Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive

Goderich - Wayne Brown
Saginaw was unloading at the Goderich Elevators on Sunday morning.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 31

In 1905, the B F JONES (Hull#15), 530 x 56 x 31 with a capacity of 10,000 tons, slid down the ways at Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, MI. The JONES was built at a cost of $400,000 for Jones and Laughlin Steel. Declared a constructive total loss after a collision with the str. CASON J CALLAWAY in the St. Marys River on August 21, 1955. Most of the hull was scrapped at Superior, Wisconsin in 1956. Part of the hull became the crane barge SSC-1. Her forward cabins and hatch crane and covers were installed on the str. SPARKMAN D FOSTER.

On 31 December 1891, the DEPERE (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 165’, 736 gt, built in 1875 at Manitowoc, WI) was sold by the Goodrich Transportation company to S. B. Grummond of Detroit for $9,000. She lasted until 1901 when a piston rod broke and pierced her hull. She sank in Lake Michigan off White Lake.

In 1952, a total of 35 boats were laid up for the season at Cleveland. The WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, GEORGE STEPHENSON, and ANDREW S UPSON had storage cargoes of flax, the MICHAEL GALLACHER had a storage cargo of wheat, and the remaining 31 vessels were empty.

In 1941, at the close of the shipping season, the Great Lakes fleet consisted of 513 boats of U.S. Registry and 279 boats of Canadian Registry.

At 4:00 p.m., 31 December 1895, the PURITON (wooden propeller passenger/package freight steamer, 172 foot, 289 gross tons, built in 1887, at Benton Harbor, Michigan) burned at the dock in Oak Hill (Manistee), Michigan. She was a total loss.

Upon suggestion from the U.S. Maritime Commission, surplus World War II cargo vessels, many of which had laid up on the James River, were made available for sale under the Great Lakes Vessel Sales Act of 1950 (enacted September 28, 1950) to be converted for Great Lakes use. The Act allowed Great Lakes fleets to purchase up to 10 surplus ships by December 31, 1951, and receive a 90% cost subsidy to convert and refurbish them for Lakes use. The first such conversion occurred when the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. of Cleveland, Ohio bought the NOTRE DAME VICTORY on December 10, 1950.

The GEORGE M HUMPHREY of 1953, was laid up for the last time at the old Great Lakes Engineering Works slip at River Rouge, Michigan beginning December 31, 1983.

The QUEDOC, a.) NEW QUEDOC, was laid up for the last time on December 31, 1984, at Toronto, Ontario along side the SENATOR OF CANADA.

On 31 December 1884, ADMIRAL (wooden propeller steam tug, 49 gross tons, built in 1883, at Chicago, Illinois) had her boiler explode in Chicago harbor. All four of the crew was killed.

In 1884, the PERE MARQUETTE NO 1 ran aground at Ludington, Michigan.

December 31, 1919 - The entire Ann Arbor carferry fleet was tied up in Frankfort, Michigan due to bad weather.

On 31 December 1889, H. M. Loud of Oscoda, Michigan sold the 551 ton wooden schooner ANGUS SMITH to Mitchell Brothers of Marine City, Michigan for $16,000. The vessel was built in 1871.

Marquette - Lee Rowe and Rod Burdick
Friday saw both the Michipicoten and the Herbert C Jackson at the ore dock waiting to load in Marquette.
Saturday afternoon at the Upper Harbor ore dock, Kaye E. Barker arrived and waited to load taconite. Like other recent loadings, chutes were placed in each hatch. Wolverine was due later in the evening.

Hamilton - Eric Holmes
Friday evening saw the James Norris arrive in the harbour at 8 p.m. They had been unloading at Clarkson but with an east wind blowing it proved to be too much to continue so they headed to Hamilton to anchor. They finally departed at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon for Clarkson to finish unloading. The Montrealais departed Hamilton at 6 p.m. for the Port Weller Dry Dock.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Canadian Transfer arrived Saturday afternoon and went to the Sifto Salt dock to load.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 30

On December 30, 1987, the THOMAS WILSON under tow in the North Atlantic heading to be scrapped, parted her towline and sunk near position 34.08'N by 61.35'12"W (approximately in line with Cape Hatteras, North Carolina) early the next day.

On 30 December 1915, the NYACK (wooden propeller passenger-package freight steamer, 231’, 1188 gt, built in 1878 at Buffalo, NY) was being prepared for winter layup at Muskegon, Michigan when she caught fire and was gutted. She was declared a total loss and abandoned, but her hull was resurrected in 1917 and converted to a barge by Reiboldt & Walter of Sturgeon Bay. She was finally scuttled in 1925

GEORGE M HUMPHREY (Hull#796) was launched December 30, 1926, for Kinsman Transit Co. at Lorain, Ohio by the American Ship Building Co. Renamed b.) CAPT JOHN ROEN in 1945, c.) ADAM E CORNELIUS in 1948 and d.) CONSUMERS POWER in 1958, scrapped at Taiwan in 1988.

The first steel carferry PERE MARQUETTE was launched in nearly completed form on December 30, 1896. The ship was built for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad (predecessor to the Pere Marquette) and entered service just a few weeks later.

St. Lawrence Seaway Closed

12/29 - The St. Lawrence Seaway closed Friday afternoon at the St. Lambert lock with the passage of Birchglen heading for Baltimore from Hamilton.

The last lockage was actually for four ships in the same lock, something very rare. Transiting together were the two tugs Ocean Golf and La Prairie with the icebreakers Martha L. Black and Tracy.

Last upbound vessel was Pineglen Wednesday at St. Lambert heading for Marinette from Contrecoeur. Last salty was Federal Weser Wednesday from Hamilton to Sorel-Tracy to top off.

At one stage she was behind the Egyptian vessel Ebn Al Waleed but somewhere along the way, the later overtook her.

Port Reports - December 29

Toledo - Bob Vincent
On the ore side of Toledo Docks on Saturday, the CSL Niagara had trouble unloading it's cargo of iron ore pellets. Some of the ore is frozen in the ship's cargo hold. It moved over to the opposite wall to let the Halifax come in to unload iron ore pellets from Quebec Cartier Mining Company (QCM).
The Voyageur Pioneer was unloading pig iron at the Midwest Terminal of Toledo International Dock.
On the coal side of Toledo Docks the next coal boat will be the John G. Munson, scheduled for Tuesday January 1, 2008 around 7 a.m. The Lee A. Tregurtha has been canceled for Friday.

Marquette - Rod Burdick
Friday afternoon at the Upper Harbor ore dock, Herbert C. Jackson and Michipicoten, sporting fresh paint, loaded taconite.

Hamilton - Eric Holmes
Early Friday morning the Algoisle arrived at 6 a.m. with iron ore for Dofasco. After unloading she will go to Pier 10 for winter lay up.  Canadian Prospector returned at 7 a.m. after cleaning her holds in Lake Ontario for winter lay up at Pier 12. Peter R. Cresswell arrived at 12:45 p.m. from Toronto for winter lay up at Pier 26N. Montrealais arrived at 5:30 p.m. with iron ore for Dofasco and after unloading will depart to the Port Weller Drydock at Lock 1 in the Welland Canal.

Twin Ports - Al Miller
Late Friday afternoon in the Twin Ports found Cason J. Callaway in Fraser Shipyards with a wheeled crane working on the deck near the bow.
Elsewhere, John J. Boland was turning into St. Louis Bay with a GLT tug leading the way and Algosteel was loading at Midwest Energy Terminal.

Port Colborne -
Windoc has been moved back to Wharf 17, the old Canada Furnace Dock. The D.C. Everest was moved across the canal to the former fuel dock on Friday. Car float Roanoke arrived November 18 and is berthed at Wharf 20 the Government Elevator presumably for IMS to scrap. The St. Marys Cement II with both Sea Eagle II and Petite Forte have been at Wharf 16 for almost a week possibly for repairs. St. Marys Cement II is reported to be headed to Toledo.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 29

B F JONES was launched December 29, 1906, as a.) GENERAL GARRETSON.

KINSMAN INDEPENDENT was launched in 1906, as a.) WILLIAM B KERR (Hull#72) at Chicago, Illinois by Chicago Ship Building Co. for the Weston Transit Co.

Kinsman's new GEORGE M HUMPHREY was christened on December 29, 1926.

The GOLDEN HIND was laid up for the last time on December 29, 1985, at Toronto, Ontario.

On 29 December 1813, ARIEL (4-gun armed schooner, 112 tons, built in 1813, at Erie, Pennsylvania as part of Perry's fleet) ran aground in a squall at Black River (now Buffalo) and was burned by the British.

CAROLINE (wooden sidewheeler, 71 foot, 46 tons, built in 1822, at New York City, New York) was chartered to transport arms and munitions to Navy Island near Buffalo. On 29 December 1837, she was commandeered by about 60 Canadian rebels under the command of a Royal Navy officer at Schlosser on the Niagara River. In the fight that followed, she was set afire, abandoned and allowed to drift down the river. Some sources say that she went over the Falls. This incident caused hostile feelings along the U.S. northeastern frontier for many months.

Port Reports - December 28

Toronto - Charlie Gibbons
The Groupe Ocean tugs Jerry G. and Omni Richelieu arrived in port on Christmas Day to assist the Egyptian saltie Ebn El Waleed out of port. The saltie headed off the lakes and the tugs returned to Toronto.
English River pulled in early on Wednesday and departed Thursday down the lake.
Late on Wednesday the tugs Tony Mackay and Evans McKeil arrived in Toronto from Prescott where they picked up the barge ATL 2701, the former Irving Whale, bound for the new generating station with a cargo of pipe racks.

Marquette - Rod Burdick
Thursday afternoon at the Upper Harbor the tug Victory and Barge Lewis J. Kuber was back at the ore dock for a load of taconite.

Hamilton - Eric Holmes
Late Wednesday evening the CSL Tadoussac departed at 8 p.m. for Windsor to load salt for Chicago. Thursday the John D Leitch departed at 11:15 a.m from Dofasco with oxides for Gary. Tug Tony McKay arrived at 4 p.m. from Toronto and went to Pier 14W. Atlantic Huron arrived at 5 p.m. with iron ore from Duluth for US Steel Canada. Her next port is Sandusky. Cuyahoga arrived at 5:30 p.m. with canola from Thunder Bay and went to winter lay up at Pier 12W, being used as storage for the winter.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Canadian Navigator was an overnight arrival and was loading Thursday morning at Sifto Salt with a light snow falling.
Agawa Canyon is under the spout at Sifto Salt loading on a clear, damp Friday morning.

Escanaba - Lee Rowe
The Edward L Ryerson continues to make trips between Escanaba and Indiana Harbor. She arrived in a snowstorm on Thursday, making a very slow and careful approach. The weather cleared later in the day as she was being loaded.

Twin Ports - Al Miller
Mesabi Miner and Paul R. Tregurtha were lined up Wednesday evening at the Duluth port terminal while they waited for the loading berth at Midwest Energy Terminal. Mesabi Miner got the dock overnight and cleared Thursday morning, and the Tregurtha immediately took the dock to begin loading.
Indiana Harbor was at the port terminal to fuel Thursday morning. It had been scheduled to load at Midwest Energy Terminal but apparently was diverted to instead load taconite pellets at the BNSF ore dock in Superior.
During the morning Thursday, USCG Alder was breaking ice in the turning basin off the end of the CN/DMIR ore dock and in the turning basin off the port terminal.
Cason J. Callaway arrived at midday with stone for delivery to the Hallett 5 dock.

Calcite - Jim B.
The Port of Calcite ended their season late Wednesday evening when the Earl W. departed just before Midnight with the last load of the season.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 28

The HENRY FORD II was laid up in the Rouge Steel slip at Dearborn, Michigan on December 28, 1988.

On 28 December 1861, the schooner ISABELLA AINSLIE was carrying lumber on Lake Huron when she partially capsized in a storm and was driven ashore onto a rocky reef seven miles North of the Limestone Islands in Georgian Bay. Some hope was entertained that she would be released the following Spring. Her skipper asked that the bay where the boat went ashore be renamed "St. Margaret's Bay" in honor of his cool-headed wife, who was aboard at the time.

On 28 December 1907, the CALDERA (steel propeller freighter, 504 foot, 6,328 gross tons) was launched at W. Bay City, Michigan.

On 28 December 1881, the steamer R J GORDON arrived in Port Huron from Marine City on her maiden voyage with a large number of passengers. She was powered with a steam engine with an 18" cylinder and 20" stroke. Her dimensions were 116 feet long with a 26 foot beam. She cost nearly $20,000 and was built to run between Algonac and Lexington.

Port Reports - December 27

Hamilton - John McCreery and Eric Holmes
On Wednesday the Canadian Prospector arrived at 9 a.m. with iron ore from Port Cartier for Dofasco. After unloading the Prospector will clean her holds and then go the Pier 12 for winter lay up. The Canadian Olympic departed at 11 a.m. for the Welland Canal.
CSL Tadoussac arrived at 11:30 a.m. with iron ore from Superior for US Steel Canada .Her next port will be Windsor.
Mississagi arrived at 12:30 p.m. with canola from Thunder Bay for Pier 12 where she will also lay up for the winter, in the same slip as Algobay.  John D Leitch arrived at 1:45 p.m. in ballast from Johnstown. She went to Dofasco to load oxides for Gary. CSL Assiniboine departed at 2 p.m. for the canal. Birchglen departed at 7 p.m. from Pier 26 with slag for Trois Rivieres Quebec.
Also in port are the tug Escorte at the Le Groupe Ocean dock along with the Jerry G and Omni Richelieu.

Grand Haven - Dick Fox
The barge St. Mary's Conquest and tug Susan Hannah arrived about 5 p.m. with a load of cement for the terminal in Ferrysburg. This is the last of our six docks to be open.

Marquette - Rod Burdick and Lee Rowe
Lee A. Tregurtha loaded taconite at the Upper Harbor on a snowy Wednesday. During the first loading pass, chutes were placed into each hatch.

12/27 - Port Colborne, Ontario -- Killer and Cane, two menacing junkyard dogs, guard the gates to the afterlife for a Great Lakes freighter and regular Cleveland visitor called the Calumet.

For many of its 78 years, the 603-foot Calumet hauled iron ore for the steel that girded the United States' prosperity. It helped make the steel of the World War II victory effort, the steel of Buicks and bridges, and the steel bones of the nation's great skyscrapers.

In this windswept International Marine Salvage yard at the southern end of the Welland Canal, the Calumet will complete the cycle of its life. The 5,800-ton ship will become what it once hauled -- a raw material to be made into new steel. "She has finally come to the end of her useful life, and that's why she's here," said Wayne Elliott, who owns the salvage yard that Cane and Killer oversee.

The worn-out boat, owned by Avon Lake-based Grand River Navigation Co., was due for retirement late this winter, but the end came prematurely last month. On one of its 50 or so annual visits to Cleveland, the boat cracked into a concrete wall at the Cuyahoga River's mouth last month and split a side.

With so little time remaining in the shipping season, it was cost-prohibitive to do a full-fledged repair allowing the Calumet to reload with bulk cargo. So welders slapped on a patch secure enough to let the ship waddle up the lake on Nov. 18 to die in peace, or at least in pieces.

This month, a salvage crew hired by the Calumet's owners started stripping everything that may be useful to another ship or that has collectible or historical value. Soon, Elliott's sons and hired hands will attack the bulkheads, decks and hull with cutting torches, reducing the ship to recyclable rubble - 2-by-4-foot plates that can fit into the charge box of a steel mill's blast furnace.

As the Calumet dies, so too does another piece of the shipping heritage of the Great Lakes. For that reason alone, maritime buffs are morose. "It's heartbreaking," said Rex Cassidy, a boat buff from Brecksville. "To see it ripped apart like that is just sad. And seeing the history of these ships disappear is sad."

Each season from the 1920s through the 1960s, in the heyday of the region's heavy industry, 300 or more American and Canadian freighters worked the Great Lakes. They moved back and forth from ore mines to steel mills and from coal docks to limestone quarries, loading and unloading 100 million tons or more of commodities in each 10-month season.

With the Calumet's demise, fewer than 140 freighters remain. Those vessels, and the hundreds that have gone before them, draw a cult following of boat watchers to the water's edge, or onto the lakes themselves, to chase the great freighters and photograph them.

The self-proclaimed "boat nerds" write history books about the ships and fill Internet sites with shipping-world news and rumor. They track the big boats' movement through the St. Lawrence Seaway and across the five Great Lakes and collect freighter memorabilia like others collect Beanie Babies.

Even the midsized ships like the Calumet hold enough cargo to fill a train more than a mile long. The biggest - the 1,000-footers with 68,000-ton cargo holds - carry the equivalent of seven 100-car trains. The great ships' appeal is "almost magical," said George Wharton, a Canadian shipping historian who travels to Cleveland occasionally to see freighters.

"When you see one, it's just this awesome mass of power," said Wharton, of Strathroy, Ontario. "And when you envision what's inside and relate that to, say, your own body mass, it's just astronomical. And yet they go gliding by with hardly any noise at all.

"To me, these things all have a personality," he added. "Some logical person would say, 'It's only a hunk of steel.' But when you get all the elements of that hunk of steel and put them together, it takes on a personality." The Calumet, he said, was the "grandma" among lake boats, one that has seen it all. It has long been a favorite of his and many other boat watchers.

It plied the waters with a stately swagger. It slid from its construction berth in Detroit in 1929 four years after the William G. Mather, which still graces Cleveland's waterfront as a museum piece. The newcomer was one of the biggest and grandest lake freighters. It entered service as the flagship of the booming U.S. Steel Corp. fleet. At christening, the boat took the name Myron C. Taylor, honoring the company's newest board member, who went on to become U.S. Steel chairman and chief executive.

As flagship royalty, the Taylor had a unique profile: Other freighters' forward superstructures were two-deck affairs, with sleeping quarters below the pilothouse. But the Taylor sported an extra level of guest quarters just below the pilothouse, appointed with fine oak paneling and other luxuries.

Captains of industry and their friends and families enjoyed summertime pleasure cruises aboard the Taylor as it steamed from mines to mills and back, laden with 12,500 tons of bulk cargo - enough to fill 120 railroad cars.

But it was a Cinderella existence in reverse: Newer and better boats came along quickly. The Myron C. Taylor lost its flagship status in 1938 and went from being a princess to just another workaday servant.

In 1956, it drew attention by being one of the first ships retrofitted into a "self-unloader." Conveyor belts ran below the cavernous holds, feeding a 250-foot-long cargo-moving boom that could swing to either side. That let on-board crew members unload the ship without help from shore-side machinery or workers.

The ship survived World War II, staying on fresh water while German torpedoes sank fellow Great Lakes ships pressed into wartime service in the Atlantic Ocean. It survived the 1980s collapse of the rust belt economy, when other freighters were being towed by the threes to scrap yards in Asia. It survived collisions and mishaps. Yet it almost didn't survive the turn of the century. Its owners, now called the USS Great Lakes Fleet, were set to scrap the Taylor and two others.

A second life in a new century - Then, in 2001, Grand River Navigation bought the boat and repainted the maroon hulls gray. Grand River, an affiliate of a Canadian firm called Lower Lakes Towing Ltd., gave the Myron C. Taylor a new name: the Calumet. It operated for most of seven seasons under its new handle, mainly carrying limestone and doing the dirty work of hauling steel-eating salt from Cleveland's Cargill mines.

That's where it was headed on Nov. 15. The Calumet had just dropped a load of limestone at Ontario Stone Co. in Cleveland and had pulled back into the harbor to turn around and back up to Cargill's docks. A strong gust of wind blew the ship's starboard side into a concrete wall near the old Coast Guard station. That "allision" ended the ship's long career a couple months ahead of schedule.

Five days later it was moored in Port Colborne at the salvage yard of second-generation ship breaker Wayne Elliott, a Canadian married to a Clevelander.

A dozen or so yards north of the Calumet's bow, Elliott's crews have carved away all but some remnants of the bow of a freighter called the L. E. Block, which launched from Lorain five months before the Myron C. Taylor but was scrapped 18 months before. Nearby sits the beheaded and rusty Windoc, a freighter that died at the relatively young age of 32 when an errantly dropped lift bridge on the Welland Canal decapitated its stack and pilothouse in 2001.

Elliott expects the Calumet to yield 4,800 tons of steel and iron, give or take, by the time the four- to six-month scrapping process is done. That translates to gross revenue approaching $1 million, at $200 per ton. But from that, he must subtract the cost of buying the boat, removing and disposing "many tons" of asbestos and other hazardous materials according to regulations and paying the employees who deconstruct and market the ship.

One is soot-stained Jack Clark, whose hard job seems to have aged him a decade beyond his 58 years. Clark stood on frozen ground last week and turned the roar of a 5,000-degree oxyacetylene torch on slabs of the Block's hull. Under that heat, steel becomes as fluid as mercury, and Clark's cuts chewed storefront-size slices down to sizzling, smoking windshield-size bites. Front-end loaders soon would push those plates into garage-size piles.

To Clark, whose firefighter-like coat is flecked with burn holes, the ships that ply the Welland Canal waters 100 yards away hold no magic - only future carcasses full of work. "I'll see one go up the canal," Clark says with a raspy laugh, "and I'll say, 'Jeez - maybe I'll be around long enough for that one, eh?' "

Clark's boss, though, confesses to holding the great old ships in reverence even as he shreds them for a living. "I love them all - the old ships," said Elliott, a big man with a longish silver mane peeking out from his hard hat. "It gets in your blood."

He looked out the Calumet's pilothouse windows where the oak-spoked captain's wheel once stood, and he took a drag from a smoke. "Can you imagine 80 years ago, standing on this when it was brand new? There's a lot of history in these. "But all metal is infinitely recyclable," the pragmatic romantic said. "This may have been railway spikes in its last life. By next year, this could make 5,000 new cars."

That, in addition to the millions it already helped make.

Outlook good for Iron Range taconite plants

12/27 - Duluth - When dozens of domestic steel companies filed for bankruptcy about five years ago, the Northeastern Minnesota taconite plants that supply iron ore pellets to the mills suddenly became less-than-attractive properties.

LTV Steel Mining Co., which had operated since the early 1950s and produced more than 323 million tons of pellets, closed after LTV Steel Corp.’s bankruptcy. EVTAC Mining Co., which began production in 1965, shut down in 2002 under financial duress before reopening in 2003 under new ownership. Even North America’s largest taconite producer, U.S. Steel’s Minntac Mine, was put up for sale.

But the industry that built the Iron Range and remains a mainstay in the region’s economy has a far different outlook heading into 2008. Consolidation within the industry has made it stronger and less subject to economic swings. And a surging worldwide demand for iron ore has turned iron ore properties into valuable assets.

“There’s been so much change, not just in the last five years, but even in the last couple,” said Peter Kakela, a Michigan State University professor who tracks the iron ore industry. “You now have companies like Essar Steel buying steel producers like Algoma and a mini mill company like Steel Dynamics coming in to do an iron nugget plant. The whole groundwork has changed.”

Iron Range taconite plants are expected to produce about 37.6 million tons of iron ore pellets in 2007, said Robert Wagstrom, Minnesota Department of Revenue Minerals Tax Office engineering specialist. That’s a slight decrease from the 38.9 million tons produced in 2006. There are several reasons for the decline.

A water freeze-up at Hibbing Taconite early in 2007 shut down the taconite facility for about a month and cost that plant hundreds of thousands of production tons. One of five pellet production lines at Minntac Mine in Mountain Iron was idled for several months due to the rebuilding of blast furnaces and maintenance outages at other U.S. Steel facilities, which reduced demand, U.S. Steel spokesman John Armstrong said.

Barring unforeseen events, total 2008 production is projected to increase to about 38.5 million tons, Wagstrom said. Projections from plant owners for 2008 forecast all six facilities to be operating at or beyond designed capacity, said Craig Pagel, president of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota.

“While there is talk that the U.S. economy is having a rough go right now to due to defaults on loans and a slow housing market, the rest of the world’s economy, specifically for iron ore, is strong,” Pagel said. “The global trend of a strong iron ore market, new mines being developed in Minnesota, employees being hired for those mines, and the hiring of new workers to replace those that built the Range and are now reaching retirement age, and the need for employees for all the vendors that serve the mines are all great signs for the Range and Duluth area economy.”

A major boost for industry in 2008 will come in the first quarter, when Cleveland-Cliffs’ Northshore Mining’s processing plant in Silver Bay restarts idled lines, an 800,000-ton boost to the facility’s annual capacity.

About 4,000 people work at Iron Range taconite mines. About another 14,000 work in spinoff jobs dependent on the mines. The industry pumps about $1.7 billion per year into the local, regional and state economy through payroll, purchases and taxes.

Explosive economic growth in developing countries such as China and India is driving global demand for the iron that is turned into steel to build bridges, roads, buildings, pipe, automobiles and appliances. While a ton of Iron Range iron ore pellets was worth a little more than $31 several years ago, the world price for a ton of pellets today is about $78, Kakela said. Because of the demand for iron ore, ownership of a taconite plant now is viewed as a huge asset, a far different mindset than five years ago.

“I think 2008 is going to be a good, solid year,” Kakela said. “Straight demand [domestic] is good and global demand is very good. Things are slowing down in Michigan as far as car production and parts, but the industry is recession-proof much more than it was in the past.”

Negotiations that will set 2008 world iron ore prices are under way. Industry analysts predict a 20 percent to 50 percent increase in per-ton prices. That could put a ton of pellets above $100 for the first time, making a ton of iron ore pellets worth more than a barrel of oil.

“Some are saying that the pricing could flatten out in the next two or three years due to increased capacity coming on stream,” Kakela said. “But I don’t think the big three iron ore producers, CVRD, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, are going to bring on so much capacity that it would bring down prices.”

Although mechanical or weather-related problems could slow production in 2008 at any of the Iron Range plants, the biggest wild card is expiring labor contracts. Contracts between the companies and Steelworkers at all the plants expire Sept. 1. Steelworkers leaders from across the nation were in Pittsburgh recently to begin laying out issues and negotiation strategy.

“People started to lay out plans for next year’s bargaining with Mittal, U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs, said Bob Bratulich, United Steelworkers District 11 president. “There weren’t a lot of specifics discussed, but the issues will include improved pensions, medical and wages. We will probably sit down another time or two and sort of draw up what our proposal will look like and what our demands are and then send a letter to Mittal and U.S. Steel and then sit down and begin talks. That could happen sooner rather than later.”

With steel companies reporting record revenues over the past two years, Steelworkers want to share in the good times. However, Bratulich said Steelworkers hope to avoid a strike. “We’re not looking for a labor dispute,” Bratulich said. “How the companies behave in bargaining will determine whether we have a fight or not. It’s not like any of them are in poverty. Nobody can claim they’re poor in this bargaining.”

12/27 - Muskegon - The anchor has been raised and the main gangplanks removed, but the group trying to move the S.S. Milwaukee Clipper to the downtown Muskegon Mart Dock won't be singing "Anchor's Aweigh" any time soon.

With winter here and most tugboats tucked away, officials with the S.S. Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Inc. acknowledge the ship won't be moving to a new site before spring. Ray Hilt, president of the preservation group, had been hoping to move the ship from its present berth in Lakeside to West Michigan Dock & Market Corp. before the end of the year. "The old girl's ready to move," Hilt said. "Things simply took longer than we had hoped."

Hilt said the proposed move from the foot of McCracken Street to the downtown was slowed by federal and state permits and site plan approval by the city. Before the ship can be moved, the Mart Dock site must be approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After those permits are obtained, the group still needs approval by the U.S. Coast Guard to tow the ship downtown.

In addition, the city has to approve the site plan. Officials said that approval could come as early as Jan. 10, when the plan is scheduled for review by the city's planning commission. Hilt said all the required state and federal paperwork has been submitted.

In October, Clipper representatives announced they had finalized plans to move the Clipper to the Mart Dock, where it would be berthed behind another historic ship, LST-393. The site is where the Clipper was based when it offered Muskegon-to-Milwaukee service before being retired in 1970. Ever since the ship was towed into Muskegon on Dec. 2, 1997, it has been "temporarily" berthed at the former Grand Trunk Railroad docks, now owned by Andrie Inc. Hilt said that through the years, a number of sites for the ship have been considered, including an aborted effort to berth the ship at Hartshorn Marina.

To allow LST-393 and the Clipper to be in compliance, the waterfront marine zoning must be revised to allow for special use museums. Once that revision is made, Clipper officials can apply for a special use variance. Hilt said his group is anxious to move the ship downtown, where it will be more visible and accessible to the general public. He said the move will finally give the Clipper an address, a long-standing requirement for the preservation group to seek restoration grants.

The Milwaukee Clipper's roots trace back to the turn of the 20th century and the Erie & Western Transportation Corp., a steamship company owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It launched the Clipper, originally the steamship Juniata, in December 1904. The Juniata was launched eight years before the Titanic, and began regular service in May 1905. The ship sailed as the Juniata for 31 years, mostly between Buffalo, N.Y., and Duluth, Minn., before it was mothballed in 1937 because of its fire-prone wooden superstructure.

In 1940, the Muskegon-based Wisconsin & Michigan Steamship Co. purchased the Juniata and converted it to the Milwaukee Clipper. The Clipper shuttled passengers and cargo from Muskegon to Milwaukee before it was retired in 1970. The Clipper remained berthed in Muskegon for eight years before it was sold and towed to Chicago's Navy Pier as a floating attraction. In 1990, the ship was purchased by the Hammond, Ind., Port Authority, which attempted to make it into a centerpiece attraction for its large Lake Michigan marina.

The Clipper was towed to Muskegon in late 1997 after being purchased by a nonprofit group now known as the S.S. Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Inc. The ship has been listed on the National Register of Historic Sites since 1983 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 27

The SAVIC, b.) CLIFFS VICTORY cleared the Welland Canal on Christmas night 1985, and finally anchored at Pointe aux Trembles near Montreal, Quebec on December 27, awaiting another load of scrap. The SAVIC remained there the entire winter, because the underwriters ordered that her hull be re-enforced by welding straps to her stress points for her overseas journey.

While returning to Chicago in heavy wind and high seas on 27 December 1985, the SEARCHER (steel propeller fish tug, 56’, 54 gt, built in 1946 at Manitowoc, WI) began taking water through her scuppers while underway. She waterlogged and foundered in 138 feet of water, 17 miles East of Chicago. Three crewmen were rescued by Coast Guard helicopter, but three others drowned.

The THOMAS W LAMONT as a single tow arrived at Aliaga, Turkey on December 27, 1987, where she was scrapped. The LAMONT was one of the last bulkers that retained her telescoping hatch covers to the very end.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Algorail, with the Christmas lights on, was sitting under the spout at the Sifto Salt dock on a nice, calm Christmas morning. There was no loading on Christmas, so the crew can enjoy their day off during the festive season.

Marquette - Rod Burdick & Lee Rowe
Christmas afternoon at the Upper Harbor, Mesabi Miner unloaded coal, and Saginaw waited to load ore. Michipicoten arrived to load ore in the late evening.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 26

In 1981, the steamer ENDERS M VOORHEES laid up for the last time at the Hallett Dock #5 in Duluth, Minnesota.

On 26 December 1818, the DOLPHIN (wooden schooner, 24 t, built in 1817 at Sacket’s Harbor, NY) was crushed by the wind-driven ice in the harbor at Pultneyville, New York and sank.

On 26 December 1916, the wreck of the wooden self-unloading freighter TOPEKA was leveled by dynamiting. She sank just off Windsor/Sandwich, Ontario in the Detroit River on 15 April 1916, in a collision with the small steamer CHRISTOPHER. Her machinery was removed prior to dynamiting.

Port Reports - December 25

Hamilton - Eric Holmes
Friday afternoon the Frontenac arrived at 4:30 p.m. with iron ore from Superior.
Saturday the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin arrived at 3:30 p.m. with iron ore for US Steel Canada from Toledo.
Thalassa Desgagnes arrived at 6 p.m. Sunday the John B Aird departed at 6:30 a.m. to clean holds in Lake Ontario and then proceed to Welland Wharf 10 for winter lay up.  Tug Salvor and barge arrived at 9:30 a.m. Thalassa Desgagnes departed at 11:30 a.m. for Montreal. The Canadian Progress departed at 3:30 p.m. and headed to Port Weller but returned to the Burlington Bay anchorage at 8:30 p.m. due to the very high winds. The winds were gusting from 98 to 128 km per hour (61 to 80 mph) at the Burlington Piers .
The Progress was joined in the anchorage by the John D. Leitch at 10 p.m. The James Norris also joined the other two ships in the anchorage sometime in the night. Three ships, Emerald Star, Jo Spirit and Federal Weser were all in the harbour waiting for the winds to die down.
On Monday the James Norris was in the Burlington Bay anchorage. The Emerald Star departed at 8 a.m. and the Federal Weser departed at 8:30 a.m. both bound for Cape Vincent to beat the 12 midnight deadline for being fined.
Canadian Progress hoisted anchor in the Burlington Bay anchorage and was on its way to Port Weller at 9 a.m. and onto Conneaut with slag. The CSL Laurentian departed at 11 a.m. for Duluth. The John D. Leitch finally hoisted anchor in the Burlington Bay anchorage at 2 p.m. and headed down Lake Ontario for Cape Vincent.

Toronto - Charlie Gibbons
Algosteel finished unloading late Sunday and headed for the Welland Canal. Algocape was expected to arrive late Monday evening with a winter storage cargo of raw sugar from Quebec.
The ATL 2701 and Ocean Delta, bound for Toronto from Halifax, were stopped at Prescott elevator since Sunday. Ocean Hercule is no longer with the tow, and may have returned to Quebec. Groupe Ocean's LaPrairie was upbound in the Seaway Monday.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 25

The E G GRACE carried 14,797 tons of taconite ore on her last trip out of Taconite Harbor, Minnesota bound for South Chicago, Illinois and then was laid up at Ashtabula, Ohio on December 25, 1976, with engine trouble which often plagued the six "Al" ships powered with Lentz-Poppet engines. The lay-up of the E G GRACE lasted until April, 1984, when she became the first Maritimer to be sold for scrap.

On 25 December 1849, the SISKAWIT (wooden schooner, 50 t, built in 1840) was sailing light on Lake Superior when a storm drove her onto a bar near the mouth of the Chocolay River, southeast of Marquette, Michigan where she was wrecked. Those aboard had “kidnapped” her and her cargo at L’Anse a few days earlier.

Port Report - December 24

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 24

In 1973, a crew man of the Cleveland Cliffs steamer FRONTENAC fell overboard at 11:41 p.m. while the boat was at anchor off Stoneport. The FRONTENAC launched a lifeboat to search for the missing man. When the missing man could not be found and the lifeboat had trouble returning to the FRONTENAC, a distress call went out. The American Steamship Company steamer McKEE SONS, Captain Robert J. Laughlin, responded and received a Citation of Merit for rescuing the six sailors in the lifeboat on Christmas morning.

On 24 December 1898, the JOYS (wooden propeller freighter, 131’, 268 gt, built in 1884 at Milwaukee, WI) was sailing for Menominee, Michigan, she had hove to in the Sturgeon Bay Canal to shelter from a storm. Late that night she was discovered to be afire and her crew had to jump for it. She burned through her moorings and began to drift down the river, but was captured and towed back to her moorings, where she burned to a total loss. The hulk was later moved several times, ending up near the Leatham & Smith Dock at Sturgeon Bay. No lives were lost.

December 24, 1969 - The CITY OF FLINT 32 made her last trip out of Ludington, Michigan pulled by 2 tugs. She was sold to Norfolk and Western Railway Company to be converted into a river ferry barge and renamed b.) ROANOKE by Nicholson's Terminal & Dock Co. at Ecorse, Michigan. She is currently in the Frog Pond in Toledo, Ohio.

On 24 December 1910, ALASKA (wooden propeller bulk freighter, 165 foot, 348 tons, built in 1879, at Detroit, Michigan) was sheltering from a storm a few miles from Tobermory, Ontario, when she caught fire from an overheated boiler and burned to a total loss. She was originally built as a side-wheel passenger vessel, her engine came from the JOHN SHERMAN of 1865 and went into the steamer FRANK E KIRBY of 1890.

On 24 December 1875, the Port Huron Times listed the following vessels at winter lay-up at St. Clair, Michigan -- Scows: ANNA H MOORE, A MONROE, MYRTLE, CLIPPER VISION, J SNADERS and B MONROE; Steamers: BERTIE DAHLKE and HELEN; Schooners: JOHN RICE and M R GOFFE; Barges: MILLIN and JUSTIN R WHITING; Tug: C M FARRAR; and Dredge: H LIFIAN.

On Christmas Eve of 1979, while at her temporary dock in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the steamer E M FORD sank when gale force winds forced her from her moorings and repeatedly slammed her bow into the dock facing. By Christmas morning her stern was settled on the bottom, her engine room flooded. Her storage cargo of powdered cement was partially flooded also. By afternoon, the proud steamer lay sunken at her dock. She stayed on the bottom for several weeks as crews had to remove a solid 3 feet of hardened cement and patch her holed bow. On January 20th, 1980, she was refloated and towed to Bay Shipbuilding where work began on rebuilding her.

Gale warnings across the lakes
Many boats going to anchor

12/23 - 10:00 p.m. Update - The group of boats anchored just above the Blue Water Bridges now includes Agawa Canyon, Atlantic Erie, Charles M. Beeghly, Canadian Transfer, Algorail, CSL Assiniboine, and Philip R. Clarke.

Behind Long Point on the north shore of Lake Erie are Canadian Olympic, Algomarine and Everlast/Norman McLeod. American Courage and American Century remain anchored behind Cedar Point off Sandusky.

In the Welland Canal, up bounder Rt. Hon. Paul R. Martin is tied above Lock 7, and Algosteel has stopped below Lock 2. Invincible/McKee Sons is temporarily stopped below Lock 8.

On Lake Superior, Walter J. McCarthy, Jr. and Mesabi Miner were anchored off the Superior entry to the Twin Ports, but have lifted anchor and are running northeast along the Lake Superior north shore.

The high winds have pushed the water to the other side of Lake Erie. By 10 p.m. the water gauge at Gibraltar, used to measure the level of the lower Detroit River,  was reporting  -22.6" below datum.  The Western basin of Lake Erie was at -45.8 inches below datum. These low water levels will force loaded vessels to anchor and wait for the levels to return before transiting the river system. Likewise, the water level in Saginaw Bay was reported at -45.2".

In the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Jade Star is east bound and going to anchor in the Carleton Island area. She has reported reported winds of 40 knots plus at her location. . The pilot wants to have the wind diminish and wait for daylight as lighted aids have been removed.

The west bound Capt. Henry Jackman was going to go to anchor east of Carleton Island at 10:30 p.m. because of weather. Winds of 25 knots plus were reported by the westbound Algocape near Maitland. Winds have been gale force at the Kingston airport for several hours and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Winds of 45 knots and waves of 16 feet were forecast for lake Ontario. Storm force winds were forecast from Cornwall to Montreal. The westbound Algocape was also going to anchor, she passed Crossover Island at 9:10 p.m.

The only eastbound traffic moving was the Thalassa Desgagnes, on Lake Ontario, she was due at Cape Vincent just after midnight. There was a flash freeze warning in effect in Kingston. Gale force winds are not supposed to decrease until late Monday. Rain was changing to snow and a snow squall warning was in effect.

As rain turned to snow Sunday at the Soo, several vessels swung at anchor waiting out a winter storm. Among those on the hook in the lower St. Marys River near Pipe Island were the American Fortitude, Voyageur Independent and John J. Boland, which all passed through the locks late Saturday evening, the David Z, which ducked into the river and went to anchor to wait out the storm on Sunday, and Kaye E. Barker, which locked down Sunday afternoon and stated her intention to anchor with the rest of the vessels at Pipe Island. Also downbound Sunday was the Indiana Harbor, while the Algolake passed upbound. Both the Saginaw and Michipicoten left Algoma Steel for Lake Superior ports.

Updates from Roger LeLievre, Ron Walsh and Frank Frisk

12/23 - 3 p.m. Update - Canadian Transfer has gone to anchor, joining four other vessels, just above Port Huron due to weather.

American Courage has joined American Century at anchor off Cedar Point. Canadian Olympic is riding out the winds behind Long Point in eastern Lake Erie.

Algoway is anchored between Cheboygan and Bois Blanc Island, while Wolverine is anchored off St. Ignace, in upper Lake Huron.

On Lake Superior, Walter J. McCarthy, Jr. and Mesabi Miner are anchored off the Superior entry to the Twin Ports.

12/23 - Port Huron - Four vessels, Charles M Beeghly, Atlantic Erie, Buffalo and the Philip R Clarke are at anchorage in lower Lake Huron due to weather conditions. In addition, American Century has anchored in the lee of Cedar Point off Sandusky.

Gale warnings are in effect until 10 a.m. Monday. Weather forecasts for Sunday include Southeast winds 20-25 knots with gusts to 35 knots. Gales after 7 a.m. Mostly cloudy with rain showers during the morning, then scattered light snow showers. Waves 5-8 feet, building to 8-12 feet before noon, subsiding to 4-7 feet late.

For Sunday night, the forecast calls for Southwest winds to 30 knots with gusts to 40 knots. Gales in the early Monday morning. Partly cloudy during the evening, mostly cloudy overnight. Scattered snow showers during the evening, then numerous snow showers. Waves 4-7 feet.

Barge reported to have received ice damage

12/23 - On Thursday the Susan W. Hannah and barge St. Mary's Conquest departed the St. Mary's Cement Dock in Green Bay at 5:30 a.m. headed for Chicago.

At 10:15 a.m., while breaking through ice up to 12 inches thick, the barge was reported to have been holed at the waterline on the starboard side of the bow. The crew reportedly deballasted to raise the hole out of the water.

The pair then proceeded to Bay shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wi., arriving there at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon for repairs.

The current conditions along the seaway are 8-10 inches of ice.

During a normal summer day, nine ships on average pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway. With the current ice conditions, no more than five ships are able to pass through daily.

The Neah Bay, homeported in Cleveland, is a 140-foot icebreaking tug. In addition to icebreaking, it is used for search and rescue, deployment of marine environmental protection equipment, and support for aids-to-navigation activities.

The Neah Bay should reach the St. Lawrence Seaway by Sunday afternoon to help with the movement of commerce

Port Reports - December 23

Clarkson - Frank Hood
Clipper Leander has been docked at Petro Canada in Clarkson since at least Wednesday.

Soo – Roger LeLievre
The St. Marys River was busy Saturday, with traffic particularly heavy in and out of Algoma Steel. At one point or another, the Herbert C. Jackson, tug Victory and barge Lewis J. Kuber and Saginaw were at the plant; the Cuyahoga departed the Algoma Export Dock around dinnertime, bound for Thunder Bay.
Other vessels included the upbound Sam Laud, Great Lakes Trader, Burns Harbor and Canadian Enterprise. Downbound traffic included the Edgar B. Speer, CSL Assiniboine, American Fortitude, Voyageur Independent, Paul L. Tregurtha and Canadian Ranger. The Voyageur Independent was decorated with all blue Christmas lights on the back part of the forward cabins. The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley was working buoys in the lower river.
Steady rain and fog Saturday did not seem to hamper vessel movements, although that could change Sunday as the rain turns to snow in the afternoon and the wind picks up to a forecast 30+ mph.

These two buoys are part of the Great Lakes Aids to Navigation system that is rotated twice a year as a measure to prevent damage from ice during the winter season.

Operation Autumn Retrieve, the largest domestic buoy recovery operation in the U.S. Coast Guard, began on Oct. 14, with a goal of retrieving 1,289 navigational aids, and is scheduled to be completed Saturday. The aids, approximately half in the region, are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic to minimize damage from ice and inclement weather.

To accomplish the aids to navigation mission, the Ninth Coast Guard District employed six Coast Guard cutters; five Aids to Navigations teams; five small boat stations with aids to navigation duties; the Lamplighters, civilian employees who manage the inland waters of Northern Minnesota; partners with the Canadian Coast Guard and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

The last two buoys are Buoy 1 and Buoy 11, located in the channel in Lake Huron Cut. They are lighted buoys that would be damaged by encroaching ice if they weren't rotated by a more durable buoy. Their replacements are the new Sabik buoys. Sabiks are designed to be durable enough to withstand ice yet stand out of the water just as high as the seasonal buoys

A dozen lakers expected to winter in the Twin Ports

12/23 - Duluth - In January one dozen lakers are expected to tie up for the winter in the Twin Ports, injecting several million dollars into the local economy.

Typically, 10 to 13 vessels berth in Duluth or Superior during their off-season, said Jim Sharrow, facilities manager for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

Lake carriers use winter layup as a time to tackle maintenance and make major repairs to their boats. It’s common for owners to invest $500,000 to $800,000 in a single vessel between January and late March, when another Great Lakes season will begin, weather permitting. The current season will draw to a close Jan. 15 with the scheduled winter closure of the Soo Locks.

Conservatively, fleet operators could be expected to spend $6 million over the next few months on boats tied up in the Twin Ports. But the true total investment will likely be much greater.

The Frontenac, a member of the Canada Steamship Co. fleet, is slated to go into drydock at Fraser Shipyards of Superior in January. And Shipyard Superintendent Gene Walroos said the Edward L. Ryerson may directly follow the Frontenac into drydock in the spring.

“It should be a pretty busy winter,” said Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. He noted that the expense of dry docking a single vessel for work often exceeds $1 million, so Fraser could generate more than $2 million from just two of the 12 lakers that spend winter in the Twin Ports.

Of course, poor weather could change the layup outlook. In 2004, 13 boats were scheduled to spend winter in the Twin Ports, but only 10 of them made it, due to challenging ice conditions.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 23

The IMPERIAL ST CLAIR was selected to participate in the three-year winter navigation experiment during which the Soo Locks remained open all year. On December 23, 1976, at the very onset, she ran aground entering ice-jammed Parry Sound on Georgian Bay in a blinding snow squall. One of her cargo tanks ruptured spilling 1,800 barrels of diesel oil.

On 23 December 1931, the dredge barge STEWART was destroyed by fire at Welland, Ontario

The SAVIC, c.) CLIFFS VICTORY was down bound past Detroit, Michigan December 23, 1985, by-passing a 15,000 ton load of scrap because of the lack of time to clear the Seaway.

CHARLES DICK was sold for scrap to Marine Salvage Ltd., Port Colborne, Ontario on December 23, 1976.

The SIR TREVOR DAWSON was laid up after the Great War until December 23, 1920, when she was sold to Pioneer Steamship Co. and renamed c) CHARLES L HUTCHINSON.

On 23 December 1905, JAMES B WOOD (steel propeller freighter, 514 foot, 7,159 gross tons) was launched at W. Bay City, Michigan. In 1913, she was renamed b.) ARCTURUS.

On 23 December 1885, MARY MARTINI (wooden propeller passenger-package freight vessel, 85 foot, 91 gross tons, built in 1877, at W. Bay City, Michigan) stranded on Brule Point, 13 miles east of Grand Marais, Minnesota on Lake Superior in fair weather. A navigational error was blamed. She became a total loss but her passengers and crew were taken off by the Duluth tug T H CAMP.

In 1903, the PERE MARQUETTE 20 arrived Ludington on her maiden voyage.

Algonorth accident correction

12/22 - Toledo - On December 16, we reported the accident involving the Algonorth in Toledo. The article included a piece about a crew member on the Federal Pioneer who received a broken arm when the Algonorth swung in the river.

Cleveland's port could move down the lake

12/22 - Cleveland - Friday morning, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is likely to make the decision of a lifetime -- naming a site in Lake Erie, north of East 55th Street, as its future home. But that doesn't mean the man-made, 200-acre peninsula will happen.

The city and the site's neighbors have yet to weigh in on whether the economic upside outweighs the port's intrusive presence -- possibly displacing a state-run marina, butting against nearby yacht clubs and parklands, obliterating favored fishing sites. But port officials say the site's cheek-by-jowl access to road and rail, and its potential to attract next-generation manufacturing nearby, make it the choice over seven other sites.

"The ability to excite investment and jobs right next to the [port] . . . is unique," says port authority President Adam Wasserman. The port and the Army Corps of Engineers, which would design and fill the site, are eager to move ahead.

The Corps sorely needs the site to deposit dredgings from the Cuyahoga River, which the corps must keep clear for commercial shipping.

Why move the port?
The port authority oversees shipping, loading and warehousing of steel coils and other bulk cargo on 80 acres between the Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Browns Stadium. It's prime land, especially in a city starved for lakefront development.

City leaders have long talked of moving the port, making way for cool waterside development like the kind that lure residents and tourists to downtowns in other Great Lakes cities, such as Chicago and Milwaukee. The city's waterfront master plan, adopted three years ago, added urgency to the debate.

It called for the port to move to man-made islands off the west break-wall, while current port land is transformed to a waterfront neighborhood.

In summer 2006, the port authority hired the URS Corp. to do an $850,000 relocation study, including sites around the west break-wall, Burke Lakefront Airport and upriver. Working with the city and port, the Corps of Engineers also began studying sites for disposal of dredged muck from the river. The corps needs a site for 20 years of dredging - a mass of muck that the port could use as a foundation for its new headquarters.

The hunt for a new home came to a halt early last year, after Wasserman's arrival as port president.

The economic development specialist brought a new perspective. Besides considering road and rail access - and room for berths, cranes, warehouses and outdoor storage - Wasserman looked for a site that could encourage nearby development of shipping-related business. The Army Corps of Engineers was not so smitten.

It had already dismissed the area as a new disposal dike, mainly because the uses didn't comply with the city's waterfront master plan, said Army Corps project manager Joshua Feldman. That plan calls for an expanded Gordon Park and enhanced state marina - a far cry from the big ships, cranes and traffic that will intrude on those assets, under the port's proposal.

The corps had focused on other sites, particularly a man-made island straddling the west break-wall, where the master plan envisioned a new port. Wasserman has said the west break-wall site is costlier to engineer, partly because of construction in deeper water north of the break-wall. Road and rail links by causeway would cost more, and truck traffic would be more disruptive, compared with the East 55th site, port officials said.

As with any big project, the challenges are myriad and complex at East 55th.

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 22

The SAVIC, b.) CLIFFS VICTORY finally arrived at Masan, South Korea December 22, 1986, for dismantling there which was completed in 1987.

On 22 December 1898, the T. M. MOORE (wooden propeller tug, 52’, 25 gt, built in 1883 at Buffalo, NY) stranded at Rattlesnake Island NW of Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie and then caught fire and was totally destroyed. No lives were lost.

DETROIT EDISON grounded on Gray's Reef in northern Lake Michigan, December 22, 1980, inflicting heavy damage to 350 feet of her bottom.

The GORDON C LEITCH was laid up on December 22, 1981, no longer economically able to compete and was used for grain storage at Toronto.

RAYMOND H REISS arrived at Ramey's Bend, Port Colborne, Ontario on December 22, 1980, for scrapping there.

LIGHTSHIP 103 was commissioned December 22, 1920.

On 22 December 1922, CORNELL (wooden propeller tug, 72 foot, 66 gross tons, built in 1888, at Buffalo, New York) foundered somewhere between Cleveland and Erie, Pennsylvania while enroute to new owners in Syracuse, New York. She had a crew of 8. The weather was clear and mild with almost no wind. She had just been put back into service and inspected after several years of idleness. Her ice-encrusted lifeboat was found on 26 December, 25 miles east of Long Point, containing the frozen body of the fireman.

When Welland Canal closes, power work begins;
Turbines to be built beneath weirs at 3 locks

12/21 - St. Catharines - The Welland Canal is ready to close down - and then power up.

Weather permitting, the shipping canal should shut down for winter by midnight Dec. 27, said Michel Drolet, the Niagara region vice-president of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority. The canal stayed open until Dec. 30 last year, but Drolet said this year has featured very icy conditions. (A vessel was stuck in the ice for 10 hours Tuesday in Port Colborne.)

The winter shutdown gives the Seaway time for repairs and construction on the 43-kilometre, eight-lock canal.

In January, it will also give Rankin Construction a chance to build hydro-generators along the canal in St. Catharines. "We're already getting a bit of prep work done," said owner Tom Rankin. "It's a pretty heavy schedule. We have two months to get a heck of a lot of work done."

Rankin's St. Catharines construction firm signed a $20-million lease agreement with the Seaway in June to install turbines under the weirs at locks 1, 2 and 3. Each two-megawatt turbine will use excess lock water that normally drops 11 metres over the weirs to produce electricity. At peak capacity, the turbines could power the equivalent of the amount used in a year by 5,000 homes.

If the hydro energy replaced an equivalent amount of coal-fired power, the project would reduce provincial carbon dioxide emissions by 38,900 tonnes. That's the equivalent of removing 8,420 passenger cars from the road.

Rankin said his company will work "furiously" during the winter shutdown to prepare for the first two turbines. Workers must build pump houses, excavate and pour concrete for water channels, and partially rebuild the existing weirs before the canal reopens in March. (Drolet said the canal doesn't have a set opening date, but usually aims for the third week of March.)

The first job is to build a construction road down to the weirs and repair any leaks, said Rankin. "We need as much of the water as possible (for the turbines)," he said. "Leaks mean lost water." The massive turbines should be installed at Lock 1 and 2 by June, with a third waiting until next winter. The first two turbines could be churning out power by September 2008.

Rankin is leasing land from the Seaway for 25 years, after which he'll turn over the generators to the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. Over that term, he'll sell the water power into the provincial grid under Ontario's new Standard Offer Program.

Port Reports - December 21

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Algorail was first in on a calm Wednesday evening, followed through the night by Maumee, who was still loading Thursday morning at Sifto Salt.

Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski
The English River arrived off Buffalo Wednesday night around 10 p.m. and went to anchor waiting for better conditions to enter the harbor.
The American Mariner arrived for the Gateway Terminal in Lackawanna around 11 p.m. Wednesday with stone.

Toronto - Charlie Gibbons
The salty Eider departed Toronto late Thursday night and headed down the lake.

Congress to debate Soo Locks expansion
Detroit Riverwalk upgrade also in bill

12/21 - The Army Corps of Engineers office in Detroit has predicted that water levels in Lake Michigan could decline six inches more than the normal seasonal decline this winter because of decreased precipitation and increased evaporation.

In addition, lake water levels are nearing record low levels, according to a report released last week by Army hydrologists.

Because they are connected, the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are considered one body. The Michigan/Huron basin last month continued its period of seasonal decline and reached a level about 25 inches below average.

Water levels in November were also about 10 inches below “chart datum,” meaning that the water is lower than the minimum level noted on nautical charts. Whenever water levels fall below the “chart datum,” mariners are cautioned to pay close attention to their vessels’ draft so as not to run aground.

Precipitation last month was about an inch below average. For the year, precipitation over the basin has been about 2.4 inches below average while evaporation has been above average, the Army report noted.

“Because of large differences between air and water temperature, the months of November and December on average have the largest evaporation rates,” the report stated.

Army predictions call for the lake level to fall to about 27 inches below the long term average level recorded between 1918 and 2006 this winter. Levels will likely be somewhere between nine and 15 inches below last year’s levels, the report said. Water levels are expected to remain below the chart datum through May 2008.

“If the lake experiences very dry conditions, water levels could approach record lows in the January through May timeframe,” Army hydrologists said.

Great Lakes coal trade slips again in October
Ore trade up slightly
Dredging Crisis, Low Water Levels Slash Vessel Capacity

12/21 - Cleveland—Coal shipments on the Great Lakes totaled 3.8 million net tons in October, a decrease of 6.3 percent compared to a year ago, and a drop of 10 percent compared to the month’s 5-year average.

The dredging crisis and low water levels were major contributors to the decreases.

For the year, the Lakes coal trade stands at 31.1 million tons, a decrease of 7.8 percent compared to the same point in 2006. Compared to the 5-year average, shipments are nearly 6.7 percent off the pace.

Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System totaled 5.7 million net tons in October, an increase of 1.5 percent compared to a year ago, but a decrease of 2.5 percent compared to the month’s 5-year average.

The increase would have been greater had vessels been able to carry full loads. One Lake Superior dock loaded 12 cargos into 1,000-foot-long U.S.-Flag Lakers, the largest vessel class in service. The loads totaled 720,000 tons.

However, because of the prolonged dredging crisis and low water levels, those cargos actually only represented 89.3 percent of the vessels’ carrying capacity.

A Great Lakes Navigation System maintained to project dimensions would have allowed the vessels to carry more than 805,000 tons of iron ore in October.

For the year, the Great Lakes/Seaway iron ore trade stands at 47.2 million tons, a decrease of 2.4 percent compared to the same point in 2006. However, in terms of the 5-year average for the January-October timeframe, the trade is down by two cargos in a 1,000-foot-long vessel.

More information is available at www.lcaships.com

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Today in Great Lakes History - December 21

In 1987, the ASHLAND and THOMAS WILSON departed Quebec bound for a Taiwanese scrap yard. The tow line parted on 12/30 and the THOMAS WILSON sank on 12/31 off the coast of North Carolina. The ASHLAND was found 300 miles off course on January 2 1988. Due to sustained damage, the ASHLAND was resold to Columbian shipbreakers where she arrived in critically leaking condition on February 5 1988.

On 21 December 1908, the AMERICAN EAGLE (wooden propeller passenger packet-tug, 105’, 161 gt, built in 1880 at Sandusky, OH) was destroyed by fire while she was in winter lay-up at Maumee, Ohio. No lives were lost.

On 21 December 1901, the MUSKEGON (composite propeller carferry, 282 foot, 1,938 gross tons, built in 1895, at Toledo, Ohio as SHENANGO NO 2) sank at Ludington, Michigan with a 10 foot crack on her starboard side. She was raised a week later and repaired.

The 437-foot bow section of the ROGER BLOUGH was float launched December 21, 1968, at Lorain, Ohio, less ballast tanks because the existing dry dock wasn't wide enough to accommodate her 105-foot width.

The WILLIAM G MATHER was laid up for the last time December 21, 1980, at the Hocking Valley coal dock at Toledo, Ohio.

AMOCO ILLINOIS was laid up for the last time at Bay City, Michigan on December 21, 1980.

CSL's HOCHELAGA was laid up on December 21, 1981, for the last time at Cardinal, Ontario.

The OUTARDE of 1906, operated until December 21, 1983, when she was laid up for the last time at Toronto.

On 21 December 1891, the whaleback steamer CHARLES W WETMORE tied up at the dock at Everett, Washington, ending a voyage of 93 days that started in Philadelphia and went around the tip of South America.

On 21 December 1879, CITY OF TOLEDO (wooden propeller package freighter, 413 gross tons, built in 1865, at Ogdensburg, New York) was carrying winter provisions from Milwaukee to Ludington. In a white squall, she struck a reef and was stranded 7 miles north of Ludington, a few hundred yards from shore. Some of the crew made it to shore and sought help. The local Lifesaving Station was only in the planning stages, but a crew captain was on hand. He hastily assembled a volunteer lifesaving crew and over a five hour period, rescued all on board. None of the 24 person crew was lost.

Sugar storage loads to Toronto ending for the year

12/20 - Quebec City - This is the time of the season where sugar storage loads are loaded in Quebec City for winter storage in Toronto.

Algocape was at section #105 in the port loading sugar and is expected to depart early Thursday morning. Canadian Leader was upbound from Port Cartier and was due to arrive in Quebec late Wednesday.

Port Reports - December 20

Sturgeon Bay - Wendell Wilke
On Wednesday a Selvick tug assisted in placing the tug James A. Hannah and barge Hannah 5101 in the large graving dock. Later that morning the Selvick tug assisted the Reserve into the large graving dock. The Beaver Island Boat Co.'s carferry Emerald Isle was in the small graving dock .

Milwaukee - John N. Vogel & Paul Erspamer
Wednesday noon American Steamship's John J. Boland was delivering coal to the WE Energies facility at the foot of Greenfield Avenue. The Boland departed onto Lake Michigan just after 4:00 p.m. Wednesday.
Agawa Canyon docked among the municipal general cargo piers in the outer harbor Wednesday afternoon, carrying a load of salt.

Marquette - Lee Rowe
The barge Lewis J. Kuber and tug Victory left Marquette with a load of ore as the Charles M. Beeghly arrived on Wednesday.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Algoway loaded through the evening hours at Sifto Salt and departed at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Saginaw River - Todd Shorkey
The Algoway finished her unload at the North Star dock in Essexville on Tuesday, turned of the dock in the Essexville basin and was headed outbound for the lake.
CSL Tadoussac was inbound, calling on the Essroc dock in Essexville. The Tadoussac was expected to be outbound during the lake afternoon or early evening on Wednesday.

Al Miller - Twin Ports
With grain shipping now largely ended, much of the traffic in the Twin Ports is focusing on Midwest Energy Terminal, which will remain busy well into January. Walter J. McCarthy Jr. and Canadian Transport loaded there Tuesday and Paul R. Tregurtha was loading Wednesday morning with American Century due later in the day. A “warm spell” with temperatures in the 20s has eased some of the pressure from the ice. With a morning temperature of 31 degrees, the PRT’s track through the ice to the coal dock didn’t even freeze overnight.
Other traffic in port was the Stewart J. Cort loading taconite pellets at BNSF in Superior. Looks like Midwest Energy Terminal will remain active until mid-January, with Mesabi Miner currently scheduled to load the season’s last cargoes on Jan. 14 and 17 – both bound for Presque Isle near Marquette.

Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski
The Adam E. Cornelius departed Buffalo Harbor at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The plans for the plant — where corn would be processed into fuel — have been praised as a smart reuse of the long-vacant grain elevators and had won the backing of city leaders, including Mayor Byron W. Brown and eight out of nine Common Council members. But Old First Ward residents had sought an injunction against the plant, citing concerns about noise, unpleasant odors and the safety of living near a plant where 2.8 million gallons of flammable fuel would be stored.

Tuesday, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph G. Makowski dismissed the lawsuit brought by Maureen Cleary Schaeffer, Julie Mary Cleary and Kathleen M. Horrigan. He ruled that the Common Council, its Planning Board and the city Zoning Board of Appeals all acted properly in granting permits to RiverWright Energy LLC, developer of the plant.

Richard Smith III, chairman of River- Wright LLC, said the decision paves the way for the completion of financing on the project and will “get the ball rolling” on converting the old ConAgra/Maple Leaf Milling facility on Childs Street into an ethanol- processing facility.

Arthur J. Giacalone, the attorney for the Old First Ward residents, said he will have to “more closely review” Makowski’s detailed decision to determine grounds for a possible appeal. But Giacalone emphasized that he and his clients still believe the city “over-stepped” legal requirements. He insisted the project “doesn’t belong” within 400 feet of homes.

The court case, launched in May, cited safety and quality-of life issues in urging the city to conduct a more extensive environmental review of the project. Residents were especially worried about the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the plant, as well as during shipping. They also said the city didn’t look closely enough at potentially adverse impacts, including the potential for bad odors emanating from the fuel making process, rodents drawn to the corn and pollution to the neighborhood.

Before Smith left the courthouse, he emphasized that RiverWright Energy “went through all the proper protocols” to get the project moving.

An estimated 40 million bushels of corn is expected to be shipped by lake freighter every year to the plant, where it will be processed into ethanol. The fuel would then be transported by train to Albany.

Smith and his business partner, Kevin Townsell, hope to open the plant in May.

Holiday Card Gallery Updated
(Note - Friday, December 21 is the last day for Holiday Cards to be received.)

Lay Up List Updated

Today in Great Lakes History - December 20

On 20 December 1944, the ice breaker MACKINAW (WAGB-83) was commissioned in the U. S. Coast Guard.

The b.) SAMUEL MATHER, a.) WILLIAM MC LAUGHLIN was towed from Ashtabula, Ohio on December 20, 1975, to Port Colborne, Ontario where her boilers were converted to oil-fired burners by Herb Fraser & Associates and renamed c.) JOAN M MC CULLOUGH (C.370162), renamed d.) BIRCHGLEN in 1982 and scrapped at Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1988.

Cleveland Cliffs steamer FRONTENAC's scrapping process was completed in Superior, Wisconsin on December 20, 1985.

The CRISPIN OGLEBAY of 1908, hauled her last cargo, a load of salt, into Rochester, New York on December 20, 1973, and then was laid up at Kingston, Ontario for the winter.

The keel was laid for the PERE MARQUETTE 22 on December 20, 1923.

In 1910, the PERE MARQUETTE 18 was launched at South Chicago. She was the only Great Lakes carferry to be built in Chicago.

December 20, 1979 - The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the termination of the C&O's Milwaukee run. C&O terminated the run the following year.

On 20 December 1867, ALIDA (wooden propeller packet/tug, 81foot, 58 gross tons, built in 1856, at Saginaw, Michigan) had her boiler explode in the Saginaw River. She caught fire and burned to a total loss. This little packet/tug was the only steamer to regularly venture up the Saginaw River beyond the mouth of the Flint River.

On 20 December 1873, the Great Western ferry MICHIGAN was finally launched at the Jenkins yard in Walkerville, Ontario. Her launching was originally scheduled for 18 December, but she stuck on the ways. She was built for use on the Detroit River and her dimensions were 282 feet x 72 foot 6 inch beam.

Ice Stops Traffic in Port Colborne

12/19 - 6 a.m. Update - Traffic appears to be getting back to normal in the canal. Isadora is down bound between Locks 2 and 3. Montrealais is in the flight locks and Pineglen is following in Lock 7.

Previously stalled up bound traffic is also moving. Mississagi has cleared the Port Colborne piers, while Sea Eagle II/St. Marys Cement II is at Wharf 16 and Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement is in Lock 8.

12/18 - 11 p.m. Update - The Isadora is moving again. She is due to exit Lock 8 at 11:15 p.m.

12/18 - 9 p.m. Update - Winter’s icy grip slapped its hold on a Great Lakes transport vessel, tying up traffic on the Welland Canal on Tuesday.

The Isadora, a Limassol, Cyprus registered ship owned by Polish Steamship Co., became stuck in ice at Bridge 19A just outside of Lock 8 in Port Colborne. The ship became stuck at roughly 9 a.m. Tuesday and was still there as night fell.

The jackknife bridge, at Mellanby Avenue, in the heart of the city remained up throughout the day and into the evening as the ship’s crew, assisted by two tugs and staff from the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., tried to free the Isadora. “We’re throwing everything we have at her,” said Bruce Hodgson, director of market development for the Seaway Corp. “It was the ice conditions in the canal which caused this,” said Hodgson.

The Seaway was trucking in hot water on Tuesday night in an effort to wash down the ice gripping the downbound ship’s hull and free it.

Temperatures in Port Colborne were actually rising as the sun set last night, hitting 2C at 5 p.m., according to Environment Canada’s website. The overnight low was expected to drop back to freezing and today’s temperatures are predicted to go to plus-3, according to the site.

“This is a bit of a surprise actually,” said Hodgson of the day-long battle to free the laker. “We went in and flushed out the lock before bringing her in there,” he said. “We didn’t even have her in before she got stuck.” Hodgson said the Seaway was “confident” the ship would be freed soon.

Two tugs – the Lac Manitoba and the Vigilant I, both owned by Nadro Marine – were trying to assist the locked in ship. The Vigilant I was trying to pull the Isadora back away from Bridge 19A the way it came, while the Lac Manitoba was washing water on its side to free the Isadora from the ice. The trucked in hot water was to be sprayed from the east side of the canal where the ice blockage is located onto the downbound ship.

With the Isadora stuck, upbound and downbound traffic remained stalled in the canal. Downbound ships waiting behind the laker included the Pineglen and the Montrealais, while the Algonorth, Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement and Canadian Progress were waiting to continue their upbound voyage. Also up bound in the system were Sea Eagle II/St. Marys Cement II and Mississagi. Both are due at Lock 8 during Tuesday night..

Hodgson said the Seaway had planned to keep the canal open until Dec. 30 this year, the same date as last season. “I don’t know if the weather will allow us to do that now,” he said. The Seaway has remained in contact with the shipping industry, while keeping a weather eye on conditions, but Tuesday’s situation came unexpectedly. While temperatures are expected to moderate over the next few days, Hodgson said that may not be enough to keep the canal open. “It may not help us,” he said.

Icebreakers prep for ice season
Katmai Bay dispatched to assist a freighter beset in 16 inches of ice

12/19 - Upper Great Lakes - With ice forming at a rate that suggests the first “normal” winter shipping season in several years, Coast Guard officials have icebreakers working in disparate locations this week.

At Base Sault, Coast Guard official Mark Gill said ice continues to build rapidly on the lower St. Marys River but shipping has not been impeded significantly just yet. He said the outlook for a cold December suggests icebreakers will be busy on the St. Marys by the time the holidays roll around.

For now, two Bay-Class tugs, Katmai Bay and Biscayne Bay are working the ice in largely unfamiliar waters at Thunder Bay, Ont. and at Serpent Harbor, Ont. located at the northern end of Georgian Bay. Biscayne Bay, based at St. Ignace, has been working at Duluth-Superior then nearby Thunder Bay while the Duluth-based tender-breaker USCGC Alder was off about her buoy tending duties.

With Alder back in Duluth, he said Biscayne Bay will be recalled about midweek, when the Canadian icebreaker-tender Samuel Risley returns to Lake Superior from pinch-hitting duties on the Detroit River.

Katmai Bay, meanwhile, was dispatched to Georgian Bay to assist the cargo vessel Canadian Olympic, reportedly beset in solid plate ice 16 inches thick at Serpent Harbor, Ont. Katmai Bay will return to her normal ice station on the St. Marys once Canadian Olympic completes here season-ending trip into Serpent Bay and clears for the open lake.

The two tugs are expected to turn their attention to the rapidly freezing St. Marys later this week, where they will likely remain for the balance of the shipping season.

Gill said ice is tightening up significantly in the current run of freezing weather on Munuscong Bay (also called “Mud Lake”) and both channels leading around Neebish Island. He said no ships have been halted by the building ice in the channels around Neebish but considerable strengthening has been reported between Winter Point and Moon Island at the southern end of Neebish.

One hundred percent ice coverage now extends from Winter Point to Pt. Aux Frenes, near Lime Island. That ice has been on for at least a week and has been thickening appreciably of late, he said.

While primary attention of the Coast Guard's “Operation Taconite” is currently focused on the greater Munuscong Bay area, Gill said ice has also formed to about two inches on the Middle Neebish Channel north of the island at from 9 Mile Pt. to the West Neebish Channel on the downbound side.

While ice coverage remains partial to the north of Neebish Island he indicated the Coast Guard is anxious to have the two Bay Class tugs available for lower river duty this week.

Farther upstream, Gill said some ice is forming in the bays of the upper St. Marys and Whitefish Bay but not to the point where icebreaking help will be needed soon. He said USCGC Mackinaw, which is normally assigned to that stretch of channel, is currently gearing up for icebreaking service after completing seasonal buoy tending duties on Lakes Huron and Michigan.

Mackinaw will soon be available for icebreaking but Gill said he does not anticipate needing the larger icebreaker on the St. Marys River until the first of the year or so. The shipping season will then be in its final two weeks on Lake Superior, as the Soo Locks are scheduled to close for the season on Jan. 15.

Gill said an integrated icebreaking arrangement with the Canadian Coast Guard is making the assignment of ‘breakers throughout the region considerably easier than in the past. “It's easier to move around .... it streamlines our resources,” he said of the integrated approach. In general, he said Canadian icebreakers will be working Thunder Bay and lower Great Lakes channels while the U.S. Coast Guard is taking on the western Great Lakes.

Noting a preference for the smaller Bay-Class tugs on the often difficult ice in the lower St. Marys, Gill said a third Bay-Class tug, Mobile Bay, may be called in later to assist the two other tugs to take up station there.

He said at present the ice is presenting problems at isolated locations and has not been difficult on principal upbound and downbound shipping channels. That may change in the coming week, however, and Gill voiced some concern about forming ice on western Lake Erie and the ice-prone Livingston Channel connecting the Detroit River with Lake Erie.