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Marc Dease |
Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature --
American Courage
By Brian Ferguson
After
several years constructing 1000-foot super
lakers, Bay Ship Building in Sturgeon Bay, WI received
contracts to build a series of vessels that departed from
the Great Lakes norm of pushing the boundaries for size and
power.
When the excitement and cargo records of the “Footers”
faded, shipping agents who had just a few years prior
disposed of there smaller vessels at a whole sale rate,
were left with the fact that there new larger ships were not
as versatile as their predecessors. Either the
customary iron ore receiving ports would have to devise a
way to accommodate the mammoth new ships, or a new class of
smaller ships would need to be constructed.
One major example of this was the Port of
Cleveland home to some of the most sought after contracts
on the lakes. This was the catalyst for the construction
of the “River Class” vessel. A shorter yet highly
maneuverable vessel, that would have the capability to
shuttle cargo unloaded from oversized ships to the
customers up river and out of reach of the super ships.
The vessel would also need to have the capacity to hold its
own, in the less focused on aggregate and coal trades.
The prototype to this design hull number
00712
would be
constructed in 1974, in the form of American Steamships
Co.’s (ASC) Sam Laud. Between the years of 1974 and
1981 four of the new River class of vessels would be
launched at Bay Ship. In 1978 hull number
00721
the Buffalo was christened and delivered again to ASC. In 1979
the Columbia Transportation Division of Oglebay Norton
would take delivery of hull number
00722
the Fred R. White Jr. The fourth ship, Hull number
00724
the
American Republic, (which would sail in 1981 would be a
highly specialized vessel) and once again be sailing under ASC colors. American Shipbuilding would also construct
three
new “River Class” vessels in the 1970’s. These would
become Kinsman Marine's Paul Thayer, and William R. Roesch, and Columbia Transportation’s Wolverine. These
three ships would be slightly smaller and less powerful.
The four Bay Shipbuilding vessels shared general dimensions,
yet only two were truly sisters. The Laud, Buffalo,
and White would be almost identical to the eye, with the
two ASC self-unloaders 634 feet long, and the White 2 feet longer
at 636 feet in length. All vessels at there widest point would
be 68’ and 40’ from keel to spar deck. The trio of ships
each is powered by two 3,600 b.h.p. single acting, two
stroke cycle, V-20 cylinder GM-EMD 20-645-E7 diesel engines
running to a Falk reduction gear, turning a variable pitch
propeller. The inclusion of bow and stern thrusters make
all three of this class highly maneuverable and able to
transit the tight confines of the Cuyahoga, Saginaw,
and Manistee rivers with little difficulty.
The White’s 20 hatches empty into
five hold compartments, in
which she capable of hauling 23,800 tons of stone or ore,
and 18,500 tons of coal. The cargo is unloaded via 250-foot
self unloading boom. At her maximum rate of 6,000 net tons
per hour she can off load a full load in about four hours.
Columbia’s
new workhorse the Fred R. White Jr. (U.S. 606421) and the
Wolverine would replace several smaller and older vessels.
Included in this were the Maritime Class vessels, Ashland,
and Thomas Wilson, the Sylvania, and G.A.
Tomlinson.
In 1975-76 the Colombia’s
river ship Wolverine was joined by the Former Kinsman
vessels Paul Thayer, and William R. Roesch. These two
vessels would sail under Oglebay Norton’s Pringle Transit
Co. With addition of the White who‘s maiden voyage would
take place May 26th, 1979 when she left Sturgeon
Bay WI for a
load iron ore pellets at Escanaba,
Michigan for Cleveland, Ohio,
the
nucleus of four newer vessels and several viable older
self-unloaders (including the Maritime class vessels Crispin Oglebay, Robert C. Norton, and the J.
Burton Ayers) would give Oglebay Norton a foothold in the
Great Lakes aggregates trade. In the mid 1990’s as the
Maritime boats were phased out, the Pringle vessels would
join the White and Wolverine under the new Oglebay Norton
Marine Transportation flag and would be renamed Earl W.
Oglebay, and David Z. Norton (3). In April 2000 Oglebay
Norton acquired the former Michigan Limestone Operations
stone Quarries and docks at Port Inland (Gulliver MI), Port
Dolomite (Cedarville MI), and the Port of Calcite
(Rogers City MI). In January 2002 Oglebay Norton purchased
the Erie Sand & Gravel Company of Erie PA, including the
Self Unloading Maritime class ship Richard Reiss (which
would later be dealt to Grand River Navigation). Around
this time Oglebay Norton announced pooling of cargos with
American Steamship (United Shipping Alliance, LLC) in an
attempt to keep both US flagged shippers competitive. The
sum of these aggressive moves was to further gain strength
in the stone trade.
In 2003 the combination of low lake levels, forging steel
dumping, and the loss of major ore and stone contracts left
the company stunned. The vessels of the fleet were all
effected, the Joseph H. Frantz was charter
to Great Lakes Associates (Kinsman), the Buckeye
and Courtney Burton would never leave lay up in Toledo,
OH. The Armco would lay up prematurely and the Wolverine would spend the first part of the season at the
wall.
February
23, 2004 Oglebay Norton Company and its wholly owned
subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under chapter 11 of
the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy
Court for the District of Delaware.
On June 6, 2006 in a joint
announcement made with American Steamship Co. of
Williamsville, NY, Oglebay Norton Co. announced the sale of
the Fred R. White Jr. and five of her fleetmates to
American Steamship Co. (ASC) for $120 million. With
the sale came a new name: American Courage. The other
vessels going to ASC were the Armco, Columbia Star,
Courtney Burton, Middletown and Oglebay Norton.
| Overall dimensions |
| Length |
636'00" |
| Beam |
68'00" |
| Depth |
40'00" |
| Capacity (tons) |
23,800 |
| Diesel engine horsepower (2 combined) |
7,200 |
