcome break in the day-to-day routine for his crew of nearly two dozen mariners.

“They also understand that there is the very real possibility that this training may be put to good use in the future, so the incentive was there to get as much out of it as possible,” Hughes says.

Read more and view photos at this link: www.interlake-steamship.com/media/newsroom/maritime-organizations-join-forces-for-unique-training-ops-on-the-great-lak


11/18 - Niagara Falls - The U.S. government’s tighter immigration policy appears to have swept up some employees in a small transportation company that’s also a beloved tourist attraction: the Maid of the Mist.

Two seasoned Canadian captains at the Maid of the Mist – those boats that run tourists breathtakingly close to Niagara Falls and return them to shore about 20 minutes later, sopping wet but safe – said they were let go this month after being told that the U.S. company could not obtain seasonal work visas for them. About six Canadian crew members have been affected, the captains said.

“We were in shock,” Capt. Paul Chaperon said this week.

Chaperon, whom I met through a mutual friend during a visit to Niagara Falls, posted his bad news on Facebook. For him, it meant the abrupt end of a career, just as he was nearing retirement.

Chaperon, a native of the island nation of Mauritius who first went to sea as a teenager, said he started working for the Maid of the Mist 14 years ago. The nature of the job – which navigates the Niagara River back and forth across the U.S.-Canadian border – also helped create an unusual situation in regard to the Canadian employees’ visa status.

That’s because the boats, whose keels were laid in Canada, are flagged as Canadian vessels. When the company lost its lease on the Canadian side of the river and moved to the United States, Chaperon and other Canadians who remained with the company were required to obtain seasonal H-2B visas from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Chaperon said obtaining those visas had been routine every year – until now.

“We can’t work anymore because of that immigration policy,” Chaperon said.

The captains’ story is one that has played out across entire industries as seafood processors, farmers and others feel the effects of the Trump administration’s “America First” policies. This past winter, the administration announced that it would for the first time ever distribute the temporary visas through a lottery instead of on a first-come, first-served basis. Congress also eliminated a rule saying workers who had received such visas before could receive them again without counting them toward the annual cap.

Supporters say the tighter policies have given U.S. citizens first dibs on some jobs and helped drive up wages. Critics say the hard-line immigration policies have created labor shortages and higher costs that will eventually hit consumers.

Kevin Keenan, a spokesman for the company that operates the Maid of the Mist, confirmed that there was an issue with the visas but declined to say more. A USCIS spokesman said the agency was simply following the law.

As such, the administration has been relentlessly pursuing merit-based policy and regulatory immigration reforms, including a thorough review of employment based visa programs so they benefit the American people to the greatest extent possible in fulfillment of the President’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order,” the spokesman said.

As travel goes, the Maid of the Mist probably delivers more enjoyment per distance traveled than most vessels. Each boat – Maid of the Mist VI and Maid of the Mist VII – packs about 600 people per trip. They don ponchos and ooh and ahh at the Niagara River’s 167-foot drop.

The boats have been making the short circuit around the falls for more than 130 years, the company’s website says. The tours start in the spring after the last of the river ice has broken up and continue until late autumn. In 2018, about 1.6 million people took the trip.

Captains need about five years’ experience before they get a good understanding of the churning waters at the base of the falls – though Capt. Rod MacDonald has said that for him and other Canadians on the crew, it’s only about as challenging as driving a car on ice or snow, the website says.

But for Chaperon and MacDonald, the joyride came to an end when the boats were hauled from the water and dry-docked until next season and the company told them the news about the visas.

“We’re sort of hung out to dry,” MacDonald, 57, who lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, said in an interview. “They didn’t give us much information. [The U.S. government] just tightened down on the work visas – that’s all they said.”

MacDonald, who has piloted Maid of the Mist boats for about 30 years, said the job was so much fun that he never thought about quitting. He’s not sure what he’ll do next. “It hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said.

Washington Post

[ppat324]

Submerged oddities will be pulled from Rouge River — including 8 cars
11/20 - Detroit, Mich. – A century's worth of bad environmental practices by local industries is slated for dredging out of the "Old Channel" around Zug Island, in a more than $50-million federal project to improve long-standing pollution problems on the Rouge River.
Arising from the murk with potentially health-harming, ecology-wrecking pollution will be eight or so cars, mysteriously sunk in the 15- to 26-foot depths of the channel.
"Who knows? Maybe we'll find Hoffa finally," quipped Steve Check, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, referring to Jimmy Hoffa, the long-missing and presumed murdered former Teamsters president.
The Old Channel wraps around Zug Island, with its counterclockwise flows entering the main channel of the Lower Rouge River — a reversal of its natural flows created when Henry Ford in the early 1900s expanded a shipping canal to the Detroit River to feed his vast Rouge Plant.
Dozens of industries operated in the area from the 1800s — iron and steel mills, coking, tar and paper manufacturing, along with heavy shipping and train traffic to supply the factories' resource needs. Those operations continued for generations at a time when there was little concern about — let alone regulation of — industry environmental practices.
"At one point, there were about 82 million gallons of industrial waste per day going through that channel" and out in the Rouge and Detroit rivers, untreated, said Rose Ellison, project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"That was in the day that these river channels were deemed an acceptable way to get these wastes off the land and away from people."
The main contaminants of concern polluting the channel and its sediments are poly aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH, which are potentially cancer-causing. The primary sources were years of operation by the Detroit Tar and Detroit Coke plants. Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, an industrial chemical, are also present.
"There are other contaminants there, but (PAH) are the main one," Ellison said. "If we go after the PAH, we're going to get many of the other contaminants as well." Channel bank stabilization work is underway now, with the dredging expected to be completed by summer 2020.
So, where'd those cars come from? Were they abandoned there? Ditched stolen cars? Or worse? Nobody involved with the cleanup project is sure. They were discovered on the channel bottom via side-scan sonar as the project area was evaluated, Ellison said.
"When we take them out, we're going to have to call the police," Ellison said. "They'll get the VIN numbers and figure out why they ended up there."
Once cleared by the police, the cars and other large debris will be moved to appropriate landfills or scrapyards, Check said. "There's all kinds of stuff down there — telephone poles, giant sections of concrete from old foundations," he said. "An old boat, an old freighter anchor," Ellison added.
Honeywell Inc., which now owns the Detroit Coke property, is voluntarily contributing more than $20 million to the Old Channel dredging work through the Great Lakes Legacy Act, a 2002 federal law allowing the EPA to partner with private entities to address Areas of Concern, designated locations around the Great Lakes with significant, impactful environmental degradation. Thirty-one Areas of Concern have been designated around the five Great Lakes, with four areas since delisted because of restoration work.
The collaboration has been in the works since 2010, planning and preparing for the work that's now begun.



Port Reports - November 20
Duluth, Minn. – Daniel Lindner
American Spirit arrived Duluth at 06:24 Monday morning, and headed to CN for a load of iron ore pellets. Her fleetmate Walter J. McCarthy Jr. was inbound at 09:06 to load coal at SMET. During the evening, Michipicoten arrived at 17:21 to load at CN, and Polsteam's Ina entered port at 19:14 and tied up at Riverland Ag to load wheat. Paul R. Tregurtha was expected at 23:30 to load at Midwest Energy after the McCarthy, which was due to depart around 21:30 Monday. American Spirit should finish loading early Tuesday morning. Also in port was Trudy, still at Port Terminal unloading clay. In Superior, Stewart J. Cort left the BN dock at 08:55 Monday with a load of ore for Burns Harbor. St. Clair is due at 09:00 Tuesday to load.
Two Harbors- Silver Bay – Gary A. Putney
American Integrity departed Two Harbors on Nov. 19th at 09:53 for Indiana Harbor 7H. Arriving off Two Harbors on Nov. 19th at approx. 05:15 was the Algowood. She stopped SW of the Two Harbors breakwall. She got underway at approx. 10:05 and arrived the breakwall at 10:22 for South of #2. As of 19:45 she was still loading, but is showing an AIS destination of Quebec City. Also arriving off Two Harbors on Nov. 19th was the Algoma Transport. She went to anchor NE of the Two Harbors breakwall at 11:08. The Edwin H. Gott was due Two Harbors on the 19th, but at 19:45 it looks like she's headed to Duluth, possibly to fuel or to take a delay at the Port Terminal. Due Two Harbors on Nov. 20th is the Indiana Harbor. Northshore Mining in Silver Bay had no traffic on Nov. 19th, but due Nov. 20th is the Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader. She will be arriving after unloading limestone in Marquette. An update on the Joyce L. VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader: She went to Cleveland to unload her Silver Bay iron ore pellets cargo.
Thunder Bay, Ont.
Monday November 19th: 2:59 Saginaw arrived at Richardson Current River Terminal to load grain. 8:12 saltie Prosna arrived and went to anchor. 8:55 Federal Leda arrived and went to anchor. 9:38 Ojibway arrived at Richardson Main Terminal to load grain. Expected for Tuesday: saltie Iryda and tug Candace Elise with barges AM 2100 and AM 2101.
Escanaba, Mich. – Lee Rowe
BBC Kansas was in port Monday delivering machinery headed for Cleveland Mining. Monday evening she was headed out into Lake Michigan with no next port showing on AIS.
S. Lake Michigan
Great Republic was in Buffington Monday night. Hon. James L. Oberstar and James R. Barker were at Indiana Harbor. Wilfred Sykes departed Indiana Harbor in the early evening. Federal Nagara was at S. Chicago. Algoma Niagara was due at Burns Harbor late Friday or early Tuesday.
Limestone Ports
Monday, November 19th Port Inland: 10:43 Philip R Clarke departed and is down bound on Lake Huron. 14:11 Calumet arrived to load and departed at 21:51. She went to anchor off of the harbor. Brevort: 2:08 John G Munson arrived at the Sand Products Dock to load limestone. Calcite: Olive L Moore arrived to load. Meldrum Bay: Kaye E Barker arrived to load.
Goderich, Ont.
Algoma Innovator was loading salt on Monday. Federal Cedar remained at anchor north of Sarnia. Her AIS destination reads Goderich.
Detroit-Rouge River, Mich. – Raymond H.
Alpena arrived with cement for Lafarge before sunrise on Monday morning. After finishing her unload at St. Mary's Cement, the Capt. Henry Jackman was fueling at the Waterfront Petroleum Terminal. The tug Rebecca Lynn tied up along the riverfront to wait for the Capt. Henry Jackman to depart the Waterfront Petroleum Terminal. Arriving a short time after was the tug Evans McKeil, towing a barge. They called on Zug Island to load coke. Later in the evening, the tug Sharon MI and barge Huron Spirt arrived at Nicholson's Ecorse Terminal to unload. Soon afterwards, the Everlast/Norman McLeod arrived at the Marathon Asphalt Terminal to load.
Welland Canal and regional report - Monday Nov 19 – Barry Andersen
Long Point Bay anchorage
Anchored - Nov 9 - Bro Agnes (Sgp) at 2235 - Nov 18 - Algocanada at 0845 - Nov 19 - Algosea at 0653 - Departed - Nov 19 - Algosea at 1543 for the canal
Nanticoke:
Arrivals - Nov 19 - CSL Tadoussac at 0238 and Algonova at 1636 - Departures - Nov 18 - Algoma Buffalo at 2351 westbound - Nov 19 - CSL Tadoussac at 1427 westbound
Welland Canal:
Upbound - Nov 18 - Cedarglen at 1257, Algoma Enterprise at 1453 tug Sarah Andrie & barge A-410 at 1458, and tug Sea Eagle II & barge St Marys Cement II at 1823 - Nov 19 - tug Spartan & barge Spartan II at 0217, Federal Barents (Mhl) at 0425, Federal Weser (Mhl) at 0435, USCG Abbie Burgess at1515 and tug Petite Forte & barge St Marys Cement at 1713
Downbound - Nov 18 - Tecumseh at 1650, NACC Alicudi (Mlt) at 2225 - Nov 19 - Atlantic Huron at 0609, Lyulin (Mlt) at 0806, Reestborg (Nld) at 1011, Baie Comeau at 1029, Whitefish Bay at 1258, Manitoulin at 1506, CSL Tadoussac at 1742 and Algosea eta 2030
Welland Canal docks:
Docked - Nov 14 - Federal Seto (Mhl) - stopped wharf 2 at 0654 to unload - Nov 18 - Federal Delta (Mhl) (stopped at wharf 6 Thorold to continue unloading)
Port Weller anchorage:
Anchored - Nov 18 - Carolus Magnus (Bbs) (SCT Breithorn-17, MCT Breithorn-16) at 0040 - Nov 19 - NACC Alicudi (Mlt) at 0755 approx. - Departures - Fraserborg (Nld), Vancouverborg, Federal Alster (Mhl) at 1255 approx., Sarah Desgagnes and Jana Desgagnes at 1645 approx. - all eastbound
Hamilton:
Arrivals - Nov 19 - Algoma Spirit at 1636 - Anchored - Nov 5 - Tufty (Cyp) at 0200 - Docked - Aug 29 - CCGS Martha L Black (icebreaker) at 0618 (Heddle Marine) - Nov 14 - Solina (Bhs) at 0125 and Isabelle G (Por) (ex Eider-18) at 0705 - Nov 15 - tug Leo A McArthur & barge John J Carrick at 1230 - Nov 17 - BBC Rushmore (Atg) at 0920 - Nov 18 - CSL Laurentien at 0752 and Ruddy (Cyp) at 2240 - Nov 19 - Federal Mosel (Mhl) at 0555 -Departure - Nov 18 - Algoma Enterprise
Bronte:
Docked - Nov 17 - Sarah Desgagnes at 2027 - Departed Nov 19 at 0807 for Port Weller anchorage
Toronto:
Docked - Nov 16 - Wigeon at 1124 - Nov 18 - McKeil Spirit at 0430 and Irma (Cyp) at 0536
Oshawa:
Docked - Nov 17 Federal Margaree (Mhl) at 1043 (from the anchorage)

[yachtsmanwilly]

11/21 - Cleveland, Ohio – The water quality improvements the Cuyahoga River has undergone since its iconic fire almost 50 years ago are well-documented. Now, another chapter has been added to the environmental success story: the release of a new documentary film on the YouTube channel.

The 12-minute video, "Celebrating the Comeback of the Burning River, 1969-2019," traces the years since the fire instigated the launch of the federal Clean Water Act by environmentalists, and the river's inspiring transformation since then.

The film is illustrated by archival footage and interviews with some of the key participants in the river's rebirth, such as river advocates Elaine Marsh and Jane Goodman, and the Ohio EPA's Bob Wysenski and Bill Zawiski. The movie was produced by the Ohio EPA.

For those too young to remember the black-and-white images from local television newsreels, the film presents horrific scenes of fiery plumes of smoke on the river, fire boats pumping water on a burning railroad trestle, dead fish floating on the surface, and thick blobs of oil bobbing in the poisonous water – all accompanied by a haunting musical soundtrack.

Read more and view the film at this link: www.cleveland.com/metro/2018/11/cuyahoga-rivers-recovery-since-1969-fire-documented-in-new-ohio-epa-film-on-youtube.html


11/21 - Fairport Harbor, Ohio – Ohio drivers probably haven't given much thought about where the salt road crews use to keep the winter roads safe comes from. Much of it is mined 2,000 feet below Lake Erie.

Todd Meany, a reporter with the local Fox news outlet, took a 4 1/2 minute elevator ride down into the mine, and then drove 3 1/2 miles out to give a rare glimpse of what happens inside the Morton Salt mines.

Watch the videos to get a glimpse of what happens 24-hours a day, 7 days a week at this link: fox8.com/2018/11/16/todd-kicks-it-in-the-salt-mines-2000-feet-below-lake-erie


In 1934, the package freighter EDWARD L. LOOMIS, Captain Alex McKenzie, collided with the W. C. FRANZ, Captain Alex McIntyre, about 30 miles southeast of Thunder Bay Island, Lake Huron. Four crewmen on the FRANZ drowned when the lifeboat turned over while being lowered.
On 21 November 1861, ENTERPRISE (2-mast wooden scow-schooner, 64 foot, 56 tons, built in 1854, at Port Huron, Michigan) was driven ashore near Bark Shanty at the tip of Michigan's thumb on Lake Huron. The storm waves pounded her to pieces. Her outfit was salvaged a few days later.

On the evening of 21 November 1890, the scow MOLLIE (wooden scow-schooner, 83 foot, 83 gross tons, built in 1867, at Fairport, Ohio) left Ludington, Michigan, with a load of lumber. About 8:00 p.m., when she was just 25 miles off Ludington, she started to leak in heavy seas, quickly becoming waterlogged. Capt. Anderson and his two-man crew had just abandoned the vessel in the yawl when the steamer F & P M NO 4 showed up, shortly after midnight. The rough weather washed Capt. Anderson out of the yawl, but he made it back in. At last a line from the F & P M NO 4 was caught and made fast to the yawl and the crew made it to the steamer. The men had a narrow escape, for the MOLLIE was going to pieces rapidly, and there was little likelihood of the yawl surviving in the gale.

PATERSON (Hull#113) was launched November 21, 1953, at Port Arthur, Ontario, by Port Arthur Ship Building Co. Ltd.

In 1924, MERTON E. FARR slammed into the Interstate Bridge that linked Superior, Wisconsin, with Duluth, Minnesota, causing extensive damage to the bridge. The bridge span fell into the water but the FARR received only minor damage to her bow.

On 21 November 1869, the ALLIANCE (wooden passenger sidewheeler, 87 foot, 197 gross tons, built in 1857, at Buffalo, New York) slipped her moorings at Lower Black Rock in the Niagara River and went over the falls. She had been laid up since the spring of 1869.

November 21, 1906 - The PERE MARQUETTE 17 encountered one of the worst storms in many years while westbound for the Wisconsin Central slip in Manitowoc. Wisconsin. She made port safely, but the wind was so high that she could not hold her course up the river without assistance. The tug ARCTIC assisted, and as they were proceeding through the 10th Street Bridge, a gust of wind from the south drove the ferry and tug against the north pilings of the 10th Street Bridge. The ARCTIC, pinned between the ferry and the bridge, was not damaged, but she crushed the hull of a fishing tug moored there, sinking her, and inflicted damage of a few hundred dollars to the bridge.

November 21, 1923 - Arthur Stoops, the lookout on the ANN ARBOR NO 6, was drowned while stepping from the apron onto the knuckle to cast off the headline.

On the night of 21 November 1870, C.W. ARMSTRONG (wooden propeller steam tug, 57 foot, 33 tons, built in 1856, at Albany, New York) burned at her dock at Bay City, Michigan. No lives were lost.

More incidents from the Big Gale of 1879. On 21 November 1879, The Port Huron Times reported "The schooner MERCURY is ashore at Pentwater. The schooner LUCKY is high and dry at Manistee; the schooner WAUBASHENE is on the beach east of Port Colborne. The schooner SUMATRA is on the beach at Cleveland; the large river tug J P Clark capsized and sunk at Belle Isle in the Detroit River on Wednesday [19 Nov.] and sank in 15 minutes. One drowned. The schooner PINTO of Oakville, Ontario, stone laden, went down in 30 feet of water about one mile down from Oakville. At Sand beach the barge PRAIRIE STATE is rapidly going to pieces.

1883: The boiler exploded aboard the salvage tug ERIE BELLE while working to free the schooner J.N. CARTER in the Kincardine area of Lake Huron. The former was wrecked but the boiler is still on what has become known as “Old Boiler Beach”.

1902: BANNOCKBURN disappeared on Lake Superior without a trace. Its final resting place has never been found. 1906: The wooden steamer RESOLUTE anchored off the Eastern Gap at Toronto to ride out a storm but the wind switched battering the vessel until it sank. The hull was salvaged in October 1907 and rebuilt as the JOHN ROLPH.

1936: HIBOU was lost in Owen Sound Bay within two miles of the dock and seven perished. The hull was refloated in 1942.

1941: HENRY C. DARYAW, requisitioned for war and on its delivery voyage stranded on rocks in the Brockville Narrows, rolled over and slid off into deep water and sank. It was to have been used on the east coast as a tender for ocean ships. One life was lost.

1957: MONTFAUCON was built at Wyandotte, MI in 1920 and later operated on the Great Lakes as b) E.M. BUNCE. It was at Naples, Italy, as g) ANNA MARIA IEVOLI when an internal explosion caused damage that led to the ship being scrapped.

1959: MOSES GAY was built at Duluth in 1943. It was severely damaged as e) HEANGURA in a storm at Ostra Kvarken, Sweden, and went aground. While salvaged, the ship was tied up at Turku, Finland, and sold for scrap in January 1960.

1961: The British freighter RAPALLO was anchored at Istanbul, Turkey, when struck and damaged by two different freighters, both out of control due to high winds. The vessel was repaired and began Seaway trading in 1963 for the Ellerman Wilson Line.

1961: The former Paterson canaller GANANDOC left the Great Lakes as b) SUGARLAND in October 1961. It had a brief career in the south and went aground at Arcas Reef, Bay of Campeche, while inbound for Coatzacoalcos, Mexico with 2,877 tons of phosphoric rock from Tampa. The ship was abandoned on November 26 as a total loss.

1962: BRO, a Norwegian pre-Seaway visitor as early as 1953, was abandoned by the crew after taking a severe list en route from Seville, Spain, to Rotterdam, Netherlands. The ship was taken in tow, reached Lisbon, Portugal, and was repaired.

1982: CAPTAIN PANAGOS D.P. went aground at Farasan Island in the Red Sea en route from Trois Rivieres, QC to Bandar Abbas, Iran. Fire broke out in the engine room and the ship was gutted. The hull was refloated and was noted lying off Qatar “derelict” in December 1986 and finally scrapped at Gadani Beach, Pakistan, as c) JENNY in 1988. The vessel first came through the Seaway as PANAGOS D. PATERAS in 1977 and returned as CAPTAIN PANAGOS D.P. in 1980.

1994: The Russian freighter FASTOV, upbound for Green Bay with pulpwood on its first trip to the Great Lakes, lost power and struck the Shell dock at Corunna, ON, resulting in considerable damage to the structure. The vessel returned inland as d) EVANGELOS in 1999 and was scrapped at Aliaga, Turkey, as f) JONA in 2011.

2007: The engine aboard the Lake Erie passenger ship JIIMAAN became disabled after the vessel snagged a fish net off Kingsville and the vessel grounded briefly.

[yachtsmanwilly]

11/22 - Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has submitted its work plan for 2019 to Congress. According to the Corps, the plan includes $32 million as an initial outlay for the design and construction of a new, second lock at the Soo Locks and is prepared by the Corps as an outline of how it will allocate funding for its work in the year ahead.

A letter from October, written by Congressman John Moolenaar, who is a long-time supporter of building a new lock at the Soo Locks, includes a request for funding in the work plan. The bipartisan letter was signed by 27 other members of Congress from Great Lakes states.

The total cost of the new lock is estimated to be $922.4 million.

WPBN/WGTU


11/22 - Cheboygan, Mich. – The crew aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw in Cheboygan are getting ready for a special operation in Chicago. On board with them are more than 1,000 Christmas trees.

In just over a week the coast guard will help deliver 1200 Northern Michigan trees to families in the Windy City.

“The Christmas tree ship dates back to the late 1800s early 1900s when the city of Chicago would predominately get their Christmas trees from the Upper Peninsula,” Commander John Stone said.

“It’s an opportunity to provide some good will as well as commemorate the rich maritime tradition up here on the Great Lakes,” he added. It’s a tradition they continue to honor in memory of the Rouse Simmons.

“About 1912, the most famous of the Christmas tree ships, the Rouse Simmons, sank with all hands. We, along with Christmas Tree Committee down in Chicago, started to commemorate their loss every year since,” Stone explained.

For 19 years the crew in Cheboygan has continued to make this special delivery. “It’s always nice because we got the ceremony down in Chicago and it’s a blast. It’s kind of a legacy of an old tradition,” ET-2 Joseph Coach, said.

“I kind of joined the Coast Guard to help serve and help the community and this is kind of a different way of doing it,” Coach added.

The ship will take off next Monday and will be in Chicago by the end of next week.

View a video of the tree loading at this link: www.9and10news.com/2018/11/20/uscgc-mackinaw-loads-up-1200-christmas-trees-for-chicago-families-in-need/


11/22 - Detroit, Mich. – A modern-day treasure hunter has defied the federal government by refusing to surrender rare lighthouse lenses, including one that disappeared from Belle Isle decades ago, according to federal court records.

The records chronicle the ongoing fight between the government and a treasure hunter, chart the winding, black-market path of lighthouse lenses worth approximately $600,000 and detail the government’s decades-long hunt to recover artifacts that were once discarded like trash.

Antique hunter Steven Gronow, a real-estate developer and former auto parts baron who lives in a lighthouse-shaped mansion near Howell, had escalated a two-year legal battle by refusing to relinquish the artifacts despite U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordering he surrender the two-foot-tall, beehive-shaped lenses earlier this year.

Instead, Gronow last month stood up U.S. Coast Guard officials and a rare lens expert — known as a lampist — who was hired to secure the artifacts in specially-designed crates. When they arrived at Gronow’s 9,825-square-foot estate, Gronow was gone, leaving the lampist and Coast Guard officials outside the gates, speaking in vain through a squawk box with the antique hunter’s wife.

On Monday, Gronow faced a stern judge who ordered him to surrender the lenses by early February or risk having federal agents forcibly enter his home, and face unpleasant options, including fines and jail.

"There's an easy way and a hard way to do this," the judge told a jeans-clad Gronow.

Gronow didn't fight the order but expressed bewilderment that he ended up in a federal courtroom after devoting his life to preserving pieces of maritime history.

"These essentially were thrown in the trash 70 years ago," Gronow told the judge. "And after not caring for 75 years, I'm sued."

The judge's order moved the public closer to being able to view the century-old Belle Isle lens for the first time in more than 80 years.

"If it becomes something that is more or less accessible to the public for viewing, that would be a good thing," said John Polacsek, retired curator of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.

The mystery surrounding the lens dates to the late 1930s, when the lens was moved from inside the Belle Isle lighthouse on the southeast tip of the island.

The two-foot-tall glass lens resembles a giant beehive and was made in the early 1880s. The lens relies on a revolutionary design that focuses light into a single beam that can travel more than 20 miles.

The U.S. government bought the lens for a planned lighthouse on the southeast part of Belle Isle in 1881. The lens, developed by French physicist and engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel, was installed later in the Belle Isle lighthouse, a square, red-brick tower with an attached two-story brick building.

Fresnel lenses, however, are fragile, expensive to fix and tough to clean. Many were replaced with automated beacons while some were scavenged for brass components during World War II, dropped down elevator shafts, tossed from lighthouse towers, dumped in the sea or sold by Coast Guard stations.

The Belle Isle lens did not suffer such a fate.

The Belle Isle lighthouse was decommissioned in 1930 as part of plans to build the William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse less than a mile away on the northeast part of the island. The original Belle Isle lighthouse was demolished in 1943.

The lens was moved to the Livingstone lighthouse in 1935 or 1936, according to the Coast Guard, but a fog enveloped its fate. Joel Stone, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum’s senior curator, had heard it was destroyed.

Others heard it was stolen.

Read more and view images at this link: www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/11/19/lost-belle-isle-lighthouse-lens-stuck-court-tug-war/1987860002


11/22 - Fednav hassigned a contract with Norwegian BWT specialist Optimarin for the supply of seven USCG-approved Optimarin Ballast Systems (OBS). Five of the units will be fitted on existing vessels within the 63-strong Fednav fleet, with two deliveries set for newbuilds.

The order comes on top of agreements for five units made last year. Fednav initially ordered one retrofit and four newbuild units in 2017 and is now rolling out further installations.

Optimarin made its initial retrofit delivery to Fednav earlier this year, with Goltens installing an OBS on Federal Kumano at MPG Dolphin Shipyard in Varna, Bulgaria. The first newbuild orders concerned projects at Oshima shipyard in Japan.

OBS has now been successfully retrofitted in over 200 vessels. The system has certification from a comprehensive range of classification organizations, including ABS, BV, DNV-GL, LR & MLIT Japan

World Maritime News


In 1947, the Canadian tanker BRUCE HUDSON broke down shortly after departing Port Stanley, Ont. The U.S. tanker ROCKET, Captain R. B. Robbins, managed to get a line on the HUDSON and tow her 50 miles through high seas and a snow storm to shelter behind Point Pelee. Later, the tug ATOMIC arrived on scene and towed the Hudson to Toledo for repairs.
On 22 November 1860, WABASH VALLEY (wooden propeller, 592 tons, built in 1856, at Buffalo, New York) was caught in a blizzard and gale off Muskegon, Michigan, on Lake Michigan. Her skipper thought they were off Grand Haven and as he steamed to the harbor, visibility dropped to near zero. The vessel ran onto the beach. Her momentum and the large storm waves carried her well up onto the beach where she broke in two. Her machinery was salvaged and went into the new steamer SUNBEAM.

Scrapping of SPRUCEGLEN, a.) WILLIAM K. FIELD was completed on November 22, 1986, by Lakehead Scrap Metal Co. at Thunder Bay Ontario. SPRUCEGLEN was the last Canadian coal-fired bulker.

On 22 November 1869, CREAM CITY (3-mast wooden bark, 629 tons, built in 1862, at Sheboygan, Wisconsin) was carrying wheat in a gale when she lost her way and went ashore on Drummond Island. She appeared to be only slightly damaged, but several large pumps were unable to lower the water in her hull. She was finally abandoned as a total wreck on 8 December. She was built as a "steam bark" with an engine capable of pushing her at 5 or 6 mph. After two months of constant minor disasters, this was considered an unsuccessful experiment and the engine was removed.

CITY OF MILWAUKEE was chartered to the Ann Arbor Railroad Co. and started the Frankfort, Michigan-Kewaunee, Wisconsin service for them on November 22, 1978.

November 22, 1929 - CITY OF SAGINAW 31 went out on her sea trials.

On 22 November 1860, CIRCASSIAN (wooden schooner, 135 foot, 366 tons, built in 1856, at Irving, New York) was carrying grain in a gale and blizzard on Lake Michigan when she stranded on White Shoals near Beaver Island. She sank to her decks and then broke in two. Her crew was presumed lost, but actually made it to Hog Island in the blizzard and they were not rescued from there for two weeks.

A final note from the Big Gale of 1879. On 22 November 1879, The Port Huron Times reported, "The barge DALTON is still high and dry on the beach at Point Edward."

1878: The wooden passenger and freight steamer WAUBUNO was lost with all hands, 14 crew and 10 passengers, on Georgian Bay.

1898: ARTHUR ORR went aground on Isle Royale when the steering gear failed in a severe storm. It was later released and survived until scrapping at Hamilton in 1947-1948.

1898: S.S. CURRY was leaking badly after it struck a reef off Duck Island, Lake Huron.

1906: J.H. JONES, en route from Owen Sound to Lions Head, was lost with all hands. The wooden passenger and freight steamer went down in 60 mph winds.

1907: Fire broke out aboard the wooden freighter LIZZIE MADDEN shortly after clearing Bay City for Little Current. The crew was rescued by the LANGELL BOYS. The burning hull drifted ashore on Little Charity Island in Saginaw Bay and was a total loss.

1911: JOLIET sank in the St. Clair River following a collision with the HENRY PHIPPS. It had been anchored due to fog when hit and all on board were saved. The remains were dynamited as a hazard to navigation.

1919: The wooden steamer MYRON sank off Crisp Point, Lake Superior and 17 crew were lost.

1950: The former Canada Steamship Lines canaller MAPLETON was destroyed at the Port of Suez, Egypt as b) EASTERN MED when a fire broke out while loading oil drums. The remains of the ship were scrapped.

1975: PIERSON DAUGHTERS hit bottom off North Colban Island in the St. Lawrence and had to go to Port Weller Dry Docks for repairs after unloading the cargo of iron ore at Conneaut.

1988: The Dutch flag freighter POOLSTER first came through the Seaway in 1969. It suffered an engineroom fire off Kuwait as e) ATLANTIC REEFER while bound for Dubai on this date. The badly damaged ship was towed to Sharjah and then sold for scrap. It was renamed f) VOYAGER I for the trip to Gadani Beach, Pakistan, and the vessel arrived April 4, 1989, for dismantling.

1998: SPAR OPAL went aground inside the breakwall at Port Colborne due to high winds and was released by the tugs UNDAUNTED and WELLAND. The ship had also been a Seaway trader beginning in 1984 as a) LAKE SHIDAKA, in 1991 as b) CONSENSUS ATLANTIC, and in 1992 as c) FEDERAL MATANE (i). It began Great Lakes service as e) SPAR OPAL in 1997.

2000: PRINSES IRENE of the Oranje Lijn made 16 trips into the Great Lakes, with passengers and freight, from 1959 through 1963. The vessel was observed beached at Jakarta, Indonesia, as c) TANJUNG OSINA on this date and appeared to be badly rusted and burned out. The hull was later reported to have been broken up.