Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive

Sturgeon Bay - Wendell Wilke
As of noon Sunday, the remaining Winter Fleet at Bayship Shipbuilding Co., in Sturgeon Bay was the tug James A. Hannah and barge Hannah 5101, Wilfred Sykes, John J. Boland and the new Kaministiqua in dry dock.

Hamilton - Eric Holmes
Saturday the Algosoo departing at 6 a.m. heading to Sandusky. The CSL Laurentian anchored off the Burlington Piers at 10 a.m. to wait for the Hamilton Energy who arrived at 11 a.m. to bunker the Laurentian. The Pineglen also anchored off the Burlington piers at 2 p.m. for bunkering.
The Laurentian departed at 2:30 p.m. and the Pineglen departed at 4:30 p.m. both heading down the lake. The Hamilton Energy then departed for Clarkson. The Algonorth departed at 6 p.m. for Thunder Bay. The Hamilton Energy arrived back in port at 9 p.m.
Sunday, the Birchglen arrived at 5 a.m. going to Pier 12 with gypsum from Point Tupper.
The Hamilton Energy departed at 7:30 a.m. The Quebecois arrived at 12 noon with iron ore pellets for Dofasco.

Welland Canal - John McCreery and Bill Bird
The Edward L. Ryerson made good time from Vantage Point to the Port Colborne Piers arriving in just over 23 hours, apparently slowed down a little by ice east of Long Point. Her progress was brought to a complete standstill in Lock 8, where she was held up for over 4 hours due to inspection and customs. This dashed any hopes for a daylight arrival at Hamilton, which was highly unlikely anyway, as this boat is no speedster in the canal. Montrealais left Seaway Marine (Port Weller Dry Dock) after spending the winter there.

Toronto - Frank Hood
English River has departed Toronto after winter lay up, late Friday or early Saturday.
Atlantic Huron was anchored in the middle of the inner Toronto Harbour at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Marquette - Rod Burdick
The Calumet was back at the ore dock loading taconite Sunday afternoon at the Upper Harbor.

Grand Haven - Joe Taylor
The tug Undaunted and barge PM 41 were backing out of Grand Haven Saturday at 3 p.m.

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.

Christening ceremonies took place at St. Catharines, Ontario on March 31, 1979, for the d.) CANADIAN PROSPECTOR, lengthened by Port Weller Drydocks Ltd.

ROGER M KYES (Hull#200) was launched March 31, 1973, at Toledo, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. Renamed b.) ADAM E CORNELIUS in 1989.

WILLIAM R ROESCH was renamed b) DAVID Z NORTON in christening ceremonies at Cleveland, Ohio on March 31, 1995. The PAUL THAYER was also renamed, EARL W OGLEBAY, during the same ceremonies.

JOSEPH S WOOD was sold to the Ford Motor Co. and towed from her winter lay-up berth at Ashtabula, Ohio on March 31, 1966, to the American Ship Building's Toledo, Ohio yard for her five-year inspection. A 900 h.p. bow thruster was installed at this time. She would be rechristened as the c.) JOHN DYKSTRA two months later.

The steamer b.) J CLARE MILLER was launched March 31, 1906, as a.) HARVEY D GOULDER (Hull#342) at Lorain, Ohio by American Ship Building Co., for W.A. & A.H. Hawgood of Cleveland, Ohio.

On March 31, 1927, the WILLIAM MC LAUGHLAN entered service for the Interlake Steamship Co. when she departed Sandusky, Ohio for Superior, Wisconsin on her maiden trip. Later renamed b.) SAMUEL MATHER in 1966, sold Canadian in 1975, renamed c.) JOAN M MC CULLOUGH, and finally d.) BIRCHGLEN in 1982. Scrapped at Point Edward, Nova Scotia by Universal Metal Co. Ltd.

On 31 March 1874, E H MILLER (wooden propeller tug, 62 foot, 30 gross tons) was launched at Chesley A. Wheeler's yard in E. Saginaw, Michigan. The power plant from the 1865, tug JENNIE BELL was installed in her. She was renamed RALPH in 1883, and spent most of her career as a harbor tug in the Alpena area. She was abandoned in 1920.

On W. Bay City, Michigan by F. W. Wheeler (Hull #67). In 1900, her nam 31 March 1890, EDWARD SMITH (wooden propeller, 201 foot, 748 gross tons) was launched ate was changed to b.) ZILLAH. She lasted until she foundered four miles off Whitefish Point on 29 August 1926.

The freighters coming out of Bay Ship lost the race to the Cason J. Calloway, which sailed out of Erie, Pa., and was first through the Soo. “There’s plate ice out there a couple of feet thick,” said Lt. Cdr. Matt Smith, commander of the Mobile Bay, which makes its home port in Sturgeon Bay.

After the Mackinaw cut a track south to Sturgeon Bay and returned back north to the Soo, Smith said the Mobile Bay was assigned to keep the path open for commercial traffic. Temperatures turned cold over the weekend, however, bringing ice back into the cut.

While the commercial tug Erica Kobasic out of Escanaba handled close escort work, the Mobile Bay widened the track north from the Sherwood Point light at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay to the Rock Island Passage, which connects Green Bay to Lake Michigan between Rock Island and Michigan’s Garden Peninsula.

Starting Tuesday, the Mobile Bay began cutting a track from Sherwood Point south to Green Bay, opening its port to ship traffic, Smith said.

Traditionally, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the locks, more than 4,000 vessels carry up to 90 million tons of cargo through the locks every year. Most vessels transport iron ore; others carry coal, grain or stone.

North of the Soo, the Mackinaw has laid out tracks in ice 2-4 feet thick since March 14, said Lt. Cdr. John Little, who commands the Coast Guard’s largest and newest ice-breaker. The 240-foot Mackinaw cut paths north from the locks to Whitefish Point, where freighters can find open water heading toward Minnesota ports such as Duluth, Taconite Harbor and Twin Harbors.

The Mackinaw escorted the through the locks early March 25, and ready for the next two northbound freighters and the southbound 1,000-foot Edwin H. Gott, which was downbound from Twin Harbors, Minn., with taconite for Gary, Ind. The season has been Mackinaw’s busiest, said Little, who commanded Mobile Bay out of Sturgeon Bay a few years ago. So far this month, the Mackinaw, which was commissioned in 2006, has served as host to Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allan and a crew from the Weather Channel.

“There was heavy cargo demand, so they stayed out for an additional trip,” Thayse said of the ore carriers. “The steel industry is strong, so the demand is there for them to get back out there.” Since mid-January, Bay Ship has worked three shift, seven days a week to get the repairs completed on time for captains and owners who are anxious to resume moving cargo, Thayse said.

“Everybody is trying to get out,” Thayse said. “They have to be careful because there’s heavy plate ice out there. The winds can move the plates, and take the ships right along with it.”

Heavy ice conditions on Green Bay are helping convince some captains to use the ship canal and go east out of Bay Ship through Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan, Thayse said. The captains are weighing the time savings and risks of traveling on low water through two downtown bridges and the Bayview Bridge over State 42-57 compared with potential delays in heavy ice by going west to Green Bay and north to Rock Island.

Lorain - C. Mackin
The Dorothy Ann and Pathfinder were the first to pass through the Berry Bridge early Thursday morning, heading upriver to Terminal Ready Mix. By late Thursday, the combo were back loading at the LaFarge dock in Marblehead.

New marine passenger terminal might welcome the Boyer

3/28 - Toledo - The wheels are in motion at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority to pump life into the new marine passenger terminal.

Construction on the $3 million facility wrapped up last year in Toledo's Marina District, reports News 11's Rob Wiercinski, who says the new facility may soon have an "old" look.

Activity at the marine passenger terminal involves both short- and long-term planning. The Willis B. Boyer may be moving downriver from its current resting spot along International Park to be part of a long-term vision at the Marine Passenger Terminal.

"To create a Toledo Maritime Center, to relay our past, present and future of Toledo's waterfront, which is essentially the foundation of our community," explained Paul LaMarre III, the Boyer's executive director and special assistant to the Port Authority president.

While moving the Boyer is still in the development stage, LaMarre says lake ferries docking at the terminal will be taking center stage in the near future.

"We will, without a doubt, be doing some trial runs to potentially service the islands as well as the Detroit community, and that could start happening as early as the late Spring," LaMarre said.

The Port Authority is ready to bring Gladieux Enterprises on board to market and operate the building as a banquet and catering facility. An agreement on that will be presented to the Port board for approval on Thursday.

Traveling from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Mich., the high-speed catamaran's season begins May 1 and runs through November 2. It includes a new "prime time" schedule for spring which leaves Milwaukee at 8 a.m. with a second cruise departing at 2:30 p.m. Trips from Muskegon are scheduled for departure at 12:15 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. EST.

According to Ken Szallai, president of Lake Express, the changes to the ferry's schedule are a response to rider feedback and will allow riders to leave Milwaukee later in the morning with the 8 a.m. first trip of the day, or extend their Milwaukee visit into the afternoon. The new schedule means more time in Michigan as well, which should also be popular with riders.

Szallai quickly notes that the Ferry's travel schedule during the summer months will remain the same. Beginning June 11 and continuing through Sept. 1, the ferry makes three daily trips, leaving Milwaukee at 6 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. and returning at 10:15 a.m., 4:45 p.m. and 11 p.m.

He says September's schedule includes a mixture of the traditional and prime time schedules. From Sept. 2-Sept. 30, the schedule drops to two trips on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and three trips on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. From Oct. 1 until the end of the season on Nov. 2, the ferry offers Milwaukee departures at 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. and return trips at 12:45 and 7:15 p.m.

Entering its fifth year of service, the Lake Express Ferry transports more than 100,000 pleasure and business travelers across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Muskegon, Michigan each year. Owned and operated in Milwaukee, the high-speed auto ferry is the only one of its kind operating within the continental United States. It is equipped to comfortably transport nearly 250 passengers, 46 vehicles and 12 motorcycles. Conversions may be made to accommodate a total of 114 motorcycles.

"It's going to be hard times for the guys in Essex County. It's a bad, bad year for them," said Peter Meisenheimer, executive director of the Ontario Commercial Fisheries' Association. Meisenheimer said the catch limits aren't as bad as first anticipated, but with the strong Canadian dollar, he predicted this year could be the worst year for the commercial fishery since 1984.

He couldn't predict how much money could be lost in the industry, which operates mostly out of Wheatley and Kingsville and has hauled in $20 million to $40 million of fish a year, before the processing value is added. The final quotas for each area and license on the lake haven't been worked out yet.

At a meeting in Niagara Falls last week, fishery managers from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ontario recommended decreasing quotas because of poor spawning years in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Although the final quotas aren't set, the overall drop for the Ontario commercial fishing industry based on last week's numbers is 16 per cent for yellow perch and a 30 per cent drop for walleye.

"Don't expect any increases in the foreseeable future," said John Cooper, a Lake Erie Management Unit spokesman with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

The bi-national quota for walleye is dropping from 5.36 million to 3.594 million fish. On the Ontario side of Lake Erie, it means the walleye quota is dropping from 2.23 million to 1.556 million. Cooper said last year 2.13 million walleye were caught.

Catch limits for yellow perch are set in pounds. The overall yellow perch quota is dropping from 11.39 million pounds to 10.160 million pounds. In Ontario the yellow perch quota is dropping from 5.7 million pounds caught last year to 4.8 million pounds this year, Cooper said.

The catch limits went up in 2005 and 2006 but are decreasing for the second year in a row.

Mr. LaMarre is the Executive Director of the museum ship Willis B. Boyer in Toledo, and will take the group on a visual tour the Boyer, and its history sailing the Great Lakes.

Some days the walk was covered with deep snow. Other days, howling winds splashed icy waves over the path. Yet every day and twice every night, Harriet Colfax tended that light, and she did so for over 30 years until retiring at age 80 in 1904. Hers is just one of the many interesting stories told at the Old Lighthouse Museum in Michigan City, which opens for the season on Tuesday.

The museum in the historic 1858 structure that once housed the light and assistant keepers' families tells much more than just their stories. Artifacts, photos and documents tell the story of the once-bustling freight and passenger harbor that lured 10,000 tourists daily from Chicago via steamships on summer weekends in the early 1900s.

The tragic account of one of those steamers, the Eastland, in which 800 people died, is told through texts, artifacts and a graphic postcard collection. The museum has exhibits on many other shipwrecks and on shipbuilding, the Coast Guard, Great Lakes lighthouses, lighthouse technology and more.

The museum offers self-guided tours or tours by one of their knowledgeable docents. School-age children find interest in artifacts such as the plaster cast life mask of Abraham Lincoln in the collection, chronicling the stop his funeral train made in Michigan City. Visitors with children can also visit the adjacent park, beach or zoo or walk to the light at the end of the catwalk.

The Old Lighthouse Museum is located at the west end of Washington Park on Michigan City's lakefront. Hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for high school students and 50 cents for elementary students. To get to the museum from Interstate 94, exit on U.S. 421 (Franklin Street) north into downtown Michigan City. Turn right at 9th Street, then left onto Pine Street. Follow Pine Street across the bridge, go right and immediately do a U-turn into the marina and lighthouse parking lot. A parking fee is assessed for visitors also doing other activities in the park.

Mark your calendar for the 150th anniversary celebration of this historic landmark on Aug. 9. More information is available at 872-6133 or at www.oldlighthousemuseum.org.

A sailor at heart, Glen worked most of his life on the water. He was a sailor on Great Lakes freighters, the Neebish Island Ferry, the Drummond Island Ferry, and a tug boat captain for the entire construction of the Mackinac Bridge as well as several Sault Locks construction projects. He enjoyed participating in the Great Tug Boat Races on the St. Mary's River in Sault Ste. Marie. His book "Ships, Great Lakes and Me" was published a few years ago.

On March 13, 1937, Glen married Martha Mae "Joan" Lee in Sault Ste. Marie and they just celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary. He was a member of the DeTour Union Presbyterian Church and was active at the DeTour Passage Historical Museum. Glen enjoyed woodworking; making stools, planters, birdhouses and holiday decorations. He also enjoyed vegetable gardening.

Glen is survived by his wife, Joan; two sons, Robert and Randall; six grandchildren; and nine great grandchildren. Glen was preceded in death by one son, Roger Shaw and one brother, Alvin Shaw.

Visitation will be held Friday, March 28 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Reamer Galer Funeral Home, 24549 S. M-129 in Pickford, Michigan. Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 29 at 10:30 a.m. at the Union Presbyterian Church in DeTour Village with Reverend Judith Arnold conducting the service. There will be visitation at the church Saturday from 9:30 a.m. until the service begins.

Memorial contributions may be made to the DeTour Passage Historical Museum or the American Cancer Society.

Today in Great Lakes History - March 28

On 28 March 1997, the USS Great Lakes Fleet's PHILIP R CLARKE set a record for a salt cargo on a U.S.-flag Laker when she loaded 25,325 tons at Fairport, Ohio for delivery to Toledo, Ohio. The previous record was 25,320 tons carried by American Steamship's AMERICAN REPUBLIC in 1987.

On 28 March 1848, COLUMBUS (wooden sidewheeler, 391 tons, built in 1835, at Huron, Ohio) struck a pier at Dunkirk, New York during a storm and sank. The sidewheeler FASHION struck the wreck in November of the same year and was seriously damaged.

The Biscayne Bay was pushed hard up stream from its ice breaking in the Middle Neebish Channel. She was ahead of the first boat up, the Cason J Callaway, which was the first boat that passed through the locks soon after midnight on Opening Day, Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, Biscayne Bay was dispatched to help the upbound Stewart J. Cort which had been stuck overnight below the Mud Lake Junction Buoy. While working below the West Neebish Channel, at noon Wednesday, the Biscayne Bay reportedly was blocking the channel, dead in the water, having "lost his mains."

The Mackinaw, working the upper river was diverted below to help the eight, or so, upbound boats behind the Cort, as the Katmai Bay was sent up the Rock Cut to free the downbound Indiana Harbor, which was stuck above light 33, with all the day's downbound boats behind her.

Late Wednesday, at least ten vessels were bring assisted in the area of Mud Lake. The Mackinaw was leading a group upbound including the Cort, James R. barker, Algorail, and Canadian Transfer. Downbounders following the Indiana Harbor were Edwin H. Gott, CSL Laurentian, Algosar and the John G. Munson.

Stoneport - Ben & Chanda McClain
The Arthur M. Anderson was loading cargo on a sunny Wednesday, thus opening the 2008 season at Stoneport.

Marquette - Rod Burdick & Lee Rowe
Wednesday afternoon at the Upper Harbor ore dock, Manitowoc (ex Earl W.), sporting Lower Lakes hull and stack colors, became the first vessel to load taconite for the 2008-2009 season. She also was the last vessel to load taconite during the 2007-2008 shipping season. Manitowoc's pilothouse is partly painted white with Oglebay Norton colors in sections.

Toronto - Frank Hood
On Wednesday, CSL Assiniboine was in Toronto unloading salt.
Canadian Miner was at Redpath sugar unloading.
Stephen B Roman was in dock with what looks like a fresh metal patch on the front starboard side.
Hamilton Energy was also in port bunkering, and departed it around noon.
The charter vessel Klancy II was out for her annual Coast Guard inspection this morning.

St. Lawrence Seaway - Ron Beaupre
The Clipper Leander is the first foreign flag ship up the Seaway on Wednesday. She pushed through pack ice from Massena to Mariatown.

Port Huron - Fran Frisk
the tug Manitou departed her home dock in Port Huron Wednesday morning. She headed down bound with a barge and two very large spools of pipe cable picked up in Manitowoc WI for delivery to Montreal Quebec.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Algosteel was a late Tuesday night arrival and went to the Sifto Salt dock to load. The ice has moved back in and has plugged the inner harbour, channel and the outer harbour.

Duluth-Superior - Al Miller
American Mariner departed its layup berth in Duluth overnight Tuesday-Wednesday and proceeded to Two Harbors to load taconite pellets.
Edward L. Ryerson -- America's Straight decker -- left Fraser Shipyards on Wednesday afternoon, fueled in Duluth and by late afternoon was proceeding down the Front Channel toward the BNSF ore dock to load.
By late afternoon the St. Clair had shipyard equipment cleared from its deck and its radar antenna revolving, apparently ready to leave Fraser Shipyards momentarily. It was due to load at CN Duluth during the night.
Cason J. Callaway was expected at Two Harbors on Wednesday, to be followed by Presque Isle.

3/27 - Fearful of a deadly fish disease and other invasive pests, Minnesota lawmakers and state pollution officials are trying to force ships to stop dumping untreated ballast water in Lake Superior. Although a bill in the Legislature has come under heavy opposition, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is moving forward with its plans to begin to regulate shipowners.

The shipping industry has opposed a state-by-state approach to the problem, saying that national and international rulemaking is already making progress.

The state bill and MPCA regulation are trying to keep dozens of invasive species -- including spores, plants, eggs, small fish and other aquatic life -- from entering the Great Lakes and proliferating. The invaders, mainly from ports in northern Europe and the Black and Caspian Seas, become stowaways in huge ballast tanks when freighters discharge millions of gallons of water as they load cargoes. Many species do not survive, but others have infested new areas and have spread to more ports and inland lakes.

Mary Jean Fenske, MPCA vessel discharge program coordinator, said that more than 5 billion gallons of water from other places was dumped into Duluth-Superior Harbor in 2005, making it the top location in the Great Lakes for ballast water discharge. Among other foreign species already established at Duluth from past discharges are zebra and quagga mussels, and two types of fish: round gobies and Eurasian ruffe.

Jim Sharrow, facilities manager at the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said that regulation by individual states could hurt the shipping industry and farming, mining and other sectors that depend upon shipping for reasonably priced transportation. "We'd hope that eventually ballast water is controlled solely by a federal agency," said Sharrow, "because otherwise the ships would be forced to try to live within a patchwork of laws from state to state."

The industry has been making the same argument for many years, and new invasive species continue to become established in the Great Lakes, said MPCA Commissioner Brad Moore. "This is something that's been going on for decades," he said.

Moore said that the MPCA will continue to track federal efforts to control ballast water dumping, but that it will also develop a state permit system in case the national plans continue to languish or do not go far enough. The Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 1973 that ships were exempt from discharge permits under the Clean Water Act, and continues to hold that position despite court opinions to the contrary. The matter is under appeal.

The U.S. Coast Guard has not developed a ballast water standard, and has moved slowly on rules for treating ballast water. Congress is also considering tougher laws, but so far with little progress.

Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, proposed a state law that would set up the framework for the state to regulate ballast water from ships that discharge into Minnesota waters. The proposal has been lambasted by shipping interests.

The Shipping Federation of Canada testified earlier this month that the Minnesota bill would "result in disruptions to maritime traffic and potential modal shifts towards rail or road transportation," which would increase air pollution and affect public health. The federation represents 85 Canadian firms that own, operate or are agents for overseas shipping.

Hansen disagrees with industry claims that his proposal or the MPCA permit system will shut down shipping. Although some of the methods for onboard filtering, killing or removing harmful organisms may not be fully developed, Hansen said, it's time to push the technology forward. Also driving the urgency, he said, is the potential spread of contagious fish diseases, such as viral hemorrhagic septicemia, which is already found in fish living in all of the Great Lakes except Superior.

Other Great Lakes states considering regulations or new laws to require ballast water treatment include Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York.

"Very sad, indeed," said Ellen Langill, president-elect of the Board of Curators for the Wisconsin Historical Society, which had played a critical role in staving off efforts to demolish the 92-year-old, prairie-style structure at 1600 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive. "To get it listed as significantly historic and then to let it go, you lose a part of Milwaukee's heritage as a port city, and a part of its maritime history," Langill said.

Demolition on the 10,000-square-foot building began Tuesday afternoon and was expected to be completed in just days, said Matt Jarosz, who serves on the city's Historic Preservation Commission and directs the Historic Preservation Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The building, owned by the Milwaukee County Parks Department, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The City of Milwaukee had also designated it as a local landmark, and delayed its demolition until re-use proposals could be considered, Jarosz said. "We started looking at potential uses about 15 years ago and came up with some very interesting proposals," he said. "But the financing has always been a problem."

The most notable recent effort to save the structure was a proposal to convert it into a $4.2 million Indian education and cultural center. However, Loonsfoot Inc., an American Indian group attempting to raise money for the restoration, missed a July 1 last-chance deadline for securing at least $1.2 million toward the project.

After the federal government closed it in 1971, the building was occupied in a political protest by American Indian Movement activists and later became the first Indian Community School in Milwaukee. The school left the site after 1980, and Milwaukee County re-purchased it from the federal government in 1986. The building fell into neglect, was damaged by fire in 1989 and had been largely unattended by the time the county entered into the 2005 agreement with Loonsfoot for the structure's renovation.

But cracking, leakage and fire damage had taken a heavy toll on the building. Repairing that damage, combined with the cost of rebuilding the site's crumbling seawall, made any plans to renovate the structure extremely expensive propositions, Jarosz said.

"We could never really find the private-public alliance it would have taken to save the building," Jarosz said. "So what you end up having is a small building with a small square footage being incredibly expensive to use."

Tuesday afternoon, shattered ruins were all that was left of the station. Against a blustery wind, a lone excavator sat in front of the ruins while a group of young men practiced rugby in a nearby field. An amateur photographer snapped photographs of the rubble. A tree that a workman said was to be spared from destruction was cordoned off, near a pedestrian bridge that will also be saved.

Jarosz also photographed the remnants of the once proud-looking station. "It was a simple building but it always looked very dignified," he said. Later he noted that, unlike previous decisions to demolish historic buildings, the fate of the station was the object of many rescue efforts and much public discourse. "It still doesn't mean that its loss is not a bit of a tragedy," he noted.

Today in Great Lakes History - March 27

The steamer b.) EDWARD S KENDRICK was launched March 27, 1907, as a.) H P McINTOSH (Hull#622) at West Bay City, Michigan by West Bay City Ship Building Co. for the Gilchrist Transportation Co., Cleveland, Ohio.

Nipigon Transport Ltd. (Carryore Ltd., mgr., Montreal, Quebec) operations came to an end when the fleet was sold on March 27, 1986, to Algoma Central's Marine Division at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

On 27 March 1841, BURLINGTON (wooden sidewheeler, 150 tons, built in 1837, at Oakville, Ontario) was destroyed by fire at Toronto, Ontario. Her hull was later recovered and the 98 foot, 3-mast schooner SCOTLAND was built on it in 1847, at Toronto.

On 27 March 1875, the steamer FLORA was launched at Wolf & Davidson's yard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her dimensions were 275 foot keel x 27 foot x 11 foot.

On 27 March 1871, the small wooden schooner EMMA was taken out in rough weather by the commercial fishermen Charles Ott, Peter Broderick, Jacob Kisinger and John Meicher to begin the fishing season. The vessel capsized at about 2:00 p.m., 10 miles southwest of St. Joseph, Michigan and all four men drowned.

C E REFERN (wooden schooner, 181 foot, 680 gross tons) was launched at West Bay City, Michigan by F. W. Wheeler (Hull #65) on 27 March 1890.

Mission Point Ice Update

3/26 - Soo - Before daylight on Opening Day, the Corps tug Owen M Fredrick was dispatched to aid the Katmai Bay in clearing the ice so the Sugar Islander II, which had been out of service since 12:30 p.m. the previous day, might resume service.

Both boats made numerous trips up and down the Little Rapids Cut to clear space for the harbor ice, to pass down, which had blocked the ferry's passage. At 9:10 the ferry left the island on the first trip to the mainland.

The Katmai Bay made one more high speed pass, before proceeding downbound to the Middle Neebish Channel to "work on the turns." The tug Fredrick went back up to the locks area to resume his normal duties. Both were thanked by the Sugar Islander II.

3/26 - Soo - The Soo Locks opened amid snow fall Tuesday, kicking off the commercial shipping season.

The snow and heavier than usual ice conditions should not slow down the dozen Great Lakes freighters headed toward St. Marys River, according to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Only the Poe Lock is currently open. The first vessel to pass through was scheduled to arrive just after midnight.

Over 4,000 ships, carrying up to 90 million tons of cargo, move through the locks every season from March 25 to Jan 15. The vessels most often transport iron ore, coal, grain or stone.

Recreational boaters still have a bit of a wait, but can look forward to the Canadian lock opening on schedule, May 15. Last fall the canal closed for the season a few weeks early because the computer system controlling the lock mechanisms was damaged in a thunderstorm. The damage has been repaired and the usual 2,000 plus pleasure crafts that typically maneuver through the lock can be expected, according to Parks Canada.

Low water levels last summer did not affect recreational boaters coming through the Canadian lock, said Joe Cain, city supervisor for marine facilities. But both commercial and recreational captains should be aware of the differences in lake levels this year, said Soo Locks operators.

Lake Superior and Lake Michigan-Huron are forecasted to remain below long-term averages through August. However, Lake Superior's water level is approximately 20 centimeters higher than it was this time last year. Michigan-Huron is about 15 centimeters below last year's height.

Port Reports - March 26

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Canadian Transfer departed her lay up berth in Goderich at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Sarnia - Frank Frisk
Algorail departed her winter berth Tuesday, and backed down the river to fuel at the Imperial Oil dock. She later departed.

Duluth/Superior - Al Miller
Mesabi Miner was loading at Midwest Energy Terminal on Tuesday morning. This will be its first cargo of the season destined for delivery to the lower lakes, in this case, Detroit Edison in St. Clair.
Algowood also was scheduled to load coal Tuesday.
Paul R. Tregurtha and James R. Barker both are tentatively scheduled to arrive at Midwest Energy Terminal on Wednesday. Both will load for Detroit Edison in St. Clair.

Alpena/Stoneport - Tom Train
Tuesday's Alpena News reported that the first stone boat was due Tuesday. They also reported that LaFarge vessels have made 14 trips already since March 12th.
Stoneport is also expecting their first vessel today.

Massive Ice Field Moving Out of Bay of Green Bay

3/26 - A huge ice floe moving out of the Bay of Green Bay is a concern for fishermen and other boaters hitting the waters.

Satellite photos from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show a massive chunk of ice which broke off somewhere in the bay is making its way toward Upper Michigan.

There is a second, much larger piece starting to break off. The crack is evident close to the tip of Door County to approximately Cedarville, Michigan, which is east of Stephenson. The National Weather Service estimates the size of the smaller chunk of ice is one-and-a-half miles wide.

The second chunk is estimated to be about 15 miles wide. In terms of surface area, it could be larger than Lake Winnebago, or almost as big as Milwaukee County. The National Weather Service expects it to completely break off overnight because of stronger winds.

Satellite Images

It urges the two nations to develop a “border of the future,” using advanced technology to quicken the movement of people, goods and services without sacrificing needed security measures. They also should upgrade border-area infrastructure such as bridges, rail lines and ports, says the analysis by the Brookings Institution, a policy research organization based in Washington, D.C.

The report argues a broad swath of territory — reaching from upstate New York to Minnesota, and across the southern tier of Quebec and Ontario — is a single economic region linked by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River system.

Its future prosperity depends on businesses and governments overcoming provincialism and thinking regionally, said John Austin, director of Brookings’ Great Lakes Economic Initiative and one of the report’s writers. They should work more cooperatively on research and innovation, environmental protection and promoting renewable energy development and trade, the report says.

“We’re not islands; we’re mutually dependent,” Austin said.

But the policies and investments needed to spur the Great Lakes economy cannot come from the region alone, he said. They should be a federal priority, and the region’s voters should push the presidential candidates to show interest.

About $1.2 billion worth of commerce flows daily between the U.S. and Canada. Trade at one border crossing — the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario — matches all U.S. exports to Japan.

Despite struggles caused largely by the decline of heavy industry such as automobile manufacturing, the region still has much going for it, including prominent universities and natural resources such as fresh water and forests, the report says.

But its transition to an economy based on technology and innovation is being slowed by an inadequate transportation system and the security crackdown that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Confusion over new requirements to show proof of citizenship is discouraging Canadians from visiting U.S. border cities such as Detroit for shopping and entertainment, said Sarah Hubbard, vice president of government relations with the Detroit Regional Chamber.

The report calls for both nations to have a strategy in place by 2015 for unclogging border crossings.

Lake Michigan shipwreck gets national recognition

3/26 - South Haven - A shipwreck just west of South Haven is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The "Hennepin" was discovered in 2006 by the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, based in Holland. The group pushed for recognition of the shipwreck as a national historic site. The designation is the first for a shipwreck in Lake Michigan's eastern waters.

The "Hennepin" is believed to be the first self-unloading steamship ever built.

Valerie Van Heest, of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates says, "We began the research and it was clear this was the first self-unloader. It is the precursor for all the big ships coming in and out of the harbors along West Michigan."

The shipwreck hunters plan to place a "National Historic Site" marker on the ship this summer and on May 3rd, they'll release the exact location of the "Hennepin" at their group's annual fundraiser.

Today in Great Lakes History - March 26

On 26 March 1922, OMAR D CONGER (wooden passenger-package freight, 92 foot, 200 gross tons, built in 1887, at Port Huron, Michigan) exploded at her dock on the Black River in Port Huron with such violence that parts of her upper works and engine were thrown all over the city. Some said that her unattended boiler blew up, but others claimed that an unregistered cargo of explosives ignited. She had been a Port Huron-Sarnia ferry for a number of years.

The CITY OF MOUNT CLEMENS (wooden propeller "rabbit", 106 foot, 132 gross tons) was launched at the Chabideaux' yard in Mt. Clemens, Michigan on 26 March 1884. She was then towed to Detroit to be fit out. She was built for Chapaton & Lacroix. She lasted until dismantled in 1921.

Angular chunks of ice leap from the water like live beasts suddenly wakened from sleep, groaning and bouncing in dark water. Cracks ripple across untouched ice. The buoy deck -- near ice level -- shudders underfoot. For hours every day in the final weeks of winter, the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw, the behemoth of the Great Lakes icebreaking fleet, grinds through plates of ice 2 feet thick, methodically cutting a path for the return of big ships to the Sault Ste. Marie locks, which open Tuesday.

"I've wanted to do this for 37 years," said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, as he stood looking across the St. Marys River from the cutter's glassed-in bridge. "Breaking out the Soo is legendary in the Coast Guard." Allen and other top Coast Guard brass were on hand Thursday on the Mackinaw for a trip up the river near Whitefish Bay to watch the majestic red and white cutter break ice. It's an annual rite of spring.

About 60,000 jobs in the United States and Canada depend directly on the movement of cargo -- iron ore, salt, coal and limestone -- on the Great Lakes. The shipping season is 42 weeks, 12 of which require icebreaking. It's crucial that the shipping industry restart traffic on time after a 2-month winter shutdown.

Some 800 oceangoing vessels move cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes each year; another 62 freighters ply Great Lakes ports exclusively. Together, they carry billions of dollars worth of raw material and steel more cheaply than can be transported by rail or truck.

The longer the shipping season, the more the ships contribute to the regional economy.

The Mackinaw's job is to cut a path 47 miles long from lower Whitefish Bay through the Soo Locks so ships can move. At some points, the path is wide enough for two ships to pass. Closer to the locks, it's typically wide enough just for one. This year, the ice is thick, thanks to a cold, hard winter. Last year at the same time, the ice was melting in puddles and took just a little coaxing to break. "We're not seeing that yet this year," said Lt. Ben Morgan, operations officer. Even in spots where the Mackinaw cut a swath only days ago, the ice has refrozen.

The Cheboygan-based crew of the Mackinaw won't be going home anytime soon. They have names for every type of ice: brash, rotten, plate, candle. At this time of year, every shift and nuance of ice matters.

At 240 feet, the cutter is the largest U.S. government-owned cutter on the Great Lakes, and the newest. It was commissioned in June 2006. It replaced the 280-foot, 62-year-old Mackinaw. The new boat makes tighter turns and can move in shallower water. Its crew of 60 lives aboard in two-berth cabins for weeks at a time, cutting ice in winter, tending buoys in spring and fall, carrying out search and rescue missions, freeing ships from ice jams, and providing national security. The ship even delivers Christmas trees from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago.

The boat's captain, Cmdr. John Little, used to work on smaller cutters. "I would see the old Mackinaw go by on the horizon and think, that would be a great job to have," he said. Now, it's his, and his pride is tangible. Icebreaking, he says, keeps the Great Lakes economy stoked in a competitive global age. Cutting ice may seem simple: blast through ice like a snowplow clearing a driveway. In fact, said Little, it's an art. "I love the strategy," he said.

In Whitefish Bay, at the edge of a vast, thick field of ice, the crew spends days carving donut-shaped circles in the ice to break it up, or a series of crescents, one on top of the other, so powerful winds will push broken ice fragments apart. In the St. Marys, the Mackinaw plows a straight path through dangerous curves, widening the swath of chopped ice with each pass. Satellite photos downloaded to the ship show the progress as the solid white field turns to lacy bits surrounded by water.

This is not your father's Mackinaw. The ship has computers that display and control every system. On the underside of the hull, sophisticated propellers called Azipods can turn 360 degrees to push the ship in any direction. The amenities are modern, too: plasma screen televisions in the dining room and the captain's office, satellite TV channels, a modern gym and e-mail for everyone.

Despite the gadgets, basic information is written on a floor-to-ceiling window in grease pencil: "20-26 inch plate ice, 8-12 inch snow cover" it reads. A carved wooden duck sits atop four computer displays in the engine control room, watching over them like a wise old man.

The ship's essential spring job is the same its namesake performed for 65 years: smashing ice or, in Coast Guard jargon, "making margaritas" by turning sheets of ice into well-crushed bits that freighters can handle.

After hours of watching the operation, Commandant Allen is satisfied that the ship, which he helped commission and which represents his goal of modernizing the Coast Guard's aging fleet, is doing its job well. "I'm proud of this ship," he told the crew. "You are a class act."

Port Reports - March 25

Soo - Herm Klein
At 8:30 a.m., the Sugar Island Ferry was running normally with little ice in the channel at Mission Point. At 12:30 Soo Traffic was notified that the ice had packed the channel, and the ferry would wait on the Island side, and only come land side if it was an emergency. The Katmai Bay came up from Mud Lake to break the ice, but only made a few passes and proceeded to tie up at the Coast Guard base about 4 p.m. The ferry was still not in service as the Cason J Callaway passed Mission Point about 7:15 p.m. The Biscayne Bay had made a few passes, up and down the Little Rapids Cut prior to the passage of the Cason J Callaway, followed by the Algosar.

Goderich - Dale Baechler
Canadian Navigator arrived Monday morning and backed into the Sifto Salt dock to load. The channel was completely ice free. This is the first boat load out in a week, a week that saw plenty of truck loading.

Toronto - Charlie Gibbons & Jay Bascom
Canadian Leader departed quite early Monday morning to begin her 2008 season. Hamilton Energy had been alongside on Saturday afternoon filling her bunker tanks.
Stephen B. Roman, English River, Algocape, and Canadian Ranger remain in lay-up.
The tug Diver III and barge Pitts Carillon were busy today continuing their work on reconstructing the retaining wall at the foot of Spadina Street. Winter tarps have come off the island ferry William Inglis.

Tug Manitou Update

3/25 - Marysville - At 9 p.m. Monday, tug Manitou and tow were 30 minutes above Buoys 11 and 12 in the Lake Huron Cut.

After departing Manitowoc, on the towline, at 8 p.m. Saturday night, they had beautiful weather up Lake Michigan. They had no problem getting through the ice in the Straits, after finding an old track, and passed under the Mackinac Bridge at 8:30 p.m.

They tow will stop at Malcolm Marine's tug dock for a day, tacking on fuel and supplies before heading for Montreal.

Port of Goderich doing OK: GPMC

3/25 - Goderich - Council received the annual report from the Goderich Port Management Corporation (GPMC) on Monday night. GPMC is a not-for-profit company that operates the port on behalf of the Town of Goderich.

According to Al Hamilton of GPMC, everything is running smoothly. The port is operating in the eighth year of a 15-year plan. GPMC spent less money last year as there were no major projects undertaken, according to Hamilton.

The majority of money was spent on major maintenance work, which included the Harbour Rehabilitation Master Plan ($103,000), south pier extension ($106,000) and north pier upgrade ($110,000). As well, routine maintenance cost $86,000 and there were also fender repairs ($40,000), security lighting added ($39,000) and the foot bridge was painted ($20,000). “We were pretty close to budget in 2007,” Hamilton said.

There is not a lot of money being spent in 2008, either, Hamilton added. The major work will continue in the maintenance area with more upgrades planned to the north pier ($100,000), south pier ($20,000) and with the Harbour Rehabilitation Master Plan ($30,000).

Hamilton said they had originally planned to do more work on the north pier in 2008, but a great deal of planning still needs to be done so it has been pushed back to spring of 2009.

Other routine maintenance will be carried out, including more fender repairs ($45,000), bollard repairs ($15,000), and concrete repairs ($15,000).

Hamilton said there is not plan to increase fees in 2008 and they expect to see a slight decrease in revenue.
GPMC has seen a decrease in revenue in part due to a reduced number of ships visiting the port, which results in fewer dues being collected.

In 2006, 240 ships visited the harbour, while only 214 came in 2007. Things may be looking up for 2008, though. “We’ve had a lot of ships in already this year compared to last, so it looks like volume will be up in 2008,” Hamilton said.

Seaway struggles to meet expectations

3/25 - Duluth-Superior provided an attractive point of export for Midwestern grain, and its elevators bustled in the years after the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959. Much of the grain was destined for northern Europe, but the seaway also opened up new markets in Quebec to Midwestern farmers. Expectations soared.

“There were those in the early 1960s who predicted that the population of Duluth-Superior would double by 1970 because of the rush of business brought about by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway,” observed Bill Beck and C. Patrick Labadie in their book “Pride of the Inland Seas: An Illustrated History of the Port of Duluth-Superior.” However, they noted: “The St. Lawrence Seaway didn’t pave the streets of Duluth-Superior with gold.”

Grain exports still were in full stride when Chuck Hilleren joined the Guthrie-Hubner Agency in 1973. Ship agents such as Hilleren had to hustle to keep pace with the flow of salties arriving in the Twin Ports to load grain. “You were lucky to get four to six hours of sleep per night,” he said. Hilleren said elevators at the time operated around the clock, running three eight-hour shifts, seven days per week, simply to keep abreast of business.

Much of the grain moving through the Twin Ports in the 1970s was destined for the Soviet Union, but that business collapsed after Russian soldiers invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and President Jimmy Carter declared a grain embargo. The same year dealt yet another brutal blow to business, when grain millers went on strike, idling elevators throughout the port and forcing salties to drop anchor to wait for grain. Dozens of ships were stacked up outside the harbor before the three-month strike was resolved.

Dismayed by the expensive disruption in Duluth, many shippers chose to avoid the port in coming years. Even though the strike was a one-time event, Clure said it affected business for years to come. “It gave the port a real black eye,” he said.

Adolph Ojard, today’s executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, does not expect to see the Twin Ports ever again handle the volume of grain it did in the 1970s. But he said the port continues to play a valuable role. “We still provide the Midwest with a global connection, and that’s critical in today’s environment,” Ojard said.

The seaway has opened up new and previously unimagined trade opportunities to the Twin Ports. For instance, Ojard said no one a decade ago would have predicted ore from the Iron Range would find a market in China or Algeria. But last year, more than 1 million tons of taconite pellets were shipped to those destinations.

Still, only about 60 percent of the seaway’s capacity is being used, said Collister “Terry” Johnson Jr., administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. In part, the unfulfilled promise of the seaway is a result of advances in transportation, Helberg said.

“Where the big hope and expectation laid was in the belief that the seaway would bring general merchandise, such as bicycles, machinery and other goods to the Twin Ports,” Helberg said. “But within a decade of the seaway opening, the world of ships and shipping changed in the most dramatic way since the invention of the steam engine. Containerization affected the flow of general cargo to our port in a very negative way.”

Containerization is the practice of placing cargo in metal boxes — typically 8 feet high by eight feet wide by 20 feet long (some are up to 53 feet) — that can be loaded onto ships, trains or trucks. Although Duluth installed equipment to handle these metal boxes, it never managed to attract much container traffic, and the specialized cranes were sold to another port.

Ojard said he believes much of the reason why containers failed to take hold on the Great Lakes is the fact that shipping shuts down for three months in the winter. He said that if global warming trends continue, it may well be plausible to offer year-round maritime service through the seaway in the future.

Another issue involves the size of the St. Lawrence Seaway system. “The locks are fixed in size, but naval architects kept building bigger and bigger ships,” Ojard said. “Now, most container ships are bigger than what the seaway system was designed for.”

Even though many of today’s container ships won’t fit in the system, Johnson of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. remains optimistic about the future. Our customers — the countries that engage in saltwater business — are spending billions of dollars on seaway-sized ships,” he said. “The market is telling us it’s willing to build new ship assets that are fine for the current size of the seaway system.”

The seaway continues to provide a cost-effective means of transportation. Moving a ton of cargo by water typically consumes about one-tenth the fuel a truck would use and one-half the fuel a train would burn in an equal distance. Citing a previous study and adjusting for inflation, Johnson said the seaway saves American consumers about $3 billion per year in transportation costs. That’s assuming there would be enough capacity to shift all the cargo that moves on the seaway to land-based modes of transportation.

Ojard said the competition the seaway provides also helps keep other transportation rates in check. “Maybe we never became quite the vital international link that people originally thought that our port would be thanks to the seaway,” Ojard said. “But we’re still a valuable contributor to the economy.”

A trip for four aboard the legendary Great Lakes steamboat Edward L. Ryerson is the top prize in this year's BoatNerd Freighter Trip Raffle.

Other prizes include: a port hole from the Calumet courtesy International Marine Salvage, a cruise aboard the Huron Lady II, sightseeing cruises of Duluth-Superior aboard the Vista Fleet, tickets for Diamond Jack's River Tours on the Detroit River, passes aboard the Keweenaw Star for a sunset cruise, and round trip tickets to Beaver Island, four prizes of passes for two on a Diamond Jack cruise on the Detroit River, a round trip for two including auto aboard the carferry Badger donated by the Lake Michigan Carferry and two Tours of the DeTour Reef Lighthouse courtesy the Detour Reef Light Preservation Society.

All proceeds from the raffle will benefit the BoatNerd.Com Web site. Funds raised will be used to pay the charges associated with running such a busy site. Fund-raising raffles are our only method of support; without the raffle, BoatNerd.Com would be forced to discontinue this free web site.

The drawing will take place at 2 p.m. on June 7, 2008 at the BoatNerd.Com World Headquarters at Vantage Point, in Port Huron, Mich. Donation: $10 per ticket, 3 for $25, 6 for $50 or 14 for $100.

Today in Great Lakes History - March 25

HENRY G DALTON (Hull#713) was launched March 25, 1916, at Lorain, Ohio by American Ship Building Co., for the Interlake Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio, the company's first 600 footer.

FRANK R DENTON was launched March 25, 1911, as a.) THOMAS WALTERS (Hull#390) at Lorain, Ohio by American Ship Building Co. for the Interstate Steamship Co., Cleveland, Ohio.

On March 25, 1927, heavy ice caused the MAITLAND NO 1, to run off course and she grounded on Tecumseh Shoal on her way to Port Maitland, Ontario. Eighteen hull plates were damaged which required repairs at Ashtabula, Ohio.

The steamer ENDERS M VOORHEES participated in U.S. Steel's winter-long navigation feasibility study during the 1974-75 season, allowing only one month to lay up from March 25th to April 24th.

March 25, 1933 - Captain Wallace Henry "Andy" Van Dyke, Master of the Steamer PERE MARQUETTE 22, suffered a heart attack and died peacefully in his cabin while en route to Ludington, Michigan.

Shipping season begins in Thunder Bay

3/24 - Thunder Bay - The Coast Guard ice cutter Samuel Risley had barely arrived to clear out the harbor Saturday before the freighters docked at Keefer Terminal started clamoring to leave.

First up on their agenda was the CSL Laurentien. The massive red freighter was destined for Superior, Wisc., and needed quite a bit of help getting turned around and pushed out through the large chunks of ice that bobbed around in the dark water.

“It would have been nice if the icebreaker made a bigger path,” said Dawson as he steered the Miseford tug toward the side of the much-larger freighter, the cold air filled with the smell of diesel fuel as the boat struggled determinedly. “There‘s no real channel for anyone to get out of here.”

“It‘s hard on the equipment when it‘s this icy,” Dawson said, pointing out the loud noises the ice makes while hitting the propellers. “One year, we did $100,000 in damage while icebreaking. We got a $50,000 deductible and we probably only made $20,000 icebreaking, so there‘s not a lot of money in it.”

However, things will get easier once the weather warms up and the ice is gone. In the summer, only one tug is usually needed to get a laker out instead of three.

For Dawson, the tug operating business he runs is a family affair. His parents owned a small company and he has been in business for the last fifteen years. One of his sons is also involved, having recently obtained his captain‘s papers for a boat smaller than the Miseford.

Port Reports - March 24

Detroit - Ken Borg
On Sunday the Canadian Navigator was unloading sand at the Brennan St. Dock on the Rouge River in Detroit. H. Lee White was unloading coal at Zug Island, on the Short Cut Canal side.

Green Bay
With the Soo Locks opening on Monday night several ships departed their lay-up berth a Bay Ship Building in Sturgeon Bay. The Paul R. Tregurtha, Arthur M. Anderson, Edgar B. Speer and Charles M. Beeghly departed during the day only to be stopped by heavy ice in the bay. Monday morning they group had assembled into a convoy lead by the Mobile Bay off Washington Island.

St. Lawrence River - Ron Beaupre
At 3 p.m. Sunday, the CCGS Martha L. Black went down to Beauharnois Locks and cleared a path for the upbound convoy. CCGS Pierre Radisson is leading the Canadian Miner with the Cedarglen following as they proceed up by the Port of Valleyfield and on up the river.

Marquette - Rod Burdick
On a clear, cold Easter Sunday evening at the Upper Harbor, Mesabi Miner unloaded coal, her second visit of the new season.

Top Hat ceremony brings unofficial start to spring

3/24 - Goderich - Just five days shy of the vernal equinox, spring unofficially sprung in Goderich as it welcomed its first ship of the season just past midnight on March 15.

The arrival not only kicked off the annual Top Hat ceremony tradition in the Port of Goderich, it also marked the earliest arrival since the ceremony was first recorded in 1932. “Nowadays it’s the middle of March that ships are arriving; it used to be the middle of April,” Cpt. Jim Leaney of the CSL Niagara said of the shipping season’s earliest arrival. “We used to get three months off; it’s really cutting back our vacation.”

Goderich’s 2007 shipping season officially ended in February 2008, according to Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt. In earlier years, the season would end in its own calendar year, but due to warmer winters and less ice time, the off-season has been cut back– sometimes to just one month.

That didn’t stop Cpt. Leaney from donning his formal duds and heading up to Goderich Town Council Chambers to receive the status symbol indicative of wealth and power and steeped in tradition. Cpt. Leaney made his second signing to the ceremonial Top Hat just past noon on March 17. He was the first vessel captain to the port in on March 16, 2006– the previous recorded early arrival.

“The Top Hat Ceremony is pretty unique and [one of] the last of our oldest traditions,” Cpt. Leaney said. During his career, Leaney has taken part in more than 10 such ceremonies in places like Toronto and Windsor. [The ceremony is] hanging on; we’ve lost so many,” he added. “Years ago it was a big to-do, a race to get into port first; it was quite a thing.”

It’s good news for Goderich, said Shewfelt, indicating that the appearance of the Top Hat is more reliable than any groundhog’s shadow.

“First its Young Canada Week, then the Top Hat– that means it’s spring in Goderich,” said a jubilant Shewfelt, who has overseen about 15 Top Hat ceremonies throughout his career. “A lot of places don’t do it anymore, but we’ve been going on since 1932, probably even before that.”

During its own 76 years in service the Top Hat itself has welcomed all 76 signatures and dates on its inner rim. “There’s not a lot of room left in it,” said Shewfelt. “In the next few years we may need to think about a replacement hat and send this one to the museum.”

But that is changing, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said Friday. The four-star admiral was in Duluth — one of several stops on a tour around the Great Lakes to meet with Coast Guard personnel and shipping industry representatives to hear what they would like to see the service do better. “He’s very open to input,” James D. Sharrow, facilities manager for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority said after Allen met with local maritime interests. “He’s working very hard. He takes it as his personal responsibility to improve any issues and problems with the Coast Guard.”

Sharrow said the biggest problems mentioned Friday concerned vessel certification and safety issues. “They [the Coast Guard] just don’t have the resources to handle all their areas of responsibility as they would like to and as well as the people in the industry would expect them to,” he said.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn, who is chairman of the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that when he entered Congress in 1975, the Coast Guard was authorized to have 39,000 people. “Thirty-four years later, we’ve added 27 new responsibilities to the Coast Guard and increased its personnel by only 3,000,” Oberstar said. “That’s an abysmally low number for the wide range of responsibilities they have. They need more people to serve the public purpose of the Coast Guard, to do both homeland security and the marine safety function.”

In a public speech in February, Allen stressed his commitment to the service’s marine safety program. It was a message he repeated Friday. The Coast Guard’s proposed budget for next year includes money for nearly 300 new marine safety positions. Currently, the service has about 500 such positions. “We have a good budget request on the Hill,” Allen said during a news conference at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

Increasing the number of inspectors would allow the Coast Guard to handle inspections, vessel certifications and mariner licensing in a more timely fashion. In addition to adding more inspectors and considering operational changes to improve service, the Coast Guard is planning to create centers of excellence.

Allen envisions the centers as places where inspectors will come for more training and for specialized course. For example, a center of excellence serving the Great Lakes would train inspectors on safety and vessel considerations that are largely unique to the fresh-water lakes.

Big dreams fueled the link between Great Lakes, Atlantic

3/24 - Duluth - At midnight Monday, the Soo Locks will swing into action, kicking off the Twin Ports’ 50th season on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Davis Helberg, former director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, remembers May 3, 1959 — the momentous day that Duluth-Superior received its first seaway-sized ocean ship, the British-flagged Ramon De Larrinaga. At the time, he was an 18-year-old ship runner working for Alastair Guthrie, a Duluth ship agent.

“A huge crowd had gathered at Canal Park. There were fire hoses spraying and a lot of car horns honking,” he recalled. “The anticipation and excitement of the first saltie arriving was extraordinarily high,” Helberg said. “Even 50 years later, it’s still a gee-whiz moment for many people who visit Duluth to realize that there are ocean-going vessels smack dab right here in the middle of the country, almost 1,500 miles from the Atlantic.”

The St. Lawrence Seaway was a long time in the making. Efforts to fund a series of locks and dams, providing a deepwater link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean dated to the 1890s. “There were a number of waterway associations through the years, often spearheaded by Duluthians,” Helberg said.

Even though every president from Woodward Wilson onward had publicly supported the idea of building a seaway connecting to the Great Lakes, the project repeatedly stalled in the face of opposition from powerful East port and railroad interests Helberg said. Ultimately, it was Canada that got the ball rolling, Helberg said. He explained that Canada was eager to tap its eastern iron ore reserves and ship ore to already well-established Midwestern steel mills in the United States, but this required navigational improvements to the natural waterway.

With Canada footing much of the cost of the project, Congress came around, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Wiley-Dondero Act in 1954, authorizing work on the St. Lawrence Seaway to commence. The massive project required nearly five years of work and the labor of about 22,000 people to complete. It also forced the relocation of about 6,500 people from newly flooded lands in New York and Ontario.

As work on the seaway progressed, the Twin Ports began preparations, too.

Under the leadership of Arthur M. Clure, an admiralty attorney, the Duluth Port Authority was created, and land at the end of Rice’s Point was acquired for the construction of a new ship terminal. Unfortunately, Clure would not live to see the deepwater facility completed. He died at work in 1956, three years before the terminal, now named in his honor, would receive its first saltie.

In 1958, Zenith Dredge put more than 100 men to work at Rice’s Point. Together, they removed more than 1,000 cubic yards of material from the waters surrounding the terminal and sank 500-some sheet pilings 58 feet into the harbor, according to Bill Beck, a local historian and author. He writes that other improvements included the installation of two gantry cranes manufactured locally at Clyde Iron Work, the blacktopping of two miles of road, the pouring of a 2,200-foot-long ship apron and the laying of more than 9,000 feet of railroad tracks.

Tom Clure, an attorney who now serves as a Duluth Seaway Port Authority commissioner himself, remembers his father’s repeated trips to Washington, D.C., and his tireless advocacy for the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Although he wishes his father could have personally witnessed the Ramon De Larrinaga’s arrival in the Twin Ports, Clure still remembers the event fondly.

“It was really gratifying in many ways,” he said. “My mother was asked to participate in the events of the day, and it meant a lot to us.” Other dignitaries on hand for the arrival of the first saltie in Duluth included Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Henry Fonda.

As more saltwater ships arrived, however, the Twin Ports were in for a rude awakening. “The port was not at all ready, despite all the years of preparation,” Helberg said. “No one had seemed to realize that ocean-going ships would ride so much higher than lakers,” he said.

Consequently, many of the salties couldn’t fit under the loading spouts of local grain elevators without first filling their ballast tanks. The ships had to load grain and then pump out ballast to negotiate their way through grain facilities, often making multiple elevator calls before they could be fully loaded. Helberg said the process was laborious and time-consuming. Often salties spent 10 days to two weeks in port before they were good to go for their return trip. “We faced a monstrous learning curve,” he said.

But the Twin Ports met the challenge. Soon, new saltie-friendly grain terminals were operating on the waterfront, enabling ships to load quickly and efficiently.

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.

IRVIN L CLYMER was launched March 24, 1917, as a.) CARL D BRADLEY (Hull#718) at Lorain, Ohio, by American Ship Building Co. the third self-unloader in the Bradley Transportation Co. fleet.

The SAMUEL MATHER was transferred on March 24, 1965, to the newly formed Pickands Mather subsidiary Labrador Steamship Co. Ltd. (Sutcliffe Shipping Co. Ltd., operating agents), Montreal, Quebec to carry iron ore from their recently opened Wabush Mines ore dock at Pointe Noire, Quebec to U.S. blast furnaces on Lakes Erie and Michigan. She was renamed b.) POINTE NOIRE.

PETER ROBERTSON was launched March 24, 1906, as a) HARRY COULBY (Hull#163) at Wyandotte, Michigan by Detroit Ship Building Co. for the L. C. S