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Port reports - March 31 Twin Ports - Al Miller Sandusky and Huron - Jim Spencer Grand Haven - Dick Fox Owen Sound - Ed. Saliwonchyk Soo - Jerry Masson Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski |
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No easy fix for silt-filled Genesee River 3/31 - Rochester- One week after a cement boat hit bottom on the silt-filled Genesee River, federal officials have yet to determine what can be done to fix the worsening problem. The Stephen B. Roman, the last freighter to cruise the river, ran aground last Thursday. While the vessel freed itself after a short time, left unanswered is just how shallow the river is running as it nears Lake Ontario and whether there is money to dredge the waterway as scheduled this spring. The river last was dredged in 2004. Ramifications of the problem go beyond ESSROC, which owns the freighter and its 361 Boxart St. storage facility. A 100-passenger cruise ship is scheduled to stop at the Port of Rochester this summer. Farther up river, the city is discovering similar shoaling near Corn Hill Landing, which could affect the Mary Jemison cruise ship. "This is one of those cases where environmental concerns become an economic concern," Deputy Mayor Patty Malgieri said. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Bruce Sanders said the river water
is too turbid and full of debris to assess the problem. Either way, he said, a
$957,000 earmark was "dropped from the president's budget, and therefore we
had to cancel the dredging." Congress failed to pass a budget for the
current fiscal year and resorted to a patchwork of spending resolutions. From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |
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Huron Lightship and Coast Guard Cutter
Bramble Museum open for the season 3/31 - Port Huron - Huron Lightship Museum and The Coast Guard
Cutter Bramble Museum will be opening on April 1st. Admission prices for each museum are adults-$6.00, seniors (55+) and students-$5.00, and children 6 and under are Free. A Passport program providing admission to both vessels, the Port Huron
Museum and the Ft. Gratiot Lighthouse is available for $12.00 for adults,
$10,00 for seniors and $8.00 for students. Children 6 and under are free at
all locations. |
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The Great Lakes Towing Company Seeking Applicants 3/31- Cleveland - Great Lakes Towing Company is seeking applicants for Tug
Captains & Tug Engineers for harbor towing in Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Burns
Harbor.
Shipyard Expansion Cleveland - The Great Lakes Group is looking for experienced
employees for our new construction and maintenance programs. |
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Updates - March 31 News Photo Gallery updated, and Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. Public Photo Gallery updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 31 On 31 March 1971, the American Steamship Company's RICHARD J REISS grounded
at Stoneport, Michigan while moving away from her dock. She damaged her number
9 tank. |
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Port Reports - March 30
Marquette - Rod Burdick
The latest CSX Dock update has the Lee A. Tregurtha due in at the Torco Ore
Dock to unload ore. She is due in tentatively on April 6 at 6 p.m.
Timing will most likely change due to ice on Lake Superior, weather, and
possible dock delays at the loading dock. If this schedule holds this will be
the first time ever that the Lee A. Tregurtha has unloaded ore at the Torco
Ore Dock. When she is finished unloading the ore she will proceed to the CSX
Coal Dock to load a coal cargo which would be most likely bound for the Soo. |
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Union switch delays laker’s season start 3/30 - Duluth - The Stewart J. Cort began loading pellets at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe No. 5 Taconite Facility in Superior on Wednesday with the expectation that it would set sail for Burns Harbor that evening. By this time of year, the vessel typically already would have delivered its first load of pellets to the Mittal Steel Co. mill in Burns Harbor, Ind. But this has hardly been a normal fit-out for the first 1,000-footer on the Great Lakes. Ten of the ship’s 22 crew members recently were replaced, as its operator tossed out one union — the American Maritime Officers — in favor of another, the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association. David Weathers, a national executive of the AMO, said crew members who went to work under the Cort’s new MEBA contract would have had to accept about a 20 percent cut in pay. “That’s tough for anyone to swallow,” he observed. In all, 15 AMO members were affected as a result of the Cort’s reshuffling. While only 10 AMO members worked aboard the Cort at any one time, staff rotated between shore leave and active duty. Many of these officers and stewards formed a picket line on the approach to the vessel’s winter berth in Duluth a couple of weeks ago. The Cort is operated by Interlake Leasing III, a subsidiary of Interlake Steamship Co. At Interlake’s insistence, officers aboard other vessels in the company’s fleet switched to MEBA representation about three years ago, and the changes to the Cort represented “sort of a natural progression,” said Mark Barker, Interlake’s treasurer and vice president. The AMO still is challenging Interlake’s prior re-staffing of other lakers with MEBA members. The AMO picket disrupted some of the Cort’s preparations for a return to duty this year, as unionized workers at Fraser Shipyards in Superior, plus other local members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, refused to cross the line. Interlake brought in contractors from Maryland and Virginia to do the work. “We had to regroup a little bit, but the crew has done a great job,” Barker said Wednesday. New crew members took advantage of the delay to familiarize themselves with the inner workings of the Cort, he said. “We wanted to make sure we took enough time so everyone would be comfortable and safe when we set sail,” Barker said. Rob Fluharty, a second assistant engineer who has worked seven years aboard the Cort, said the laker usually leaves the Twin Ports a day or two before the Soo Locks open March 25 and is usually one of the first vessels to pass through them and into the St. Marys River. He said that if the Cort left Wednesday evening, it would be about five days behind its normal schedule. The Cort runs between Superior and Burns Harbor all season long, hauling taconite. The voyage usually takes about 61 hours in good conditions, Fluharty said. He and other displaced AMO members said they will meet the Cort in Burns Harbor, where they will continue picketing. From the Duluth News Tribune |
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Updates - March 30 News Photo Gallery updated, and Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 30 The c.) CHEMICAL MAR arrived at Brownsville, Texas on March 30, 1983, in
tow of the tug FORT LIBERTE to be scrapped there. Built in 1966, as a.) BIRK.
In 1979, she was renamed b.) COASTAL TRANSPORT by Hall Corp. of Canada, but
never came to the lakes and renamed c.) CHEMICAL MAR in 1981. |
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Port Report - March 29
Stoneport/Alpena - Ben & Chanda McClain |
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Mates needed for tug/barge 3/29 - Menominee - K&K Logistics is looking for mates to work on the Olive L. Moore and Lewis J. Kubber. Please contact Jack VanEnkevort at (906) 466-9959. From Captain David R. Morgan |
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Dillin would fund park on Maumee River in Toledo
3/29 - Toledo - Dillin Corp. will finance a $15 million gap in the
city’s budget for a riverfront park in the Marina District and secure at least
$50 million in private development funds for buildings there by Oct. 1 under a
tentative development agreement Larry Dillin and the Finkbeiner administration
announced yesterday. If Mr. Dillin’s company meets those Oct. 1 targets, the
city will convey 60 acres of the Marina District’s 125 acres to the developer
so that construction may begin by Dec. 31. |
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Note of Thanks from Doug Fairchild's family To Doug Fairchild's "Boat-Chasing Circle of Friends": Where do we begin to express our gratitude for all that you have done for our family? You truly are an amazing group of folks. Doug was a hard-working man, but he also knew how to balance his life with other activities. One that brought him much pleasure was freighter-watching. Undoubtedly, a highlight of this sea-faring activity was the camaraderie shared with other Boat-Nerds. It is with great appreciation that we thank you for the information that was made available on the web site, your telephone calls, condolence cards and the stories shared.
Very sincerely, |
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Updates - March 29 News Photo Gallery updated, and Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 29
N.M. Paterson & Sons, PRINDOC was sold off-lakes during the week of March 29,
1982, to the Southern Steamship Co., Georgetown, Cayman Islands and was
renamed b.) HANKEY. |
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Whitefish Bay ice jam backs up river shipping 3/28 - Whitefish Bay - If the crew of the new icebreaker Mackinaw was looking for substantial ice to move before spring breakout, they found it on Whitefish Bay Sunday night as gale-force southerly winds clamped the bay shut with heavy broken ice. Assigned to Whitefish Bay, Mackinaw had all she could handle and then some Sunday evening, as 40-45 mph southerly winds filled the previously set steamer track with heavy broken ice. After two commercial ships were squeezed to a halt by the advancing ice, Coast Guard officials decided to close the St. Marys River until Mackinaw could flush a new track through the broken sea of ice. Coast Guard spokesman Mark Gill said heavy “pancake” ice jammed behind Isle Parisienne by a northwest gale last week loosened up in Sunday's southerly gale, collapsing the steamer track set by Mackinaw through the last 10 days. He said fast shore ice from the south side of the channel through the bay was also worked free by the strong wind, clamping the channel shut. Some of the packed ice dislodged from behind Isle Parisienne measured out at eight feet thick, Gill said. When the steamers Arthur M. Anderson and Michipicoten were squeezed to a stop by the heavy, loose and plate ice, Coast Guard officials opted to close the St. Marys River below the jam through the nighttime hours. Just before dawn today five vessels waited out the jam at Soo Locks piers and four more lay at anchor in the lower St. Marys with a tug-barge combination idled in Sault, Ont. and another held at Algoma Steel. Gill said the river shutdown was ordered as a safety measure even though it slowed a cluster of ships anxious to make first passages of the new shipping season. “It was safer to shut everybody down,” Gill said. Mackinaw, meanwhile, freed the two stuck ships, then set to work in an ice-clearing operation that was more ice flushing than ice breaking for the new vessel. The moving jam was made up of broken ice in various sizes, making conventional icebreaking ineffective. However, Mackinaw's unique dual-pod drive enabled the ship to carve out large slabs of floating ice with her strong wake, ushering them out to open water outside Whitefish Point through the night. Gill said Mackinaw's cutting edge icebreaking configuration allowed the ship to move ahead and astern equally well in the ice with the twin pods creating a strong wash alongside the ship's track. Gill said the new Mackinaw performed very well at the ice-flushing operation, noting that the ship's innovative propulsion arrangement allowed Mackinaw to perform better than the recently retired Mackinaw in those conditions. He noted that Mackinaw's two-way steaming capability allowed the ship to move back and forth through the ice without coming about in difficult ice conditions. By early today, Mackinaw re-set a vessel track from the locks out as far as Iroquois Point. Farther out to the west on Whitefish Bay, he described ice conditions as “dynamic” early today. At 7:00 a.m. the Coast Guard allowed the first vessels waiting out the jam to begin moving again in staggered fashion as the strong winds gave way to near calm on the bay. During the night, Gill said, Mackinaw reported a wide variety of weather, all of it stormy. “We had ‘thundersnow,' thunderstorms, heavy rain, high winds ... about every kind of weather you can get,” Gill said of the offshore maelstrom. The Coast Guard official said the lower St. Marys River, normally a trouble spot during spring break-up, “behave itself” through the ice jam and gale conditions far above, but he warned that the lower St. Marys may well cut loose before steadily deteriorating ice conditions give way to soft water. He said large stretches of shore ice remain attached along lower river channels, raising the potential for another jam or two later, as the ice moves steadily downstream. He said two Bay-Class tugs and the tender Hollyhock continue to work lower river channels as fingers are crossed that heavy shore ice stays put a while longer. From the Soo Evening News |
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Rand Logistics Purchases Manistee 3/28 - Rand Logistics Inc. announced that it purchased the Manistee, a self-unloading bulk carrier, for $2.2 million. The Company previously leased the boat from a subsidiary of Sand Products Corporation, and financed the purchase through debt with its existing lender, GE Capital Corporation. Laurence Levy, Chairman and CEO of Rand Logistics, stated, “We are pleased to have completed this transaction, which will be accretive to earnings. The purchase of the Manistee eliminates $350,000 of annual lease expense, which would have grown to $500,000 after March 31, 2008. The annual interest expense on the $2.2 million of added borrowings will be significantly less than the alternative of continuing to lease the vessel. Additionally, we were also able to reduce the interest rate for our overall U.S. and Canadian borrowings by 50 basis points, which produces further annual savings of approximately $100,000. We remain confident in Rand’s strong fleet and market position on the Great Lakes.” From the World Maritime News Note: Rand Logistics is the parent company of Lower Lakes Towing and Grand River Navigation |
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Port Reports - March 28 Marquette - Rod Burdick |
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Trip Raffle to Benefit BoatNerd Through the generosity of the Interlake Steamship Co., BoatNerd is offering the chance to win a four-six-day trip for four to take place during the 2007 sailing season (between the months of June and September) on the winner's choice of the classic Lee. A. Tregurtha or the Queen of the Lakes Paul R. Tregurtha. The trip is the Grand Prize of BoatNerd¹s first ever raffle and fundraising event. Other prizes will also be given away. All proceeds from this raffle will benefit Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping Online, the non-profit support organization for the BoatNerd.Com Web site. Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping Online, Inc. is a non-profit 501(C)(3) corporation. Funds raised will be used to upgrade our equipment, expand our services and pay monthly Internet connection charges. The drawing will take place at 2 p.m. on June 2, 2007 at the BoatNerd.Com
World Headquarters in Port Huron, Mich. Click here to order, or for more information. Tickets are also available by mail, or in person at BoatNerd World Headquarters in Port Huron, MI. |
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New Boatnerd Gathering Cruises Announced On Saturday, May 26, 2007, we are once again pleased to offer the
Boatnerd Badger Gathering. A round-trip crossing of Lake Michigan from
Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin , aboard the Lake Michigan
Carferry SS BADGER. It has been four years since we have been able to make
these arrangements. Don't miss this year's fun cruise. On Saturday, June 16, we will repeat last year’s popular Boatnerd Detroit Up River Cruise aboard the Friendship. This cruise will go up the Detroit River, and possibly into the Rouge River. Departing at 10:00 a.m. sharp from the Portofino's On The River in Wyandotte, MI. Cost is $25.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for three hours and a pizza lunch delivered by the J. W. Westcott mail boat. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. On Saturday, August 11, we are following on the popularity of the up river cruise on the Friendship, and have planned a Boatnerd Detroit Down River Cruise for This is a four-hour trip that will go down the Livingston Channel to the Detroit River Light and return via the Amherstburg Channel. Cost is $35.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for four (4) hours and a box lunch. Cash bar on board. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. All these trips require advance reservations. Make yours now. Don’t be left out. |
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“Know Your Ships” 2007 Now Available The 2007 edition of “Know Your Ships,” the boat watchers’ annual field
guide to the vessels sailing the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, is off
the press. The 152-page book, now in its 48th edition, contains detailed
information about nearly 2,000 vessels and includes many color photographs
taken from around the lakes and Seaway. This year’s Vessel of the Year is the
classic steamer Edward L. Ryerson, which unexpectedly returned to service in
2006, much to the delight of boat watchers around the lakes. Order “Know Your
Ships” from www.knowyourships.com for immediate shipment; the book will also
be available at many retail outlets around the Great Lakes as spring
approaches. |
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Updates - March 28 News Photo Gallery updated, and More News Photo Gallery updates Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. Calendar of Events updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 28 The BENJAMIN F FAIRLESS, Captain H. C. Buckley, was the first boat to
transit the Soo Locks for the 1953 shipping season. |
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Port Reports - March 27 Goderich - Ed. Saliwonchyk Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski |
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Boatnerd Changing Servers 3/27 - Update - The changeover to a new server took place on Monday, March 26 at 11 p.m. If you are reading this message your are viewing the new server. Until the changeover is completed, we will not be able to update the News Photo Gallery. We have all the pictures ready to post and will accept any News pictures that you send it. We should be able to get them all posted early in the week. With our primary server replaced we still are in need of funding to replace the server that hosts the Public Gallery, Links page, etc. These projects are funded by Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping, the 501 (c)(3) non-profit support group for BoatNerd.Com. If you enjoy this site please consider supporting us through our fund raising raffle All tickets sold support these upgrades and pay for our monthly connection charges. Original Article - The server used to host BoatNerd is failing, after 5 years of
faithful service it is time for replacement. Our infrastructure teams have
purchased the new server and have been moving parts of the site over. While
the actual move we make to the other server will be instantaneous, your
service provider may cause you to temporarily display an incorrect page. |
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Digging for history: 3/27 - OGDEN DUNES, Ind. - A local archeological team thinks it is
on the verge of confirming another link between Northwest Indiana and the
underground railroad -- this time in the form of a shipwreck. Barski, who is a member of the team named after Northwest Indiana historian
William Briggs, said the group has begun analyzing the shipwreck and has
combed through historical records in LaPorte and Porter counties for
information about the role the area played in providing fugitive slaves with
an exit route to freedom in Canada. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 27 The MATAAFA, Captain Emory A. Massman, opened the Port of Cleveland for the
1947 season. She arrived with a cargo of 375 new automobiles from Detroit. |
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Boatnerd Changing Servers 3/26 - Update - Due to continuing problems, the changeover date to a new server has been moved to Monday, March 26 at 11:00pm. Until the changeover is completed, we will not be able to update the News Photo Gallery. We have all the pictures ready to post and will accept any News pictures that you send it. We should be able to get them all posted early in the week. Original Article - The server used to host BoatNerd is failing, after 5 years of
faithful service it is time for replacement. Our infrastructure teams have
purchased the new server and have been moving parts of the site over. While
the actual move we make to the other server will be instantaneous, your
service provider may cause you to temporarily display an incorrect page. |
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Port Reports - March 26 Soo - Jerry Masson Goderich - Dale Baechler Saginaw River - Todd Shorkey Goderich - Dale Baechler St. Lawrence Seaway - Ron Walsh Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 26 The Str. JOHN T HUTCHINSON, Captain Harold Jacobsen, upbound for the head
of the lakes, was the first boat of the 1949 shipping season to transit the
Soo Locks. |
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Soo Locks Open to Fog Delays 3/25 - The opening of navigation at the Soo was halted overnight due to thick fog in the river system. Early morning visibility was zero and boats remained in the same place when the locks opened at 12:01 a.m. By mid morning the fog started to lift with visibility between a quarter of a mile to a mile and a half in places. Coast Guard Captain of the Port opened the river to navigation giving the Roger Blough permission to start downbound from the locks. Ready to get underway above the locks downbound was the CSL Laurentian and Michipicoten. Two upbound ships, the Canadian Transport and H Lee White, locked through overnight and were underway in the upper river with cutter Mackinaw. Also upbound in the lower river is Saginaw and Arthur M. Anderson with cutters Mobile Bay and Neah Bay. Water level reading in the upper river was minus 22 inches Sunday morning, the lower river was minus 10 inches. Reported by Jerry Masson |
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Roger Blough to open Soo Locks Season 3/25 - Sault Ste. Marie - Bathed in bright spring sunshine despite the ice below, Roger Blough waited at the west approach pier above the Soo Locks for the stroke of midnight and opening of the Poe Lock for the season. Blough arrived through the broken ice downbound with the season's first load of iron ore early Saturday afternoon to wait out the last few hours before the shipping season opens. Two upbound vessels were in the St. Marys River Saturday afternoon but chose to drop anchor near DeTour, then proceeded up river later in the evening. From the Soo Evening News |
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Port Reports - March 25 St. Marys River - Jerry Masson & Theresa Parker Upbound Saturday evening was the Canadian Transport near Detour and H Lee White in the Straits area. Canadian Transport was heading for the locks at 7:30 p.m. The Cutter Mobile Bay joined the Neah Bay in the lower St Marys River to reopen ice tracks and groom the turns. Cutter Mackinaw was working the upper river out to the ice edge. Further down river the Neah Bay broke through the ice bridge between Neebish Island and the mainland on the down bound St Marys River at the Neebish Island ferry dock area of the river, this is just above rock cut. Locals report that at last check the ice was 32" thick. Neah Bay cut through as if it wasn't even there. Toronto - Charlie Gibbons Marquette - Rod Burdick |
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Ship blessings ring 3/25 - Port Huron - They are vessels that link all nations, provide necessities for life and protect the boundaries of our country. Ships and seafarers - sometimes at great risk - play a vital role in local and world operations and economy. Hundreds gathered Saturday for the first-ever Blessing of the Fleet ceremony outside the Great Lakes Maritime Center at Vantage Point in Port Huron. The event was organized to mark the start of the Great Lakes shipping season, which excites local freighter watchers, who have tired of seeing only ice chunks move down the St. Clair River, said coordinator Peter Werle, lead volunteer at the center. Most Great Lakes freighters cease travel during the winter months when the major ship-canal locks close. The Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie open today. Ontario's Welland Canal opened Tuesday and the Montreal/Lake Ontario portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway opened Wednesday. Depending on weather, the U.S. Coast Guard likely will start marking the shipping channel with buoys within two weeks, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Davanzo, captain of the Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock. At Saturday's event, three Port Huron pastors stood along the St. Clair River and gave formal thanks for the ships and seafarers and prayed for their safety. "We give thanks for all the resources of the Earth and sea and for the ships that distribute them," said the Rev. Simeon Iber, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Port Huron, as he faced a large crowd standing on the maritime center's deck. "We thank God for those on whose labor we depend for the necessities of life; for seafarers and all who leave their homes and communities to serve others; for the skills of seamanship; for modern aids to navigation and for all engaged in the shipping industry." As Iber and others spoke, the freighter, Cuyahoga, moved behind him, heading north toward the Blue Water Bridge. The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet ship Grayfox, lined with standing sailors, sat in the river as part of the ceremony. Werle said he wants to enhance the event next year by having Selfridge Air Force Base jets flyover and several choirs perform. He said he arranged the ceremony to get people down to the water and recognize the city's maritime heritage. "It's one of those things we are trying to reclaim." Honoring seafarers A graduate of The California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calf., Bousseloub has traveled all over the world navigating ships and handling cargo. He's delivered war supplies to Kuwait and transported giant windmill blades from Spain to Philadelphia. "I have two homes, here and on a ship," he said Saturday after the ceremony. It can be a risky job, he said. "Every day there is a new experience that could be a dangerous experience." For him, there is no shipping season. He spends most of his time on the ocean and travels all year. For those who work the Great Lakes, there is a break from sea travel. Capt. Billy Cline of the International Ship Masters' Association works for Gaelic Tugboat Co. in Detroit. Cline of Kimball Township has been laid off this winter and begins work again in the next couple of weeks. Cline, who has been sailing for more than 30 years on the Great Lakes, rang a bell at the ceremony Saturday to honor fallen seamen. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Mike Chandler, operations officer on the Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock, and Port Huron Power Squadron Commander Rudy Sloup also tolled the bell to honor those who have died. To help keep other from the same fate, the ceremony participants prayed for seafarers' safety. "Bless these ships and these boats, the equipment and all who serve on them and who would use them. Protect them from the dangers of wind and rain and of the perils of the deep. Bring us all to the harbor of light and peace," said the Rev. Peggy Konkel, pastor at Unity Church of Blue Water. From the Port Huron Times-Herald |
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Boatnerd Changing Servers 3/25 - The server used to host BoatNerd is failing, after 5 years of
faithful service it is time for replacement. Our infrastructure teams have
purchased the new server and have been moving parts of the site over. While
the actual move we make to the other server will be instantaneous, your
service provider may cause you to temporarily display an incorrect page. |
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No Saturday News Photo Updates 3/25 - Due to server problems (see above article) we have not been able to post the News Gallery pictures received Friday and Saturday, and we have received some good shots. We hope to have the problems worked out shortly and be able to get everything posted. Keep sending in your pictures. We will get upload them as soon as possible. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 25 The AMASA STONE was christened in ceremonies at Wyandotte, Michigan. The
STONE was the first Interlake boat to be built with special passenger
accommodations. Hull in use as a dock in Charlevoix, Michigan. |
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Port Reports - March 24 Toronto - Charlie Gibbons Twin Ports - Al Miller St. Lawrence Seaway - Ron Beaupre Bayfield - Tim Eldred |
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U.S.-Flag Lakers to Combat Spread of Fish Virus 3/24 - Cleveland---The members of Lake Carriers’ Association (LCA)
are implementing a ballast water management plan to help slow the spread of
Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) to uninfected Great Lakes waters in 2007.
Lake Carriers’ Association represents the vast majority of U.S.-Flag vessels
operating on the Great Lakes. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 24 ALPENA (Hull#177) was launched on March 24, 1909, at Wyandotte, Michigan by
Detroit Ship Building Co. for the Wyandotte Transportation Co. Renamed b.)
SIDNEY E SMITH JR in 1968, and c.) ALPENA in 1971. Scrapped at Port Colborne,
Ontario in 1973. |
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Port Reports - March 23 Goderich - Dale Baechler Sarnia - Frank Frisk, Angie Williams & Marc Dease Escanaba - Rod Burdick Cleveland - Matt St. Lawrence Seaway - Ron Beaupre |
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Maritime students on Wisconsin schooner rescue 3 off Florida Keys 3/23 - ISLAMORADA, Fla. - Maritime academy students on an excursion aboard a Wisconsin-based schooner got a real-life lesson early Thursday when they rescued three fishermen who were clinging to a sinking boat off the Florida Keys. The 16 students from the Riviera Beach (Fla.) Maritime Academy were on the Denis Sullivan, a 19th-century replica Great Lakes schooner, as part of a 10-day nautical and marine science expedition. They were with teachers and the crew of the ship when they heard a "May Day" call from a 33-foot fishing boat with three men aboard saying they were sinking about 11 miles southeast of Islamorada, according to a statement from the Coast Guard. While the Coast Guard dispatched rescue crews to the scene, students and teachers on the 137-foot, three-masted schooner saw distress flares fired in the air and made their way to the sinking ship just after midnight. A crew member eventually pulled two of the men to safety and a third man was able to swim to the ship's ladder, the Coast Guard said. The three men, taken ashore by Coast Guard boat, were transported to Mariner's Hospital near Marathon. Two had serious injuries and the condition of the third man was not available. The fishermen's vessel punched a 1-foot hole in the schooner's hull while the rescue was under way. Coast Guard crews temporarily repaired the hole with help from the students, and the ship continued on its way to Key West. The Denis Sullivan is on a winter cruise in southern waters before making the return trip through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Milwaukee for the summer. The vessel is based at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin in Milwaukee. |
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Free program announced at Great Lakes Maritime Center for Saturday 3/23 - Port Huron - Saturday night, March 24, at 7:00 pm, at the Great Lakes Maritime Center at Vantage Point in Port Huron, the program, "River Rat Chasing!" will be presented by the Lake Huron Lore Marine Society. The program is free and open to the public. |
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Diamond Queen Memorial Day Cruise to Port Huron 3/23 - Detroit - The annual Memorial Day Diamond Queen cruise departs from Hart Plaza, on May 28, and cruises to the St. Clair Inn for dinner and out into Lake Huron a short distance, weather permitting. There is a Continental breakfast and a buffet luncheon on board. The cruise will follow the shipping channel upbound to meet all downbound ships, and only divert from the shipping channel down bound to visit the old St. Clair Flats area to see the Old Club and other interesting buildings and sites there. Tickets are $85 by reservation only. Departs Hart Plaza at 8:00 am and returns at 9:15 pm. Call 313-843-9376 for information. |
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Updates - March 23 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. Calendar of Events updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 23 The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously voted on March
23,1978, to reject the U. S. Coast Guard's official report supporting the
theory of faulty hatches in their EDMUND FITZGERALD investigation. Later the
N.T.S.B. revised its verdict and reached a majority vote to agree that the
sinking was caused by taking on water through one or more hatch covers damaged
by the impact of heavy seas over her deck. This is contrary to the Lake
Carriers Association's contention that her foundering was caused by flooding
through bottom and ballast tank damage resulting from bottoming on the Six
Fathom Shoal between Caribou and Michipicoten Islands. |
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Ceremony to bless the fleet will be Saturday in Port Huron 3/22 - Port Huron - Three local pastors and representatives from the International Ship Masters Association will lead a "blessing of the fleet" ceremony at 11:00 am, Saturday at the Great Lakes Maritime Center at Vantage Point, 51 Water St., Port Huron. Representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Port Huron Power Squadron, the Sea Scouts and the Sea Cadets will be on hand. There will be performances from singers and a Detroit pipe band. For additional information, call Peter Werle at (810) 985-4817 |
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BoatNerd Soo Locks Engineer's Day Cruise date changed to Friday 3/22 - Due to a scheduling conflict, we have changed the Annual Engineer's Weekend Freighter Chasing Cruise to Friday, June 29. See the Gathering Page for complete details. |
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First ships of spring set sail 3/22 - Port Huron - Closed since mid-January for winter maintenance, three major ship-canal locks are opening this week. The Welland Canal opened Tuesday, the Montreal/Lake Ontario portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway opened Wednesday and the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie will open Sunday. Freighter crews are gearing up for the shipping season after taking a winter break during the lock closures. The season is expected to bring a mix of high demand and low Great Lakes water levels, which could cut profits. Although some freighters continued to traverse the St. Clair River this winter carrying heating oil from Nanticoke, Ontario, and salt from Goderich, Ontario, many stop shipping in winter because of restricted access to ports. Crews work hard from March to January on the freighters, which carry cargo such as iron ore, limestone and steel throughout the Great Lakes region and around the world. "It's tough work," said Frank Frisk, a retired cook-porter with the Interlake Steamship Co. who now works at BoatNerd.com in Port Huron. But journeying through the locks is exhilarating. "When you're standing out there on deck or the pilot house and the boat moves that 30 feet, it's really wild," he said. Mark Gill, supervisor of the vessel traffic service for St. Marys River near the Soo Locks, said crews will be working hard until Sunday breaking up ice to allow ship passage. There has been more ice this year than last year, he said. "It's been a tough year on the breakers themselves. We're certainly going to have an uphill battle looking toward Sunday," he said. Big business While Monday's recorded water level for the Lake Michigan-Huron system was 577.2 feet above sea level, close to the average reading for March 2006, the water level on Lake Superior could play the biggest role in shipping this year, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit. The water level in Lake Superior, which last week measured 14 inches below the March 2006 average, could fall within 3 or 4 inches of the record low by summer's end. The Corps of Engineers is forecasting a water level similar to last summer for the Lake Michigan-Huron system. But even a variation of a few inches can reduce the profit for shipping companies. A typical freighter has the ability to carry 270 tons of cargo per inch of water, which means several hundred thousands of dollars can be lost if the water level is down several inches. "You'll end up seeing low freighter passages, because they won't be able to carry their maximum load to their destinations," Gill said. Frisk said the water levels are cyclical and that long periods of low water may be caused by global warming. Despite seasonal struggles, local economies benefit from the shipping season, Frisk said, as ship watchers travel throughout the region watching freighters. He said freighter traffic, a major tourist draw to the Port Huron area, remains popular. "It's magnetic. Its like NASCAR on the water," Frisk said. Ballast law By getting a permit, the shipping company agrees it will not discharge its ballast in Michigan waterways or that it will use a state-approved method to clean the ballast water. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will not allow ships to stop in Michigan ports if they do not have the permit, said spokesman Bob McCann. Ballast is water, mixed with sediment and seaweed, the weight of which keeps ships stable during voyages. It's been identified as the medium that's carried invasive species, such as zebra mussels, ruffe fish and viral hemorrhagic septicemia - a quick-spreading virus from Europe that's deadly to fish. There are 182 invasive species plaguing the Great Lakes, spurring the conservation group Great Lakes United to propose a ban on overseas ships in the Great Lakes until they learn how to stop discharging contaminated ballast water. The shipping industry is concerned about the Michigan law's effect on business, said Bob Dorn, senior vice president of the Interlake Steamship Co. in Cleveland. "We're working with (the Lake Carriers Association) and the appropriate people in Lansing to understand what the issue is all about and get a little more clarification," Dorn said. "Clearly it's an issue that must be addressed without stopping commerce." From the Port Huron Times-Herald |
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Port Reports - March 22 Soo - Jerry Masson Milwaukee - John Vogel St. Lawrence Seaway - Kent Malo Hamilton - Eric Holmes Goderich - Duane Jessup & Dale Baechler |
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Pentwater, Manistee out of luck for
dredging this year 3/22 - Ludington - Recreational boats and freighters may have trouble entering some Great Lakes harbors, including Pentwater and Manistee this year, thanks to a loss of federal funding for dredging. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget does not include any money for dredging recreational harbors, including Pentwater, Arcadia and Leland, which shoal every year and typically are dredged every year. Manistee, which has a commercial harbor, also appears to be out of luck. While the city was on the Corps’ three-year schedule for dredging this summer, the Corps’ Washington, D.C., budget office didn’t include money for the work to be done. Still, there may be hope for Manistee. “There are some issues still being worked out,” said Tom O’Bryan, a civil
engineer in the Corps’ Grand Haven office. “Manistee was submitted, but during
budget cuts it didn’t make the cut,” he said. “Our district is quite aware of
(Manistee harbor’s need for dredging), but there was no money set aside.” Pentwater Village Manager Tim Taylor said the village will do its own profiling of the harbor situation to find out how much shoaling has occurred since last year. “We’re going to have to do that ourselves,” Taylor said, “to see where we have obstructions.” Even if there is shoaling, there is no funding available currently for removal. The harbor should be dredged to 15 feet deep to allow sailboats and other large boats to use the busy port, Taylor said. “It is disappointing,” he said of hearing the news about the lack of federal funding. “It’s a crushing blow to our community if we have problems. The lake is our commerce.” All of the state’s recreational harbors lost dredging funds in order to keep more commercial harbor projects on the schedule as commercial ports are considered more of a national interest, O’Bryan said. “Obviously, recreational harbors bring in millions of tourist dollars, but Washington does not look at it that way. Commercial harbors provide products … it’s a more national issue than tourism.” Ludington was dredged on schedule, once every three years, in 2007. The contractor MCM Marine is still in the local harbor, planning to finish up its 2006 work this spring, as soon as the weather allows. That may work in Ludington’s favor, since federal budget cuts mean the harbor is being dredged to only 27.5 feet instead of the usual 29.5 feet, O’Bryan said. After this spring’s work the next Ludington dredging should take place in 2009. Ludington will receive about $177,000 in Corps’ project money for maintenance to the head of the south breakwater for about two weeks during the summer. U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, hosted a meeting in Muskegon for area municipalities in February, saying he was still working to try to secure the funding. This week, upon learning that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not include in its 2007 budget funding for recreational harbor projects throughout Michigan, he issued the following statement: “My staff and I work hard every year to ensure that all harbors are adequately dredged for commercial and recreational watercraft in Michigan’s Second Congressional District, and every year up until now we have been successful. I will continue to aggressively work with the Democratic leadership in the House and Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin in the Senate to achieve more positive outcomes.” |
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Updates - March 22 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 22 On this day in 1952, the new 647 foot CASON J CALLAWAY slid down the ways
at the Rouge River yard of Great Lakes Engineering Works. Chris H. Johnson was
appointed her first Captain. |
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Detroit Historical Society to re-open the
Dossin Great Lakes Museum 3/21 - Detroit— After an extremely successful 10-week renovation and
Grand Re-Opening last fall at its flagship Detroit Historical Museum, the
Detroit Historical Society has turned its attention to the Dossin Great Lakes
Museum in the new year. When guests visit the Dossin Museum this spring, they will notice more than $100,000 in upgrades, including the following new exhibits: Era of Elegance: Cruising on the Lakes will bring together artifacts, photographs, and stories to recall a time when luxurious steamers sailed the Great Lakes – forerunners of today’s modern cruise lines. Maritime Marvels will display a treasury of Great Lakes artifacts
from the Museum’s extensive collection. Bob-Lo: Entertainment Island brings
back the memories and magic of the iconic amusement park that entertained
millions of Detroiters from 1898 to 1993. Great Lakes Signal Flags
demonstrates how sailors in the region communicate using these colorful
banners and gives visitors the chance to send their own messages. At that time, Walter, Roy, and Russell Dossin pledged part of their fortune
-- earned as owners of the exclusive Pepsi-Cola bottling franchise in Michigan
and northern Ohio – and their fame -- as sponsors of several legendary
hydroplane racing boats -- to build a new museum. On July 24, 1961, the Dossin
Great Lakes Museum opened to the public on the same site where the J. T. Wing
had been moored. Permanent exhibits include the Miss Pepsi vintage 1940s championship hydroplane, a bow anchor from the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, the pilothouse from the Great Lakes freighter S.S. William Clay Ford, and the largest known collection of scale model ships in the world . For more information, call (313) 821-2661 or visit www.detroithistorical.org . |
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Thunder Bay Shipping outlook good 3/21 - Thunder Bay, Ont. - One of the sure signs of spring is seeing
a coast guard cutter breaking up the ice in the Thunder Bay harbour for the
start of the shipping season by week’s end. That would be the United States
Coast Guard cutter Biscayne Bay, which is currently opening shipping channels
in the harbour. |
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Port Reports - March 21 Midland - Les Spencer Hamilton - Eric Holmes |
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Great Lakes group urges foreign ship ban
3/21 - Milwaukee - The St. Lawrence Seaway opened for its 49th consecutive season Wednesday, but not everyone is thrilled about another summer of overseas ships doing business in the Great Lakes. Frustrated by the mounting number of invasive species arriving in the bellies of overseas freighters, some conservationists are proposing a simple but radical solution: Ban the ships from the Great Lakes until they can figure out how to stop discharging contaminated ballast water. "This is being done out of frustration," said Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. "This is a decision
we've made because the federal government has failed to protect the Great
Lakes." Dean Haen, president of the Wisconsin Commercial Ports Association, said he supported federal legislation to regulate contaminated ballast discharges, but finding the technology remained a challenge. "If our state wants to do anything with regards to ballast water, I'd suggest they help fund research to develop technology to stop invasive species and keep the economy moving," he said. Nalbone said there were alternatives to moving foreign cargo into the region, among them transferring it from overseas ships onto trains. She said it might be inconvenient, but it made economic and environmental sense because of the costs of coping with the unwanted species that overseas ships are bringing in. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
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Shippers fight Michigan law regulating ballast water 3/21 - Detroit - Shipping interests in the U.S. and Canada have banded together to try to strike down a Michigan law that attempts to stop the spread of invasive species such as zebra mussels into the Great Lakes. Four shipping companies, four shipping associations and one dock company filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit asking a judge to declare the Michigan Ballast Water Act unconstitutional. "It's disappointing that these groups are choosing to ignore this law that really is designed to keep our Great Lakes protected," Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Robert McCann said today. The state law, which took effect Jan. 1 as the first such law in the nation, requires all oceangoing ships visiting Michigan ports to obtain permits and to promise not to discharge untreated ballast water. Ballast water, used to stabilize ships when they are carrying little or no cargo, is typically taken on after ships empty their cargo and emptied before ships take on cargo. Foreign ballast water has been blamed for introducing destructive species such as zebra mussels and sea lamprey to Great Lakes waters. The shippers, including the Seaway Great Lakes Trade Association and the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, argue in the lawsuit filed Thursday the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with interstate commerce. They also say it casts much too wide a net because only a tiny fraction of the fewer than 100 ships that visit Michigan ports each year discharge their ballast water. So far, only two companies have sought permits for 12 ships -- a Bulgarian company sought permits for 10 ships and an Ontario company for two ships, officials said. State Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, said she introduced her legislation
after the federal government failed to act against the obvious source for
invasive species entering the Great Lakes. "I am just shocked," Birkholz said
of the suit by the shippers. "If anything, we ought to be suing them." |
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Updates - March 21 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. Public Photo Gallery updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 21 The J L MAUTHE successfully completed her sea trials on western Lake Erie
in 1953. She achieved a speed of 17.3 mph during the trials. The hull of the
MAUTHE sails today as the barge PATHFINDER. |
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Top hat ceremony for Welland Canal Today 3/20 - St. Catharines, Ont. - A top hat ceremony will take place
today marking the 75th opening of the Fourth Welland Canal – the earliest
ever. CSL Tadoussac was above Lock Seven Monday evening and is expected to be the first vessel of the season at Lock Three. |
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Mackinaw is stellar in debut 3/20 - Sault Ste. Marie - The big, red ship hummed and shuddered slightly as it cruised at six knots through six-foot-deep ice, an amalgam of thick, broken pieces thawed and refrozen in Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay. It's an impossible task for most mariners, but the crew of U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw splashed along in search of a greater challenge near Canadian waters, with huge chunks of frozen water floating like giant ice cubes in the wake. The crew completed the ship's ice trials during the last two weeks as part of its first winter of ice-breaking in the Great Lakes. "We're measuring the effect Mackinaw has on the ice and the impact the ice has on the Mackinaw,” said Capt. John Little, the ship's commanding officer. "There's more to driving this boat than just steering.” High-tech sensors lined the inside of the icebreaker's hull, deck and bulkhead, measuring minute tremors in the steel as ice chunks the size of cars broke off and rocked away from the passing ship. Civilian naval architects were on board to study how the ship and its propulsion system held up to the ice strain. "It's built for 35 tons of thrust from both propellers. It looks like it has hit the mark,” said naval architect Jim St. John, who specializes in maritime ice research. Mackinaw's propulsion system includes three 4,600 horsepower engines and two Azipods, self-contained electric motor systems that rotate 360 degrees, directing water and thrust in any direction. The new 240-foot-long cutter did not find any ice in the Great Lakes that it couldn't easily manage. That includes 24-inch-thick solid blue plate ice near Green Bay and a 5.5-meter-deep ridge, where ice pushed together under extreme pressure in Lake Superior. "It's more advanced than any other ship in the Coast Guard,” said Boatswain Mate 2nd Class Maria Gonzalez, junior officer of the deck who takes nautical readings and handles radio communications. The ship took over the duties of the old cutter Mackinaw, which was decommissioned last year after 62 years of service and is now docked in Mackinaw City. The new Mackinaw is designed for heavy ice-breaking, buoy service, search and rescue, law enforcement and oil-skimming at spills. The ship also is rigged to mount 50-caliber machine guns for Homeland Security missions, Little said. "It's just being a presence in areas that may be a high threat area, like the Sault Locks, Mackinac Bridge or the nuclear power plant in Kewaunee,” he said. Little said a first year of successful missions has more than made up for a gaffe involving the $82 million ship prior to his command, when the hull was dented in a collision with a breakwall in Grand Haven on Dec. 12, 2005. The ship's home port is Cheboygan, where the previous icebreaker of the
same name also moored on the Cheboygan River, just off Lake Huron. |
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Martha L. Black opens Lake Ontario 3/20 - Cape Vincent - The CCGS Martha L. Black has stopped in the
ice, for the night, one mile west of Tibbets Point, near Cape Vincent, at
5:00pm today. She has an etd of 5:00am Tuesday for downbound passage, thus she
must have opened the channel to Lake Ontario for shipping today. |
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CSL Niagara Opens Season at Sandusky 3/2 - Sandusky - An old friend opened the 2007 shipping season in
Sandusky on Monday. Although there is no longer any ceremony awarding a
plaque, derby hat, or silver tea service to the captain of the first vessel of
the season, CSL Niagara holds the honor. The 739-footer began her 35th season
on the Lakes when she entered an ice free Sandusky Bay and began loading at
the Norfolk Southern coal dock for Hamilton, Ont. |
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Port Reports - March 20 Escanaba - Lee Rowe
Toronto - Charlie Gibbons |
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“Know Your Ships” 2007 Now Available The 2007 edition of “Know Your Ships,” the boat watchers’ annual field guide to the vessels sailing the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, is off the press. The 152-page book, now in its 48th edition, contains detailed information about nearly 2,000 vessels and includes many color photographs taken from around the lakes and Seaway. This year’s Vessel of the Year is the classic steamer Edward L. Ryerson, which unexpectedly returned to service in 2006, much to the delight of boat watchers around the lakes. Order “Know Your Ships” from www.knowyourships.com for immediate shipment; the book will also be available at many retail outlets around the Great Lakes as spring approaches. "Know Your Ships" is often referred to as the "bible of boat watching" containing detailed information and pictures of Great Lakes ships and the foreign ships that visit the Great Lakes each season. Book Signing |
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Updates - March 20 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page updated. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 20 On 20 March 1885, MICHIGAN (Hull#48), (iron propeller passenger-package
freight steamer, 215 foot, 1,183 tons) of the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee
Railroad was sunk by ice off Grand Haven, Michigan. |
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Port Reports - March 19 Port Huron - Fran Frisk Toronto - Charlie Gibbons |
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Tiny Shrimp is newest threat to Great Lakes 3/19 - Columbus, OH - A half-inch shrimp is the latest Great Lakes
invader to make biologists nervous. The bloody red shrimp, a native of
southwestern Asia, has been discovered in Lakes Michigan and Ontario. |
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New Boatnerd Gathering Cruises Announced On Saturday, May 26, 2007, we are once again pleased to offer the Boatnerd Badger Gathering. A round-trip crossing of Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin , aboard the Lake Michigan Carferry SS BADGER. It has been four years since we have been able to make these arrangements. Don't miss this year's fun cruise. Lee Murdoch will be on board to offer entertainment both ways across the lake and during the Wisconsin shoreline cruise. On Friday night, May 25, we have arranged a special Badger Boatel to stay aboard the steamer on the night prior to the cruise. Reservations for staterooms are limited. This optional part of the gathering may offer pilothouse and engine room tours. See the Boatnerd Gathering Page for complete details and sign up form. On Saturday, June 16, we will repeat last year’s popular Boatnerd Detroit Up River Cruise aboard the Friendship. This cruise will go up the Detroit River, and possibly into the Rouge River. Departing at 10:00 a.m. sharp from the Portofino's On The River in Wyandotte, MI. Cost is $25.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for three hours and a pizza lunch delivered by the J. W. Westcott mail boat. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. On Saturday, August 11, we are Following on the popularity of the up
river cruise on the Friendship, and have planned a Boatnerd Detroit Down River
Cruise for This is a four-hour trip that will go down the Livingston Channel
to the Detroit River Light and return via the Amherstburg Channel. Cost is
$35.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for four (4) hours and a
box lunch. Cash bar on board. See
Gathering Page for directions, full details
and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of
100. |
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News Photo Gallery reaches 400 pages 3/19 - Today the Boatnerd News Photo Gallery posts page number 400. Started on August 1, 2004, the page is updated daily with photos of current
news events that are sent in by our volunteer reporters. |
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Updates - March 19 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page updated. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 19 On this day in 1913, 39 vessels in seven fleets merged to form the Pickands
Mather (Interlake) Fleet. |
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Breakthrough: Icebreaker clears shipping path 3/18 - Duluth - On Friday morning, the Mesabi Miner became the first laker of the shipping season to leave the Twin Ports, following a path carved through the ice by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Biscayne Bay. The massive 1,004-foot freighter followed the lead of the 140-foot icebreaking tug from St. Ignace, Mich. The Mesabi Miner was bound for Presque Isle, Mich., with 58,000 tons of coal loaded at Midwest Energy Resources Co.’s terminal in Superior. Missing from the scene was the 225-foot Coast Guard Cutter Alder, which remains tied at dockside in Duluth because of a leak in the hydraulics of its controllable pitch propeller system. Still, a couple members of the Alder’s crew joined the Biscayne Bay for Friday’s icebreaking. “They know the ins and outs of this harbor, so they’re pretty invaluable,” said Lt. Cary Godwin, the Biscayne Bay’s commanding officer. The conditions would have made tough going for the Alder, Godwin said. But they were no match for the 2,500-horsepower Biscayne Bay. The tug slid and crunched through the 24- to 30-inch-thick ice without hesitation. Cracks spread out in a wide “V” behind the vessel. “A lot of people don’t realize that our main power is in our wake,” Godwin said. At a speed of 10 knots, the tug, with a beam of 37 feet, 6 inches, opened a swath about 300 feet wide through the ice. The Biscayne Bay was designed for this work. Its heavy hull is reinforced with 5/8-inch-thick steel. The hull also features a lubrication system sometimes called a “bubbler.” It pumps low-pressure air out through exterior ports that line the hull, causing bubbles to rise along the vessel’s sides. Godwin explained that the system reduces friction, improving the tug’s efficiency of movement through ice and snow by about 30 percent. The Biscayne Bay encountered the most difficult conditions it has seen in the Twin Ports this year on Wednesday, when it arrived from St. Ignace. “It was pretty rough at the ice edge,” Godwin said, describing the 8-foot-tall ice windrows his vessel confronted as it approached the Twin Ports. “It took about a half-hour of backing and ramming to punch through.” The Biscayne Bay also encountered what Godwin called “candle ice.” He
explained that this type of ice “shatters into candle-like tubes, when you hit
it.” Jerry Gagne, 84, of Duluth joined the Coast Guard as an honorary guest aboard the Biscayne Bay on Friday. He is no stranger to Lake Superior, having gone to work on ships hauling grain from the Twin Ports to Buffalo at age 18. His job was to feed fuel into the freighter’s belly. “It was dirty work, but I enjoyed it,” Gagne said. “I always looked forward to fitting out in the spring.” After two years of work on the Great Lakes, Gagne joined the World War II support effort by entering the Merchant Marine. From 1943 through 1945, he helped supply troops in the Atlantic, then in the Pacific, serving much of his tour aboard a fuel tanker. It was dangerous work. “A lot of people don’t realize that we lost more Merchant Marine seamen in World War II than the Army and Navy put together,” Gagne said. “We were like sitting ducks out there.” Gagne was joined aboard the Biscayne Bay on Friday by his son-in-law, Leo Oliver, and grandson, Patrick Oliver, both of Duluth. Patrick returned last week from his second tour of duty in Iraq. He serves as a staff sergeant specializing in avionics for the 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard. As dangerous as Iraq may be, Oliver said his admiration for men who served in the Merchant Marine, like his grandfather, remains immense. “What they did for their country was unbelievable,” Oliver said, noting that working on a fuel tanker in foreign seas during World War II was “like sitting on a bomb.” Oliver said he appreciated the unique opportunity to see the Coast Guard — yet another branch of the nation’s armed forces — at work assisting commerce on the Great Lakes. The Biscayne Bay will leave the Twin Ports on Sunday, bound for Thunder Bay, where it will resume icebreaking operations. The Twin Ports will become much busier late next week, as fleets prepare
for the March 25 opening of the Soo Locks — the kickoff of the new season for
the St. Lawrence Seaway. |
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Port Reports - March 18 St. Lawrence River - Kent Malo Sturgeon Bay - Jeff Birch Owen Sound - Ed Saliwonchyk Marquette - Rod Burdick Pelee Passage - Erich Zuschlag |
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Updates - March 18 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page updated. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 18 On 18 March 1906, the Goodrich Line's ATLANTA (wooden propeller
passenger/package freight steamer, 200 foot, 1,129 gross tons, built in 1891,
at Cleveland, Ohio) was sailing from Sheboygan, Wisconsin for Milwaukee. When
she was 14 miles south of Sheboygan, fire was discovered in the aft hold and
quickly spread to the engine room. She ran out of steam, making the fire pumps
inoperable. There were 65 persons aboard and Capt. Mc Cauley gave the order to
abandon. The fish tug TESSLER came to help and only one life was lost. As the
TESSLER was steaming to port, the Goodrich Line's GEORGIA came into view and
took on all of the survivors. The hull of the ATLANTA was beached by the
TESSLER. Later the burned hull was purchased by D. O. Smith of Port
Washington. |
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Mesabi Miner First to Depart 3/17 - Twin Port - The Mesabi Miner left Duluth at 9:20 a.m. Friday morning loaded with low sulfur western coal coal bound for Presque Isle near Marquette. The Coast Guard Cutter Biscayne Bay had earlier broken ice throughout the harbor. Harbor ice was reported at between 24"-30" and thicker in some areas as the USCG Ice Breaker Biscayne Bay assisted the Miner. The cutter led the Miner out of port and cleared a path through the offshore ice field that stretched about six miles from the entry. The Miner was the 1st vessel to leave this season and was the last vessel to tie up for the winter this past January. She is expected back in Duluth to load coal for Taconite Harbor on Sunday. Reported by: Al Miller, John Harrison & Ed Labenik |
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Port Weller Crane's wreckage braced 3/17 - St. Catharines - Under the orders of an Ontario Labour
Ministry engineer, the wreckage of the collapsed crane at Port Weller Dry Dock
was braced Thursday so the body of its operator could be removed. But the St.
Catharines fire department and a ministry spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon
Mike Damiano's body remains trapped under the Clyde crane. |
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High water stalls replacing drawspan on King bridge 3/17 - Toledo - Add high water to the litany of delays that has plagued drawspan replacement on the Martin Luther King, Jr., Bridge since mid-January. And the latest delay casts doubt on whether the bridge can reopen before the shipping season starts. City officials' hopes to get a second of four drawspan sections barged into place by yesterday were dashed by heavy rain earlier this week that caused the Maumee River to rise, David Welch, the city's commissioner of streets, bridges, and harbor, said yesterday. As of yesterday afternoon, he said, it appeared unlikely the barge maneuver would occur sooner than tomorrow, and that's only if the river drops and northwest winds forecast for today shift and diminish. Lt. Richard Minnich, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office in Toledo, said river forecasts suggest water levels may not recede sufficiently for the barge movement until Tuesday. That's just five days before the year's first ship is to arrive in Toledo, and city officials have said the span section installation will take 10 days to complete after delivery. The King has been closed to river traffic since Dec. 31 and to street traffic since Jan. 30 for the drawspan replacement. The city's original Coast Guard permit for the river-traffic closing expired Thursday, and every day that the river was closed after that could have resulted in a $20,000-a-day fine. But early this week, the Coast Guard granted an extension based on the first ship's estimated arrival. "We're going to wait and discuss it with [the city] some more on Monday and see what kind of a plan they come up with," Lieutenant Minnich said yesterday. "We've got a ship expected in on the 25th and another one coming in on the 28th. We're trying to work with them the best we can, but time is running out," the lieutenant said. "To meet our [extended] deadline, we had to have that barge in place" yesterday, Mr. Welch agreed. Installing a second drawspan section will let the city reopen the King to one lane of traffic each way. But it's more complicated than just plopping the structure into place because the section has to be able to raise and lower for ships to pass. That requires a concrete counterweight to be poured, electrical hookups to be made, and other installation work. Project engineers will work "around the clock to figure out a way to get this thing in," the streets commissioner said. Their efforts will be directed toward determining if there is a way to partially install the second drawspan section, raise it so ships can pass, and then complete installation once there is a lull in vessel traffic, he said. The two drawspans are being installed from two prefabricated halves apiece. Components for the four sections were made in Wisconsin and assembled in a yard near the Port of Toledo. City officials originally planned to get all four sections installed between Dec. 31 and March 15, and to do it without closing the bridge to motor traffic for periods exceeding four days. But modifications to the existing bridge structure needed to install them turned out to be much more time-consuming than expected and, by late January, the plan to keep the bridge open to motorists was scrapped. Soon thereafter, crumbled concrete was found inside the drawspans' anchor piers, which forced abandoning a Feb. 16 goal to reopen the King to vehicles. One of the four sections was installed in late February; for a time, project officials were confident at least a second, if not a third, would be in place by Thursday. Then on March 4 a heavy floe marooned the delivery barge at its dock and dislodged and damaged a construction-platform barge that had been moored to the bridge itself. By early this week, the ice had dissipated and repairs to the platform barge were nearing completion, prompting a forecast that the second span section would be in place by yesterday. That forecast, however, was made before the river rose. Mr. Welch yesterday offered no prediction for when the third and fourth drawspan sections - the ones needed to finish the structure and bring to an end construction that has beset the bridge since October, 2001 - might be installed. Costs for the project continue to rise too. The original contract with National Engineering, of Strongsville, Ohio, to replace the drawspans provided $32.3 million for the work, but change-orders associated with project delays - including a design error that pushed back the entire drawspan replacement from the winter of 2006 to the current winter - have added an estimated $4.44 million to the bill. City officials have applied for a $4.75 million federal grant to help pay for the bridge, whose budget already was funded primarily with federal dollars. While the city planned to use the federal money to pay off a $4.5 million loan from Ohio's State Infrastructure Bank, it now may be needed for cost overruns. A city lawsuit over the delays, especially those associated with the design error, is pending against National and the project's designer, Kansas City-based HNTB. From the Toledo Blade |
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Ontonagon Harbor dredging could get caught in backlog 3/17 - Ontonagon -- Funds to dredge the Ontonagon Harbor are allocated in President Bush's budget. However, the Ontonagon County Economic Development Corporation learned Wednesday that due to a backlog, the work may be delayed. "There is a giant dredging backlog across the Great Lakes," said Wayne Schloop, chief of operations for the U.S. Corps of Engineers said. "There is a lot of light loading and some harbors almost closed to carriers." The fiscal year 2009 budget is currently being developed and does not contain any money for construction projects. "That does not bode well for the future," he said. He explained that with budget reform, harbors have been deemed "high use" or "low use." To be a high-use harbor, it must have 1 million tons or more passing through. All harbors below 1 million are considered low use. "As you can tell the high end harbors get the first shot at the budgeting and you are on the low end of the pecking order," he continued. There are 137 ports on the Great Lakes and before any funds are used, there must be authorization to do the work and a yearly appropriation. Schloop suggested that perhaps a good suggestion might be to fund the Great Lakes as a system instead of a bunch of harbors. "There would be 170 million tons as a system," he said. To consider the Great Lakes as a system would take legislation from Congress, he added. EDC administrative secretary Terri Lukshaitis pointed out that the Ontonagon Harbor was administered by the EDC with off loading site owned by the Corps, the corps gets revenue from the EDC. "The Ontonagon EDC actually pays more than $100,000 to the Corps," she said, "if that offsets something?" Schloop was also asked if the Corps could spend funds to repair the walkway along the Ontonagon River which collapsed from waves after a repair of the harbor resulted in greater wave action. "Even if the damage was the result of the Corps' action, it has no funds for such repairs," Schloop said. Village manager Penny Hill noted that flooding occurred in Ontonagon in 1963 partly because the river was not dredged and there was silt build-up. If that occurred with the present evaluation of the district it would cause $50 million in flood damage and FEMA would be called. "Can the Corps take that scenario into consideration when the budget is being done?" Hill asked. Schloop said it couldn't, but added that when the request is made for funding of the dredging, that information should be noted on the application. Schloop was also accompanied by Steve Brossart from the Corps. From the Ironwood Daily Globe |
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Port Report - March 17 Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski Montreal - Kent Malo |
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Lee Murdock added to Badger Boatnerd Gathering 3/17 - Popular Great Lakes musician and story teller has signed on for the Badger Boatnerd Gathering. Lee will be providing free entertainment during the trip from Ludington to Manitowoc, during the Wisconsin Shoreline Cruise, and on the return trip to Ludington. Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes. The music is grounded in the work song tradition, from the rugged days of lumberjacks and wooden sailing schooners. Murdock comes alongside with ballads of contemporary commerce and revelry in the grand folk style. Lee's fans have discovered a sweet water treasure in his songs about the Great Lakes, finding drama and inspiration in the lives of sailors and fishermen, lighthouse keepers, ghosts, shipwrecks, outlaws and everyday heroes. Join us on the Badger BoatNerd Gathering. Click here for more information. and Lee Murdock's home page. |
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Algoma Commercial Fisherman Turns 100 3/17 - Emil Pagel, life long commercial fisherman from Algoma,
Wisconsin turned 100 year's old Friday, March 16th. The birthday probably the
"oldest commercial fisherman on the Great Lakes". |
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Updates - March 17 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page updated. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 17 On 17 March 1995, a fire started on the AMERICAN MARINER's self-unloading
conveyor belt from welding being done on the vessel at the Toledo Ship &
Repair Company in Toledo, Ohio. About $100,000 in damage was done. The Toledo
Fire Department had the blaze out in half an hour. Data from: Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Sean Whelan, Ahoy & Farewell II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series. This is a small sample, the books includes many other vessels with a much more detailed history. |
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Menominee ferry company releases schedule, ticket prices 3/16 - Menominee -- Ticket prices and a schedule are now available for the Spirit of La Salle Cruise Line, the new passenger ferry service that will connect Menominee with Door County. Owned by Robert Ruleau and operated by Dan Mathein, the two-boat service will run from mid-May until mid-October. Brochures describing the ferries' operation are now available at Menominee City Hall. Information is also available at ferry offices at 737 1st St. The Spirit of LaSalle is a 115-foot vessel with two docks and a 149-passenger capacity. The Isle Royale Queen is an 80-foot single deck boat that carries 100 passengers. One-way tickets are $22.50 for passengers 13 or older and $12.50 for children ages 5-12. Younger children ride at no cost. A party of 20 adults can ride for $425 one way. For an extra $8, a passenger can bring a bicycle. A charter service and an excursion service are available. Boats leave Menominee beginning at 8:30 a.m. The last boat to make the return from Sturgeon Bay leaves there at 4:30 p.m. Boats will leave Menominee from a dock just west of the Ogden Street Bridge, across from Menominee Paper Co. The dock will be the subject of a public hearing at the Menominee Planing Commission's 4:15 p.m. meeting on Tuesday. On the Door County side, boats will dock at Stone Harbor Resort. Arrangements to transport passengers once they reach their destinations are
being worked out on both sides of the bay, according to Mathein. |
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Munson Receiving Extensive Repairs 3/16 - Duluth - The John G. Munson, which spent the winter in the big drydock at Fraser Shipyards, is undergoing about $2.5 million worth of work, according to an article in the latest edition of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority magazine. The vessel is undergoing a hull inspection, and is reported to be in "excellent" shape. Also on the docket is brick work in the boilers, inspection of propeller blades, hub and tail shaft, overhaul of the bow and stern thrusters, repair or replacement of at least 60 of the 71 buckets in the vessel's unloading system, and -- still going on -- replacement of about 50,000 pounds of steel in the cargo hold to replace worn areas. The Munson's paint job has been the subject of several postings on the Information Search. The ship is again wearing a bright new coat of red paint with the familiar black and grey stripes at the bow. Here's the procedure it underwent: The hull was sandblasted and scraped. This included removal and disposal of the vessel's last lead hull paint on the bow. A coat of black epoxy paint was then applied to the hull, followed by a cost of red oxide paint and topped with a coat of red epoxy paint. |
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Steam buffs say Norisle could sail again
3/16 - Manitoulin Island - Now, having received some unanticipated
but highly welcome input on the state of the Norisle, the group has cause to
contemplate a much grander scenario: actually powering the old beauty up and
sailing her once more from port.
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Port Report - March 16 Twin Ports - Al Miller Soo - Capt. Jon Nickerson |
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New Boatnerd Gathering Cruises Announced On Saturday, May 26, 2007, we are once again pleased to offer the Boatnerd Badger Gathering. A round-trip crossing of Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin , aboard the Lake Michigan Carferry SS BADGER. It has been four years since we have been able to make these arrangements. Don't miss this year's fun cruise. Join us in traveling on the only coal-fired steamer left on the Great Lakes. Visit the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc and see the operating restored forward engine from the legendary railroad ferry Chief Wawatam, and the WWII submarine Cobia. On Friday night, May 25, we have arranged a special Badger Boatel to stay aboard the steamer on the night prior to the cruise. Reservations for staterooms are limited. This optional part of the gathering may offer pilothouse and engine room tours. See the Boatnerd Gathering Page for complete details and sign up form. On Saturday, June 16, we will repeat last year’s popular Boatnerd Detroit Up River Cruise aboard the Friendship. This cruise will go up the Detroit River, and possibly into the Rouge River. Departing at 10:00 a.m. sharp from the Portofino's On The River in Wyandotte, MI. Cost is $25.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for three hours and a pizza lunch delivered by the J. W. Westcott mail boat. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. On Saturday, August 11, we are Following on the popularity of the up river cruise on the Friendship, and have planned a Boatnerd Detroit Down River Cruise for This is a four-hour trip that will go down the Livingston Channel to the Detroit River Light and return via the Amherstburg Channel. Cost is $35.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for four (4) hours and a box lunch. Cash bar on board. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. All these trips require advance reservations. Make yours now. Don’t be left out. |
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Updates - March 16 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page update. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 16 On 16 March 1901, ARGO (steel passenger/package freight propeller, 173
foot, 1,089 gross tons) was launched at the Craig Ship Building Company (Hull
#81) at Toledo, Ohio, for the A. Booth Company. She left the Lakes in 1917,
and was last recorded in 1938, out of Brest, France. |
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Twin Ports Ice breaking on hold 3/15 - Duluth - The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder was scheduled to begin breaking ice in the Duluth Harbor on Tuesday. Instead, it remained tied to its dock, a boom floating behind its stern to contain any hydraulic fluid leaking though a bad seal in the ship’s controllable pitch propeller system. “We’re not working right now because our propeller system is broke,’’ the Alder’s commanding officer, Lt. Commander Kevin Wirth, said Tuesday. Ice-breaking duties in the harbor will fall to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Biscayne Bay, which was scheduled to help the Alder. The Biscayne Bay, based in St. Ignace, Mich., is en route to Duluth and — weather permitting — was scheduled to arrive about 1:00 p.m. Wednesday to begin breaking ice Thursday. Local Coast Guard personnel who are familiar with the harbor will be aboard the Biscayne Bay to help direct ice-breaking operations. Wirth said the 140-foot Biscayne Bay is more maneuverable in ice than the larger Alder and is designed to continuously break up to 20 inches of ice. The ice in the harbor is between 12 and 15 inches, he said. The problem with the Alder was discovered during machinery trials on Thursday. An examination determined that a seal at the base of one of the propeller’s four blades was leaking. Initial efforts to repair the leak were unsuccessful. Operating the Alder with the leak could result in a release of oil and damage to the propeller so the Coast Guard cancelled its ice-breaking operations. “You’re not going to find a mission harder [on the propeller] to do than breaking ice,” Wirth said. Repairing the problem will require divers to loosen the blade, replace the seal and retighten bolts that hold the blade in place. If divers are unable to accomplish the task, the Alder will have to go into dry dock. The repairs should be finished in 10 days to three weeks — in time to begin placing navigational buoys, Wirth said. Reported by Al Miller from the Duluth News Tribune |
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Sluggish Demand Drops Iron Ore Shipments
in January 3/15 - Cleveland---Reduced demand for iron ore from North American
steelmakers produced a 21-percent decrease in iron ore shipments on the Great
Lakes in January. Loadings totaled 2.6 million net tons. The January ore float
was also 150,000 net tons below the month’s 5-year |
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"Know Your Ships" book signing scheduled 3/15 - Port Huron - Editor and publisher Roger LeLievre will sell
and autograph copies of the 2007 edition of the boat watchers bible, Know Your
Ships, at BoatNerd World Headquarters in Port Huron on Saturday, April 21 from
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Stop by and meet him and other members of the Know
Your Ships crew who will also be on hand for the event. |
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Port Reports - March 15 Cleveland - Brian McSweeney Alpena - Ben & Chanda McClain |
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Capt. Charles Wheeler dies 3/15 - Hamilton, Ont. - Captain Charles Wheeler died suddenly on Sunday March 11, 2007 at the Hamilton General Hospital in his 58th year with his loving family by his side. Captain Wheeler's first command with Misener Transportation was M/V Silver Isle in the mid 80s. He later joined Great Lakes Bulk Carriers and moved to Algoma Central Marine in 1994. Captain Wheeler retired from M/V Algoisle in 2004. He was past president of the International Ship Masters Association Lodge Number 20. A loving husband to Sandra for over 36 years, and devoted dad to Stella, Patrick and his girlfriend Jessica and Rob. Survived by his parents George Sr. and Noreen, brothers and sisters George (Jan), Suzanne Sawatsky (Ralph) of Niagara Falls, Neen Bedford (Wayne) of Fenwick, Kathryn Reynolds, James, Robert (Monique) all of St. Catharines. Also survived by his brothers-in-law Bob (Debbie) Wittig, Bill (Diane) Wittig, James Wittig, Chris (Alison) Wittig and many nieces, nephews and cousins. Predeceased by his parents-in-law Wilf and Gloria Wittig and nephew Reco. A funeral Liturgy will be celebrated at 11:00 am at St. Denis Church, 230 Lake Street on Thursday. . As an expression of sympathy, memorial, remembrances may be made to either the Diabetes Association or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario in Charlie's honour. From the St. Catharines Standard |
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Updates - March 15 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page update. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 15 WESTCLIFFE HALL (Hull#519) was launched March 15, 1956, at Grangemouth,
Scotland by Grangemouth Dockyard Co. Ltd., for the Hall Corp. of Canada. Sold
to owners in the Cayman Islands in 1973, renamed b.) WESTCLIFFE. She was
scrapped in 1987. |
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Port Weller Dry Docks employee killed in
accident 3/14 - St. Catharines, Ont. - The first thundering crack caused
nearby trucks and telephone poles to shake. |
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Ice Breaker Alder out of service 3/14 - Duluth - The USCG Cutter Alder won't be breaking ice this
week due to mechanical problems. The Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay passed up bound thru the Soo Locks shortly after noon on Tuesday. It is unknown how long the Alder will be out of service. Reported by Ben Larson |
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Strike slows preseason preparation aboard Stewart J. Cort 3/13 - Duluth - Less than two weeks before the start of the Great Lakes shipping season, the Stewart J. Cort typically would be abuzz with final preparations. But the 1,000-foot laker was decidedly quieter than usual Monday, as members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers refused to cross a picket line set up by members of the American Maritime Officers, a union representing 10 officers and stewards aboard the vessel. The picket has been in place since Saturday at Duluth’s Clure Marine Terminal, where the Cort remains in its winter berth. The company who manages the vessel recently chose to staff the laker with members of another union: the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association. Interlake offered AMO-represented workers a $10,000 signing bonus if they would join MEBA, but no members have jumped ship. Ultimately, the Cort’s current roster of officers objected to the cuts in wages and benefits they would accept if they shifted their union alliance. “The rest of our fleet is MEBA, so this is sort of a natural progression,” said Mark Barker, Interlake’s treasurer and vice president. The Cort joined Interlake Steamship Co.’s fleet in 2005, when it landed a contract to operate the vessel on behalf of Mittal Steel Co. The Cleveland-based carrier inherited an existing AMO contract as part of the deal with Mittal and a consortium of financial institutions that own the ore boat. For nearly 10 months of each year, the laker hauls taconite from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe ore docks in Superior to the Mittal Steel mill in Burns Harbor, Ind. Barker said Monday that he remains confident the Cort will be ready as soon as ice conditions permit. “We’ve got a crew aboard, and we’re pushing ahead,” he said, adding, “We expect to fit it out as usual this year.” Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said
the picket will likely complicate matters for the Cort. “During the last week
of fit-out, there’s invariably a long and large punch list of things to be
completed,” he said. But Ojard said that Interlake certainly anticipated AMO
members would picket. |
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Historic station may be razed - 3/14 - Milwaukee - The long-vacant Coast Guard station on the
lakefront is one step closer to a date with a wrecking ball. |
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Port Report - March 14 Escanaba - Dick Lund |
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Updates - March 14 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Calendar of Events updated. Gatherings Page update. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 14 The MATAAFA, Captain Emory A. Massman, opened the 1950, shipping season at
Cleveland when she arrived with 480 new automobiles from Detroit. Due to heavy
ice near Pelee Island, the trip took 32 hours compared to an average travel
time of 8.5 hours. |
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Mackinaw at the Soo 3/13 - Noon Update - The Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay locked through and were in the upper approach piers but holding fast in the lock area due to problems with the train bridge. The bridge was finally opened just after noon and the two cutters were underway in the upper harbor. 10 a.m. Update - The Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay were expected to lock through the McArthur Lock Tuesday morning. The gates were expected to be open by 10:15 a.m. and the lock ready by 10:30 a.m., after the Corps of Engineers tug is out of the way and secured. The Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay are warmed up and ready to depart Soo Base. Reported by Jerry Masson 3/13 - Sault Ste. Marie - Update - The USCGC Mackinaw arrived at the Coast Guard dock in Sault Ste. Marie around 7:30 p.m. Monday. Biscayne Bay arrived with the Mac and both are expected to stay overnight. Katmai Bay departed early Monday afternoon downbound to continue grooming ice tracks and turns in the lower river. A Corps of Engineers tug worked flushing ice downriver from the lower pier lock gates. Reported by Bonnee Srigley
3/13 - St. Marys River - The almost-new icebreaker Mackinaw entered the St. Marys River at DeTour early Monday to begin breaking out lower river channels in preparation for the upcoming shipping season. Mackinaw, accompanied by the Bay-Class tug Biscayne Bay, will work lower river channels today before passing up to Sault Ste. Marie for fueling and provisions late this afternoon. Among the channels to be broken out today is the lower end of the often-troublesome West Neebish Channel down through the Moon Island turn to Mud Lake. Still a full two weeks before the opening of the Soo Locks, today's ice work does not include breaking out the sensitive West Neebish ice bridge used by snowmobilers for crossing to Neebish Island. Once Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay have completed channel work on tap for today, the two vessels will make for Sault Harbor to overnight at Base Sault before setting off to the west for more icebreaking in Whitefish Bay and at Lake Superior ports. The two Coast Guard vessels will use the MacArthur Lock for upbound passage, as the Poe Lock is still dewatered for winter lock gate and concrete work. To make room for the early icebreaker passage, the Corps of Engineers plans to remove a “bridge barge” used to connect ongoing lock work with W. Portage Avenue access for trucks and heavy equipment. Used as a winter crossing of the upper-end MacArthur approach canal, the “bridge barge” will be moved out of the canal temporarily for Tuesday's scheduled passage. Once the two icebreakers are through the MacArthur Lock, the “bridge barge” will be replaced to allow for eventual removal of heavy equipment from the Poe Lock project when that work is completed over the next two weeks. The two icebreakers plan to remain on Lake Superior for the nearly two weeks remaining before the Poe Lock re-opens for the shipping season on March 25. Corps Area Engineer Al Klein said Corps workers are starting to “demobilize” the Poe Lock worksite today as advance preparations for the shipping season continue. He said high temperatures and rain that moved in today have helped soften up ice remaining at both ends of the MacArthur Locks approaches. Klein acknowledged that Tuesday's scheduled upbound passage is a few days earlier than normal, explaining that the schedule was compatible for both Corps and Coast Guard activity. If Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay complete their icebreaking chores before the Poe Lock opens, Klein said both can berth on the Locks southwest pier in the interim. New to icebreaking on the upper St. Marys and Whitefish Bay, Mackinaw will break out the upper St. Marys River to Birch Point turn and the LCA course to Whitefish Point as far as the ice edge. While ice coverage on the lower St. Marys extends shore-to-shore, thickness is moderate ranging between 18 inches and 24 inches with a few tougher spots. On Whitefish Bay, ice thickness of up to 34 inches were measured before the recent thaw. Heavy windrowed ice is not expected to confront Mackinaw on her first venture into Whitefish Bay ice. While considerable shifting of vessels is in progress today, the Sault-based icebreaking tug Katmai Bay will head south for the Straits of Mackinac to fill in there for the early portion of the icebreaking process. Two other Bay-Class tugs will eventually join the effort as the shipping season approaches. From the Soo Evening News |
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Putting Pressure on the Ice 3/13 - The Canadian Coast Guard Hovercraft Aban-Aki, was seen today putting pressure on the existing Ice in the St Lawrence Seaway. The Aban-Aki was working between CIP 2 (Eastern Seaway entrance) and St Lambert Lock. The hovercraft rides over the Ice, which sends pressure down under the Ice. When it reaches the bottom the pressure rises and comes up under the Ice forcing the ice to crack and break. It is a very effective operation. This method was discovered in recent years when Hovercraft were used for the first time on Ice. Aban-Aki retreated to the St. Lawrence and headed upstream using the St Lawrence river. Aban-Aki was last seen in Lake St Louis at St Nicholas Island at 3:00m Monday. According to the last reports, an Icebreaker is due to enter the Seaway
March 16, 2007. |
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Memorial Service Planned for Doug Fairchild 3/13 - Howell, MI - Fairchild, Douglas John of Howell, MI, age 55,
died unexpectedly at home, Saturday, March 10, 2007. |
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Port Reports - March 13 Toronto - Charlie Gibbons Twin Ports - Al Miller |
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Updates - March 13 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page update. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 13 The keel for the tanker IMPERIAL REDWATER (Hull#106) was laid March 13,
1950, at Port Arthur, Ontario by Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. She was
converted to a bulk freighter at Collingwood, Ontario and renamed b.) R BRUCE
ANGUS in 1954. The ANGUS operated for Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd., until she was
scrapped at Setubal, Portugal in 1985. |
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New Boatnerd Gathering Cruises Announced 3/12 – The Boatnerd Gathering Coordinator is pleased to announce that three more events have been added for the 2007 season. On Saturday, May 26, 2007, we are once again pleased to offer the Boatnerd Badger Gathering. A round-trip crossing of Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin , aboard the Lake Michigan Carferry SS BADGER. It has been four years since we have been able to make these arrangements. Don't miss this year's fun cruise. Join us in traveling on the only coal-fired steamer left on the Great Lakes. Visit the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc and see the operating restored forward engine from the legendary railroad ferry Chief Wawatam, and the WWII submarine Cobia. On Friday night, May 25, we have arranged a special Badger Boatel to stay aboard the steamer on the night prior to the cruise. Reservations for staterooms are limited. This optional part of the gathering may offer pilothouse and engine room tours. See the Boatnerd Gathering Page for complete details and sign up form. On Saturday, June 16, we will repeat last year’s popular Boatnerd Detroit Up River Cruise aboard the Friendship. This cruise will go up the Detroit River, and possibly into the Rouge River. Departing at 10:00 a.m. sharp from the Portofino's On The River in Wyandotte, MI. Cost is $25.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for three hours and a pizza lunch delivered by the J. W. Westcott mail boat. See Gathering Page for directions, full details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a maximum of 100. On Saturday, August 11, we are Following on the popularity of the up
river cruise on the Friendship, and have planned a Boatnerd Detroit Down River
Cruise for This is a four-hour trip that will go down the Livingston Channel
to the Detroit River Light and return via the Amherstburg Channel. Cost is
$35.00 per person. This will include passage onboard for four (4) hours and a
box lunch. Cash bar on board.
See Gathering Page for directions, full
details and sign up form. We must have a minimum of 50 reservations, and a
maximum of 100. |
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"Friends of Norisle" organizes to save venerable ferry 3/12 - Manitowaning, Ont. - Despite the dicey road conditions,
several attendees travelled from as far away as Providence Bay and even Gore
Bay, proving that concern for the boat extends well beyond the east-end port
community in which the ailing ferry is berthed. |
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Port Report - March 12 Hamilton - Eric Holmes |
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Doug Fairchild crosses the bar 3/12 - Word has been received that popular boat watcher Doug Fairchild passed away unexpectedly on Saturday at his home in Howell, Michigan. Arrangements at this time are pending. When more information is known, it will be posted here. |
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Updates - March 12 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Gatherings Page update. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 12 The NORWAY (Hull#115) was launched March 12, 1910, at Toledo, Ohio by
Toledo Shipbuilding Co., for the United States Transportation Co. Sold into
Canadian registry, renamed b.) RUTH HINDMAN in 1964.She was scrapped at
Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1978. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 11 The keel was laid March 11, 1976, for the 660 foot forward section of the
BELLE RIVER (Hull#716) at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp.
Renamed b.) WALTER J McCARTHY JR in 1990. |
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New Mackinaw Living up to Its Name, Ice Trials Going Well 3/10 - The Ice Trials of USCGC Mackinaw began on March 5 in the Bay of Green Bay. Daily testing was performed in an area of lower Green Bay between Green Island, Chambers Island and Sherwood Point. Predominant ice conditions in this region were 12 to 21 inches of land fast level ice with six to 12 inches of snow cover. The planned test program was achieved during each day of testing. Tests were conducted in 19 to 23 inches of ice with six to 12 inches of snow, 17 to 18 inches of ice with five to seven inches of snow and 12 inches of ice with four to 12 inches of snow. Accounting for the snow cover, the equivalent ice thicknesses for these sites were 24, 19.5 and 14.7 inches respectively. CGC Mackinaw was able to transit at 10.6 knots through 18 inches of ice with five to seven inches of snow cover (equivalent ice thickness 19.5 inches). Preliminary test results show that CGC Mackinaw performed as well or better than specified in the Performance Specification. Performance ahead and astern are essentially equivalent. Specific maneuvers such as turning circles, turning in place, turning out of an existing track were also performed. The turning ability of the cutter is exceptional. CGC Mackinaw was able to turn in place in all ice conditions encountered so far. When turning out of an existing channel, CGC Mackinaw "grabbed" the ice edge immediately and quickly turned to a position perpendicular to the channel. In addition CGC Mackinaw conducted dual ship icebreaking operations with CGC Mobile Bay (WTGB-103) to assess effectiveness in various track-widening scenarios (i.e. Mackinaw breaking the primary track and Mobile Bay widening the cut track, or Mobile Bay leading and Mackinaw widening). The effect of utilizing the cutter's wake to open a channel using their standing wake at speeds up to 14kts in 15-18 inches of level ice was also investigated. Working together the cutters can effectively open a 150-160ft wide track in these ice conditions, with relative ease. The icebreaking objective, whether working in Whitefish Bay or the Lower St. Mary's River will dictate which technique, speed of advance, and cutter combination (WLBB leading or following), is most appropriate and efficient. Following a successful day of ice trails in lower Green Bay on Thursday, Mackinaw began her northbound transit to Rock Island Pass and eventually the Straits. At 11:00pm as the cutter approached Boyer Bluff in northern Green Bay, very heavy brash ice was experienced. These same heavy ice conditions (22inch plate/10inches of snow cover with numerous 6-8 foot windrows under extreme pressure from recent strong NE gales) had stopped the nearby transit of the Joseph L. Block who was being assisted by a commercial icebreaking tug. The Joseph L. Block was making their initial run from Escanaba, MI to Indiana Harbor in southern Lake Michigan loaded with Taconite pellets. Mackinaw diverted from their planned transit and provided escort and direct assistance at the request of stopped vessels. Mackinaw made several passes around each in very heavy windrows and eventually got them moving again along the trackline toward Rock Island Pass. The escort operation was completed at 2:00am Friday. Friday evening, Mackinaw was abeam of White Shoal Light in the Straits of Mackinac conducting track maintenance in preparation for the arrival of two tug/barges on Saturday. |
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Congressman Stupak returns Corps fire on new lock funds 3/10 - Washington, DC - Undeterred by denials from the Corps of Engineers, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) on Thursday called on the Corps to prove it has not given up on a new navigation lock at Sault Ste. Marie. In another sharply worded news release, Stupak charged the Detroit District commander with stating the Corps district would only be allocated enough money in the 2007 federal budget to shut down planning for the proposed new lock. “The very next day after I criticized the decision, Assistant (Army) Secretary Woodley backpedaled, hemmed, hawed and finally claimed the administration has not made a final decision,” Stupak said in his latest blast at the Corps. The Congressman said the Corps can prove it has not abandoned its 25-year-old plan to build a new Soo Lock by signing a pending order to construct the new lock. He charged that the “pending order” has languished at Corps headquarters for five years. “The truth is the Administration is willing to let this project die by making no plans and providing no funding to build the new lock,” Stupak charged. In fact, the new lock was authorized by Congress many years ago but Congress has not appropriated construction funding for the estimated $360 million project until so-called “local” funding is found to supply a share of the funds. Over the years, a number of attempts have been made to entice the eight Great Lakes states to supply the needed funding, but only Michigan has allocated funds. That allocation made during the Engler years in Lansing was as much a loan as a state commitment, however. The state's proposed terms would have the federal government supply its share on a 50-year loan arrangement. That arrangement never came to fruition, however, since none of the other states committed to their respective shares of the new lock funding pie. It is not clear if Stupak's pointed criticism of the Corps is due to the long wait to secure that “local” share or deletion of smaller annual Corps allocations to “plan” the new lock. Each year, for several years running, the Corps has budgeted for the so-called “planning” effort - even though the funds involved do not approach the amounts needed to actually begin construction. During those “planning” years, a second lock virtually identical to the existing Poe Lock has been designed and a set of plans drawn for the project. It is not clear what type of “planning” is needed if the project is to go ahead. Like the rest of the Defense Department, the Corps of Engineers budget has strained to keep up with the cost of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Corps' resources were also strained nationwide by the continuing outlay for reconstruction of hurricane-damaged dikes and other flood control structures in the New Orleans area. In his recent statement, Stupak argues that the Bush Administration has never budgeted any funds for a new Soo Lock. He said it was Congress that put in a total of $13 million over the years to keep the project alive. “One would think after $13 million has been spent, the US Army Corps would at least have turned over some dirt by now. The US Army Corps and the administration have lost their last shred of credibility on this issue,” Stupak sputtered in his statement. When a copy of the Poe Lock was originally proposed to replace a more expensive all-new design, the Corps' estimated cost for the new lock was about $225 million. Last week, Stupak said that same lock will now cost $360 million. Under the shared-cost policy for water projects hammered out during the Reagan years, the “local” share of the new lock would grow to $90 million. From the Soo Evening News |
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Port Reports - March 10 Indiana Harbor - Tom T. Buffalo - Brian Wroblewski Milwaukee - Hanlet |
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Environmental group opposes early ice-breaking 3/10 - Syracuse, NY - The St. Lawrence Seaway will open up to ships on March 21st—one of its earliest openings on record. Crews will begin breaking ice around the American Locks in Massena on March 15th. Shortly after, the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker will travel up the river, clearing the way to Lake Ontario. But, the environmental organization Save the River is arguing
against beginning operations so early. In recent years, the state DEC and local politicians have come out against starting navigation early. From TV-10 News Syracuse |
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Team studies icing on helicopters 3/10 - Duluth - After a break of several winters, an Alabama Army unit has returned to Duluth to test how well aircraft handle icing conditions. Too much ice on a plane’s wings or a helicopter’s rotors and “you stop flying and gravity wins,” said Jim Correia of the Army Aviation Technical Test Center, based at Fort Rucker, Ala. Correia is leading the center’s team in Duluth. “Most aircraft do not handle icing conditions well,” Correia said. It’s best to learn how well, or even if, an aircraft will handle icing under controlled conditions. That’s why the Army unit began coming to Duluth 23 years ago. To test aircraft, the unit uses a Chinook helicopter equipped with an internal 1,800-gallon water tank and an external boom sprayer. The aircraft being tested trails the Chinook, flying through the cloud of freezing mist it produces. Flying in formation with the Chinook is a light plane, equipped with sensors and an onboard computer that measures and records the icing conditions that the test aircraft is experiencing. “We only fly when the temperatures are just right and we know we are going to be safe,” Correia said. The sight of three aircraft in close formation — one of them spraying something — has attracted attention and piqued curiosity across the region. Robert L. Ginn of Duluth saw the formation flying along Lake Superior’s North Shore a few times over the past week. “The first time I saw them, it looked like a helicopter and two little airplanes,” he said. “But yesterday, we looked close — I even had my telescope out — and there was a small helicopter on one side and a light airplane on the other side. You could see a rack hanging under the big helicopter and you could see a spray coming off it. I was wondering what they were spraying.” Such testing has helped the military develop several aircraft to withstand icing. Blackhawk helicopters with heated rotors can fly in moderate icing conditions for extended periods of time. “This becomes important for things like medivac operations, where you have to be able to get up into an area,” Correia said. In its early years, the Army unit primarily tested military aircraft. But a few years ago the federal government allowed the test center to offer its services to civilian firms at break-even prices. This year, the unit is testing a helicopter built by the Italian company Agusta. The firm hopes to develop a helicopter that would allow it to operate on North Sea oil rigs and in other wintry locations. Correia’s team began arriving in Duluth on Jan. 28. A huge, Russian-built transport plane delivered the Italians, their helicopter and other equipment on Feb. 3. After several test flights, icing tests began Feb. 17. The Italians and the Army unit will leave by month’s end. This may be the last winter the unit comes to Duluth. Because of new hangars at the 148th Fighter Wing, the Guard unit has no use for the hangar that the icing test unit has leased. The federal government probably will classify the hangar as excess property and turn it over to the city of Duluth, 148th Fighter Wing spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Vavra said. Reported by Frank Frisk from the Duluth News Tribune |
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Last Survivor of USCGC Escanaba Sinking Passes 3/10 - Chicago - Sixty-four years after nearly dying in the northern
Atlantic Ocean, Raymond O'Malley, the lone remaining survivor of the U.S.
Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago
Thursday. He was 87. While funeral arrangements were not determined Thursday afternoon, Klaassen said that Peter O'Malley led him to believe the funeral service would have heavy involvement from the Coast Guard. The committal service is scheduled for June 13 — the same day the Escanaba sank, Klaassen added. Klaassen did not know the location of that service. |
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Updates - March 10 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 10 CHARLES E WILSON (Hull#710) was launched March 10, 1973, at Sturgeon Bay,
Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp., for American Steamship Co. Renamed b.)
JOHN J BOLAND in 2000. |
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Season Begins for Escanaba The ore dock at Escanaba was busy Thursday as the Joseph L. Block was finishing a load while the tug Joyce VanEnkevort and barge Great Lakes Trader arrived. The tug Joyce VanEnkevort detached from the barge to clear a spot on the south side of the dock so the ship could come in and tie up. Work was also being done on the tugs Olive Moore and Victory. Reported by Lee Rowe |
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USCG Advance Men 3/9 - Duluth - Decked out in survival suits and equipped with rescue equipment, U.S. Coast Guard members ventured onto the ice of Duluth’s harbor Wednesday to scout conditions. Auger in hand, they punched a series of holes in the lake’s frozen rind, encountering 18- to 24-inch-thick ice. That may sound like a lot of ice, but Boatswain’s Mate First Class Mike Presti said he believes it should be no match for the Coast Guard Cutter Alder, which is expected to begin busting out the harbor early next week. “It’s well within the Alder’s capabilities,” said Presti, adding that the vessel is designed to handle ice up to 3 feet thick. Preparing the harbor for the commencement of another shipping season probably will take the Alder two to three weeks of work, Presti said. He said no other Coast Guard vessels have been requested to assist the Alder with its ice-breaking chores. Presti likes what he’s seen of the ice conditions. “It’s mostly fresh, clean plate ice that should break up easier than refrozen brash,” he said. Presti explained that brash, ice that has been broken up repeatedly and refrozen, makes for tougher going than a solid sheet of ice. This will be the Alder’s third year breaking ice in the Twin Ports. Shipping activity is expected to begin Wednesday, when the Mesabi Miner loads coal at the Midwest Energy Resources Co. terminal in Superior, then heads to a power plant in Presque Isle, Mich. The Mesabi Miner is expected to tie the record — set last year — for the facility’s earliest spring shipment of cargo, said Marshall Elder, Midwest’s director of terminal operations. Interlake cargo movements won’t begin until March 25, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens the Soo Locks. “It looks to be a very fast start to the shipping season this year,” said Jim Sharrow, facilities manager for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. “With the Welland Canal opening early on March 20, we have the potential to see the earliest saltie ever.” The year 1995 set the previous record, when a saltie arrived in the Twin Ports on April 1. Reported by Frank Frisk and Al Miller from the Duluth News Tribune |
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Port Reports - March 9 Sturgeon Bay - Jeff Birch Detroit River - Ken Borg Wolf Island - Brian Johnson |
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Wawatam Dock park plan unveiled in St. Ignace 3/9 - St. Ignace - A preliminary plan for making a public park from a portion of the Chief Wawatam Dock was briefly reviewed in a public hearing held Monday. Scheduled during the regular City Council meeting, the park proposal was described in broad strokes by Downtown Development Director Deb Evashevski, who circulated preliminary layout drawings for the long and lean park running out to the new St. Ignace Lighthouse. Evashevski said the drawings and an accompanying funding plan are still in the preliminary stage of planning. Features of the plan include a stretch of paver-brick walkway around a narrow green space with picnic tables and playground spaced through the area. Evashevski said the paver block walk will be wide enough to accommodate trucks for maintenance work on the park, the nearby city boardwalk and the 55-foot lighthouse tower at the end of the long “Chief” pier. The proposed park would parallel the new boardwalk section leading to the lighthouse on a narrow band of the “Chief” dock property ending at the abandoned carferry loading ramp mechanism. The financing plan submitted by Evashevski showed a $200,000 park project, largely funded through a Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant of $128,000. A smaller grant of $36,000 would come from the Coastal Zone Management fund, administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and another $36,000 in local matching funds. She said the Downtown Development Authority is already on the books for $10,000 of the local funds, and Mackinac County has agreed to furnish another $10,000. The city and two local service clubs will be asked to supply the balance of the $36,000 local match, she suggested. Evashevski did not ask the City Council for any action at Monday's hearing and none was forthcoming. From the Soo Evening News |
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Updates - March 9 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 09 The 61-year old HENRY FORD II opened the 1985, season by delivering a load
of coal from Toledo to Detroit. |
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City of Toledo faces fines for King Bridge
delay 3/8 - Toledo - It seems that anything that could go wrong with the installation of new drawspan quadrants for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Bridge has gone wrong. As a result, the possibility of $20,000-a-day fines for the city of Toledo is looming larger. The city could be fined for violating a U.S. Coast Guard-imposed deadline of March 15 to have the Maumee River open to water traffic at the bridge. Bill Franklin, the city's director of public service, told city council yesterday during its agenda review meeting that the deadline next week is very much in jeopardy. He said after the meeting that if the project's latest gremlin - river ice that stretches at least as far as Grand Rapids, Ohio - clears this weekend, the bridge could reopen to motor vehicle and river traffic before the end of the month. Mother Nature provided the latest punch Sunday when an ice floe dislodged the staging platform/materials barge from under the bridge and sent it floating down river into an ice jam near Magnolia Street. "It was a near catastrophe when the [barge] got knocked out," Mr. Franklin said. He said several workers jumped from the barge onto the bridge when the barge started floating down river. "We were very lucky nobody got killed," he said. Meanwhile, the river's ice conditions last weekend also prevented another barge with the second of the four drawspan quadrants from being moved to the bridge for installation of that drawspan. Before that happens now, the staging barge must now be moved, possibly by tugboat, back into place and the barge bearing the drawspan must be freed from its ice-bound moorings. "We're working with [the Coast Guard] to get an extension on [the deadline]," Brian Schwartz, the spokesman for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said. "We don't want to delay ship traffic. We're working on a way to get this project finished so we won't face the fines." Mr. Franklin said the Coast Guard has been "very firm" about the deadline, but appeared to be suggesting that there would be room for negotiation over the amount of the fine up to the point where shipping actually is obstructed by the bridge project. "They've said they are willing to hear our plan and negotiate," Mr. Franklin said. "The problem is we don't have a sound plan to negotiate." Mr. Franklin said the bridge construction crew's most pressing work can't restart until the ice jam clears. Kristin Cousino, the city's project engineer, said the city has asked the Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assist in helping break up the ice jam. "There's various tugboats that can be used to break up ice," Ms. Cousino said. "It's a matter of what you want to do. We have to have a plan in place." Mr. Franklin said in a separate interview that once the new quadrant has been moved to the bridge, there is about eight to 10 days of work that's needed, such as counter weigh work, post tensioning, and concrete work. "We're in there now doing some other work, but it's not the critical-path work," Mr. Franklin said. Work started in January to replace the King's drawspans - the sections raised to allow ships to pass through - with four new sections manufactured in Wisconsin and assembled on the Toledo waterfront. Original plans called for the two drawspans to be replaced one half at a time, in phases so that motor vehicle traffic could be maintained across the bridge most of the time during the work. The only exceptions were to be for stretches of up to a few days when the
active part of the bridge had to be in the raised position to maneuver parts
being removed or added. But project officials quickly determined that concrete
work to modify the bridge structure to accommodate the replacement drawspans
was taking longer than expected. The original overall cost of the King project, which began in 2001 and included replacing the drawspans and the bridge's control towers and doing related construction work was $43 million. The drawspan replacement, the project's second phase, began in 2004. But with completion delayed a year by a design error and further complicated by this year's construction problems, the cost has been pegged at over $50 million and climbing. In July, the city sued National Engineering and Contracting Co., HNTB Corp., and Bergmann Associates Inc. in Lucas County Common Pleas Court for the alleged engineering and design problems that caused the one-year delay in the rebuilding of the bridge. In January, when city officials announced the delay in the bridge reopening, Tom Cousino, owner of several restaurants at The Docks complex in International Park, said, "It's not the end of the world. It's not the only bridge in town." Yesterday, he recalled a recent conversation with a relative who phoned to ask how he was doing. "I'm breathing," he said he told her, "and I smile once in awhile. Beyond that, I don't know." Mr. Cousino said diners tell him every day that they've found their way to the Docks specifically to support the restaurants. He remains philosophical: "We're all doing the best we can," he said. "We just, each of us, have to fight our way through it." But the effect of the bridge closing is plain: "It's catastrophic," he said. "It's sad to see your business and, as hard as you worked to do all the right things, to see it flounder." From the Toledo Blade
The ice jam on the surface is 5 to 6-feet high and considerably deeper below the surface. The Bristol Bay was making slow but steady progress. The ice breaker plans to spend the night in the river and begin more ice breaking and flushing in the morning. The plan is to break the ice jam as far up as the I-75 bridge and get the river open so the work barges can be moved back into place under the MLK Bridge. |
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Port Report - March 8 Toledo - Bob Vincent |
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Position Open at Central Marine Logistics 3/8 - Griffith, IN - Central Marine Logistics is accepting
applications for operations position in Griffith, Indiana. Position requires frequent driving to nearby ports on Lake Michigan, boarding ships, and ability to handle hectic, fast-paced schedules. Some overnight travel required. Qualifications include good telephone and organizational skills. Self-motivation and computer skills are a must. Business or operations background a plus. E-mail your resume Based is Griffith, IN, Central Marine Logistics, Inc. is an owner/operator of four bulk freighters sailing on the Great Lakes. Additionally, Central Marine Logistics, inc. is agent for the majority of foreign vessel traffic on Lake Michigan, providing operational support for ship and cargo when underway and handling cargo. |
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Updates - March 8 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 08 In 1953, the ELTON HOYT 2ND was launched at the Sparrows Point Shipyard,
Sparrows Point, Maryland. The HOYT had to be towed down the East coast and up
the Mississippi River before joining the Interlake Fleet on the Great Lakes.
Alfred C. Drouillard was appointed as her first Captain and Robert H. Folkert
was appointed as her first Chief Engineer. |
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Great Lakes Memorial Service & Blessing of the Fleet 3/7 - Detroit - For the 43rd consecutive year, the Great Lakes Memorial Service and Blessing of the Fleet will be held in Mariners' Church of Detroit on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 11:00 AM. Everyone is invited to bring Burgees, Colors, Pennants, and Pennons for presentation and blessing at the Altar. Have a card, with your name and organization clearly printed, and hand it to the Captain who will make the announcement. Please plan to retrieve your flag immediately following the end of the service. There will also be the Presentation of the Captain Lewis Ludington Awards to ISMA Ship Masters, chosen by the Detroit Lodge of the International Shipmasters' Association. Parking is available in the Ford Underground Garage. The entrance to the garage is in the median strip of Jefferson at Woodward Ave. Passes for free parking are available at the church, and can be given to the attendant as you leave the garage. The most convenient pedestrian exit from the garage is the southeast door leading directly to entrance on the tunnel side of the Church. Ship Masters and military personnel who plan to be in uniform and be part of the Honor Guard are asked to call the Church Office no later than March 6, to confirm your attendance at this service. 313-259-2206 |
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Toronto Marine Historical Society Annual Silent Auction 3/7 - The Toronto Marine Historical Society announces its 2007 Silent Auction. This is the organization's major annual fundraising event. More then 140 items including marine memorabilia, books, calendars etc are open for bids. Details can be found at this link |
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Updates - March 7 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 07 The ALGOSOO suffered a serious fire at her winter mooring on the west wall
above Lock 8, at Port Colborne, Ontario on March 7, 1986, when a conveyor belt
ignited possibly caused by welding operations in the vicinity. The blaze
spread to the stern gutting the aft accommodations. |
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Cutter tackles ice at Green Bay 3/6 - Sturgeon Bay, Wis. - The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw has completed its mission of opening up ice-bound harbors in the Chicago and Gary, Ind., areas and has now moved north up Lake Michigan to begin work in Green Bay, Wis. “We're approaching our area for next week's ice trials,” said Cmdr. John Little, the Mackinaw's captain. “We have testing that must be completed before we begin.” “We arrived at the mouth of Green Bay at first light this morning,” Little said Wednesday. “We'll be here for at least a week. The ship's ice trials being Monday and will continue until March 9. On board will be scientists, manufacturers representatives and engineers. We have instrumentation built into the hull to measure ice pressure against the hull; systems like that need to be tested. There are many navigational modes that we want use to test the ship's capabilities while breaking ice.” Little said the ice trials have been planned for years, to study the new ship's performance in all types of ice and in all sorts of conditions. The cutter Mobile Bay - Little's former command -will be conducting tandem operations with the Mac in the ice trials. “The studies will determine how the ship does in 12 inches of ice, 24 inches of ice and so on,” he explained. “We'll be looking for windrows, brash ice - all of it. This will be an extremely important week for us.” Complicating the ship's schedule is the fact that the Mackinaw is undergoing the ice trials amidst its first season of conducting real missions. Besides the icebreaking prep work on the lower Lake Michigan harbors, Little's crew grabbed a buoy near Chicago, made a quick repair and replaced it in the lake. The heavy workload means that the ship will keep right on going through a list of Great Lakes icebreaking duties after the ice trials, making its way north for the annual spring preparations for shipping season. Little anticipates a return to the Straits of Mackinac by March 10. The ship will most likely operate out of St. Ignace during that time. Then it's on to the St. Mary's River and Lake Superior to begin spring break-out. A passage through the Soo Locks is planned for March 15 at the earliest. The locks will open to shipping at midnight March 25. “We need to have a super highway laid through Whitefish Bay before March 25, because those ships will want to be on the lock wall by then to get through right away,” Little said. “The 140's will work with us laying tracks and grooming the turns - that's where they earn their keep.” Little said it is possible that he ship will not return to Cheboygan until mid-April. “We won't be there long,” he predicted. “We left a crew behind to work on all those buoys in the yard and we'll just load them up and get underway again. The ships will expect those buoys to be in place right away when they come through.” From the Cheboygan Daily Tribune |
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Washington Island ferry battles ice
conditions 3/6 - Washington Island, WI - The Washington Island Ferry, the Arni
J. Richter, was not able to make its second scheduled trip back to the Island
Saturday afternoon due to an impenetrable field of ice near Plum Island. The
2:30 p.m. ferry had to turn back after encountering thick ice in Death’s Door,
according to Hoyt Purinton, captain of the Richter and vice president of the
Washington Island Ferry Line.
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Tugboat breaking ice off Escanaba 3/6 - Escanaba — Ice fishermen and snowmobilers are being warned
that a tugboat is breaking up ice Monday on Little Bay de Noc, according to
Escanaba Public Safety. |
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New owner for Port Weller Dry Docks 3/6 - St. Catharines- The Port Weller Dry Docks are sailing in to a new era. The defunct shipbuilding and repair yard in north St. Catharines has been purchased by the Upper Lakes Group, which plans to restore operations at the Port Weller facility. Along with a new owner, the dry docks have also been re-named Seaway Marine and Industrial Inc. It will be part of a conglomerate of five independent companies, to be known as Great Lakes Marine and Industrial, each with its own area of expertise in marine and industrial fabrication and repair. Upper Lakes also bought Pascol Engineering, the dry docks’ sister operation in Thunder Bay. John Dewar, spokesman for Great Lakes Marine and Industrial, would not say how much Upper Lakes paid for the dry docks and Pascol Engineering, calling it a private matter. He did say Upper Lakes faced some competition during the bidding process, although he didn’t know from whom or how many other offers were made. Reported by John Philbin from the St. Catharines Standard |
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Port Report - March 6 Toledo - Bob Vincent |
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Updates - March 6 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Former Badger captain loved family, outdoors and car ferries 3/6 - Ludington - Warren Stowe, who was captain of the S.S. Badger from 1969-83, died Friday at Oakview Medical Center following a short illness. Stowe, who was 85, loved the water and when he left the 410-foot carferry, he could often be seen either in his 22-foot boat “Six Pack” or his subsequent 14-foot Sea Nymph fishing boat. His son Ed described his father as a man who loved his family, the outdoors and the car ferries. Ed said Warren enjoyed recounting stories of his carferry days at family get-togethers, including a story of one trip that lasted four days because the waves were too high to return to port. “He took the Spartan (the Badger’s sister ship) out and they got caught in a storm, they followed the west coast of Michigan — which is the east shore of Lake Michigan — and ended up going north because he didn’t think he could turn the boat around without rolling the boat.” The winds out of the north were so high that he believed a southerly course would allow the waves to clear the sea gates and extinguish the Spartan’s boilers. “They left Ludington and they ended up behind the islands off of Leland. He got on the south side of Manitou Island and stayed there to get out of the storm. The waves were coming up to and breaking over the bow of the carferry. They were over 30 feet high. It actually picked some of the train cars up and set them on automobiles next to them. They left Ludington and four days later they came back to Ludington. Capt. Stowe was born in Northport, where he lived until 1966. He worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked for the Ann Arbor Car Ferry in Frankfort. In 1944, Warren entered the U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific Theater through the end of WWII. “He hauled troops into Iwo Jima,” Ed said. “He worked on LSTs (Landing Ship — Tank). That’s what his ship did, carried the troops and those little ships.” Stowe worked in the trucking business briefly before and after the war,
ending up with the Chesapeake and Ohio Car Ferries in 1951. In 1969, he took
over as captain of the S.S. Badger. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 06 EUGENE J BUFFINGTON (Hull#366) was launched March 6, 1909, at Lorain, Ohio
by American Ship Building Co., for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. She lasted
until 1980, when she was towed to San Esteban de Pravia, Spain for scrapping. |
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Washington Island Ferry Assisted by USCG 3/5 - Washington, WI - On Saturday, a large mass of pack ice was blown into Death's Door in northern Lake Michigan. Those in the area could see the car and passenger ferry Arni J. Richter, that runs between Washington Island and Northport, having some problems getting through the ice - backing up and running forward. This in not an uncommon event. Later, scanner traffic indicated that the ferry was unable to break through and had to return to Northport for the night. The ice breaker Mobile Bay that normally serves the area is laid up for repairs. The Biscayne Bay was dispatched in its place out of St. Ignace. The Biscayne Bay spent about five hours Sunday breaking a path for the Arni J. Richter, which finally arrived on the Island a little after 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Since the Richter normally makes two round trips a day in the winter, there was a backlog of passengers and vehicles on both sides. The Biscayne Bay led the Arni J. Richter over to Northport and back for one more trip, with only minor difficulties. Biscayne Bay departed for other assignments and the Mobile Bay is expected to be available on Monday if needed. Residents are hopeful that the wind will shift again and clear the ice pack out of the Door, allowing the Arni J. Richter to proceed unassisted. Reported by Ham Rutledge |
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Port Report - March 5 Escanaba - Lee Rowe Toronto -
Charlie Gibbons |
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Updates - March 5 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Public Photo Gallery updated |
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Michael Lisenchuk Obituary 3/5 - Thunder Bay, Ont. - Mr. Michael Lisenchuk, age 51 years,
passed away peacefully after his stormy voyage battling cancer on Monday,
February 26, 2007 , with his family by his side in St. Joseph 's Hospice. He excelled in his chosen profession and quickly, rose through the ranks. Mike was currently in the process of becoming accredited as a Captain but due to his illness he never got the chance. Even though his job kept him traveling the Great Lakes and away from home for months at a time, when he was home Mike loved nothing more that spending time with his children, Lindsay and Michael. The love of the water showed even then and some of his favorite times were out at camp on the lake on the seadoo with his children. Mike will be sadly missed by his soul mate Shelley; his son Michael Lisenchuk and daughter Lindsay Goodheart, both of Golden, BC; and his other kid "Megan Pagan";brother Larry of Kelowna, BC; his three sisters-in-law: Cheryl Mack, Bobbie Bird of Regina, SASK, Sheila Pelletier, also of Regina. SASK ; aunts: June (Don) McKenzie of BC and Emma Pumphrey; mother-in-law Joan Cosgrave (Lloyd McCloud); father-in-law Jack (Edie) Mack, and aunt Pat (Gilles) Hudon; as well as his, "Grandson" Beemer the cat. Numerous nieces, nephews and other relatives also survive. He was predeceased by his parents William and Georgina Lisenchukas well as Grandma Ross. Funeral Services for the late Michael Lisenchuk were held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, in the Chapel of Harbourview Funeral Centre, 499 North Cumberland Street, officiated by Venerable Archdeacon Mark Conliffe. From the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 05 On 05 March 1997, the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter GRIFFON pulled the
smashed remains of a 1996, Ford Bronco from the icy depths of the Straits of
Mackinac. The Ford Bronco flipped off the Mackinac Bridge on 02 March 1997,
and the driver was killed. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter BISCAYNE BAY served as
a platform for the M-Rover submersible craft used to locate the Bronco in 190
feet of water. |
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Port Report - March 4 Western Lake Erie -Erich Zuschlag |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 04 On 04 March 1944, the U.S.C.G.C. MACKINAW (WAGB-83) was
launched by the Toledo Ship Building Company (Hull #188) at Toledo, Ohio. Her
name was originally planned to be MANITOWOC. MACKINAW was retired in 2006. |
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Soo Locks Funding 3/3 - Traverse City -- A member of Congress accused the Bush administration Wednesday of scuttling plans for a new Great Lakes shipping lock, but a ranking Pentagon official insisted the matter was still open. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat whose district includes the Soo Locks on the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had decided to kill the project more than 20 years after Congress authorized it. John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, said that was untrue. "No decision of any kind has been made," Woodley said in a telephone interview. "This decision appears to exist only in Mr. Stupak's mind." Congress in 1986 first authorized expansion of the Soo Locks, which raise and lower ships hauling iron ore and other freight between lakes Superior and Huron. About 70 percent of raw materials used by U.S. steel manufacturers pass through the locks on the way from mines in Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula to manufacturing centers such as Detroit and Cleveland. The complex includes three functional locks but only one large enough to accommodate the biggest ships, which account for more than two-thirds of the U.S.-flagged fleet's carrying capacity. The federal government has spent about $13 million planning and designing a second lock capable of handling supersized carriers in case the other is disabled. But money to build the $341 million structure has never come through. Previous legislation has set the federal share at $260 million, with Great Lakes states paying the rest. Stupak said officials with the Army Corps district office in Detroit told his staff during a recent meeting the project was dead. The Detroit officials said they'd gotten the word in an e-mail from Corps headquarters in Washington, according to the congressman. "Unfortunately, this administration appears to lack the foresight and leadership necessary to protect our infrastructure for the future," Stupak said in a letter to Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, commander of the Army Corps. Failure to build the lock, Stupak added, would amount to "gambling with the economic viability of not just the Upper Great Lakes, but the entire country." Woodley said Congress ultimately would decide whether to fund the project, but he could make a recommendation. He said he would draw no conclusions until studying a cost-benefit analysis and consulting experts. Woodley accused Stupak of "an unwarranted attack" on the Corps. Stupak insisted his staffers had not been mistaken. "The communication was very clear -- they're shutting her down," he said. Woodley could demonstrate otherwise by signing off on the project, he said. The first permanent lock at Sault Ste. Marie was built in the mid-1800s to help boats traverse a 21-foot drop-off near the river's northern end. Others were added over the years. Nearly all ships now use either the MacArthur lock, built during World War II, or the Poe lock, which opened in 1968. From the Detroit News |
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Talks begin on 2nd Detroit River Bridge 3/3 - Detroit -- State transportation officials eying a second bridge to Windsor have started interviewing about 85 business owners in the Delray neighborhood about relocation plans. The process, expected to take several months, will be followed this summer by discussions with some 400 residents in the southwest Detroit neighborhood, said Mohammed Alghurabi, manager of the project for the Michigan Department of Transportation. The voluntary discussions precede possible condemnation or relocation for a $1 billion bridge, but don't include appraisals or offers to buy. That won't occur until at least 2009, Alghurabi said. Instead, state officials are gathering information about building sizes, employees and how much time owners would need to relocate. "The process of acquisition is very sensitive," Alghurabi told about 40 Delray property owners Wednesday night. "We're trying to gather information on the needs of the community." Still in the study phase, the crossing would alleviate congestion on the Ambassador Bridge and boost the economy, state officials said. Both nations would need to approve the project before it could open as early as 2013. The state may only need to displace 50 businesses and 135 homes and apartments, but officials are meeting with more because 13 bridge designs are under consideration, Alghurabi said. Some would force Delray Mechanical Corp. to relocate, which could be devastating for the metal repair and fabrication shop, said co-owner Julie Ebsch. "If they take me out of the area I'm in, they take me away from my customers," she said. "I service people in heavy industry. This is where they're located." From the Detroit News |
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Port Report - March 3 Toronto - Frank Hood |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 03 The keel was laid on March 3, 1980, for the COLUMBIA STAR (Hull#726) at
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Bay Shipbuilding Corp. Renamed b.) AMERICAN CENTURY
in 2006. |
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Mackinaw to Cut its Teeth on Green Bay Ice 3/2 - Marinette - The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw entered the Bay of Green Bay Wednesday a day earlier than expected and just ahead of a winter storm pushing into the area. The ship is in the bay to perform a series of operational tests of the
ship's systems in ice. The Coast Guard is cautioning people using the ice to
be mindful of tracks the ship is making. Recreational users should plan their
activity carefully, use caution near the ice, and stay away from shipping
channels and Lake Carriers Association track lines, according to the Coast
Guard. Reported by Carol Hankwitz from the Door County Advocate |
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Update on Lake Superior Outflow 3/2 - Detroit - The International Lake Superior Board of Control,
under authority granted to it by the International Joint Commission, has set
the Lake Superior outflow to 1,290 cubic metres per second (m3/s) (45.6
thousand cubic feet per second (tcfs)) for the month of March. This is the
outflow recommended by the regulation plan for the month of March and is a
decrease from the February outflow which was 1,380 m3/s (48.7 tcfs). |
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Updates - March 2 News Photo Gallery updated Win a Trip on a Great Lakes Freighter - Help keep this site on line. Click here to order your Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping (Boatnerd) bumper sticker, window clinger or cloth patch. |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 02 On 02 March 1889, the U.S. Congress passed two Acts for establishment of a
light station at Old Mackinac Point and appropriated $5,500 for construction
of a fog signal building. The following year, funds were appropriated for the
construction of the light tower and dwelling. |
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Beeghly was Oberstar, now Beeghly again 3/1 - Sturgeon Bay - Observers in Sturgeon Bay report that the name Hon. James A. Oberstar, which appeared on the hull of the Charles M. Beeghly in the last week, has been painted over in the last couple of days. The Charles M. Beeghly has been reapplied. The vessel was briefly repainted in honor of Congressman Oberstar, the congressman felt having a ship named in his honor was inappropriate. Due to this Interlake returned the Beeghly name. |
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Ice on Straits is Risky, says USCG 3/1 - Cheboygan - Dark spots and open water are appearing at various places in the Straits of Mackinac, a sure sign that warmer temperatures are making ice usage an even riskier venture than normal, the U.S. Coast Guard warned Tuesday. The Ninth Coast Guard District office in Cleveland has issued a warning to
emphasize the need for winter sportsmen to use precautions when making a
decision to recreate on Great Lakes ice. Tree lines are still visible on the
ice between a beach north of Cheboygan and Bois Blanc Island, and the St.
Ignace harbor and Mackinac Island. From the Cheboygan Daily Tribune |
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No Funding for new Soo Lock 3/1 - Traverse City - The Bush administration has decided against building a new commercial shipping lock on the river linking Lakes Superior and Huron, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak said Wednesday. Congress authorized expansion of the Soo Locks in 1986, but the $341 million project has yet to receive funding for construction. Stupak, a Michigan Democrat whose district includes the locks complex at Sault Ste. Marie, said he had been informed the administration would not request funds for the project. "This decision ignores the importance of the Soo Locks to our nation's economy and is negligent in protecting our navigation infrastructure," Stupak said. He said he was seeking an explanation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Advocates say another lock is needed to ensure the movement of iron ore, coal, wheat and other commodities on the Great Lakes. About 70 percent of the raw materials used in steelmaking pass through the locks, located at Sault Ste. Marie on the northern end of the St. Marys River. Although three locks are in service, just one - the Poe - can accommodate the large freighters that account for two-thirds of the Great Lakes fleet's carrying capacity. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press |
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Indiana Ports set record 3/1 - Merriville, IN - Steel shipments helped the Ports of Indiana set a record of $1.89 billion of cargo handled in 2006 at its locations, and the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor in Portage saw the majority of that. The climb is a 23 percent hike from 2005, which had been the previous 36-year high, the Ports of Indiana said Tuesday in a news release. Steel accounted for $955 million of the 2006 shipments, a 45 percent increase from the previous year. In 2006, the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor set a new record for steel shipments, which were up 57 percent from 2005. Steel shipments at the port totaled $584 million in 2006, according to Jody Peacock, director of corporate affairs for the Ports of Indiana. Total shipments at the local port were at $820 million. Sharing boundaries with two of the largest steel mills in the country -- Arcelor Mittal Steel and U.S. Steel -- the Portage port handles a wide range of steel-related cargos including about 15 percent of all U.S. steel trade with Europe. "Steel shipments were up this year largely because the strong U.S. demand for steel was far greater than the domestic supply," said Steve Mosher, port director at the Burns Harbor facility. "It also helped that Great Lakes' shipping rates were very reasonable and international steel prices remained competitive." The Lake Michigan port surpassed its 2005 tonnage for all cargos by 19 percent with 2.7 million tons crossing its docks last year. There were also shipping increases in asphalt oil (up 335 percent), calcium chloride (up 73 percent), coke (up 47 percent), grain (up 22 percent) and fertilizer (up 15 percent), as well as new sugar shipments. The Ports of Indiana surpassed $1 billion in cargo shipments for the third consecutive year -- the only three years this has been accomplished since Indiana's first port opened in 1970. Peacock said the Lake Michigan port has plenty of room to accommodate future growth. "Our ports are underutilized and our waterways are underutilized," Peacock said. The Portage port is operating in the range of about 40 percent capacity. Peacock said shipping through Indiana's other two ports also set individual records for total shipments in 2006 -- Mount Vernon handled $482 million in cargos, up 20 percent, and Jeffersonville handled $588 million, a 30 percent hike. Last year, Indiana's three ports shipped 8.6 million tons of cargo, which was a 12 percent increase from 2005. Top cargos by volume were grain, coal, steel, fertilizer, limestone, salt, asphalt, coke, cement, minerals and asphalt oil. So far this year, Peacock said the upward trend in shipping seems to be continued. The challenge, however, will be keeping pace with last year. "That was really a phenomenal year. This year is shaping up to be a good shipping season, but a good shipping season may not even compete with last year," Peacock said. "After three years growth in a row, we're optimistic, but cautiously optimistic." Grain remained the largest volume cargo handled at the three ports with 2.4 million tons, just ahead of coal's 2.3 million tons. Grain and coal made up 54 percent of the total cargo volume at Indiana's three ports, while steel and grain accounted for 78 percent of the total value. From the Merrillville Post-Tribune |
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Today in Great Lakes History - March 01 In 1975, the CASON J CALLAWAY, at 767 feet, became the first laker larger
than 730 feet to transit the McArthur Lock. |
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