The U.S. Coast Guard would like to remind all recreational ice users to plan their activities carefully, use caution on the ice, and stay away from shipping channels.

Winter work: Keeping aging lakers sailing on the Great Lakes

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – Many people in the Northland, and across the country, adore the ships that sail on the Great Lakes. The love for maritime activity is shared monthly at the Duluth-Superior Harbor Club.  Since 1958, men retired from the maritime industry meet monthly and connect over their experience on the Great Lakes.

“I usually try to sit next to somebody I don’t otherwise see and talk to them to see what they’re up to,” Dan Rau, a club member, said. Rau is no stranger to freshwater, as he used to be a commercial fisherman on Lake Superior and delivered fish on the North Shore.

“I’d make the two-day run around Isle Royale with the Voyager, come back to Grand Portage, load the fish from the island down to the boat and then drive down the shore and stop at whoever had fish,” Rau said.

Trading fishing for teaching, Rau started educating the next generation.

“I did a lot of chemistry in the wintertime and then I ran the research vessel in the summertime,” Rau said. “The research vessel was kind of a misnomer because we did educational programs on the boat and it was really the public’s only access to scientific information about the lake on the lake.”

Rau then used his experience to work on the big ships. “When the ships were laid up in the harbor, I worked as part of the crew that did maintenance work on the ships during the wintertime, including painting the hull of a thousand-footer,” Rau said.

Lakers are vessels that operate exclusively within the freshwater of the Great Lakes. During their winter offseason, they typically undergo maintenance.

“Some of these vessels are approaching 100 years old,” CEO and President of Fraser Shipyards Patrick Kelly said. “We keep them operating during slack periods when they’re not commercially hauling ore, quite often that’s in the winter period.”

According to Kelly, the work done after the Soo Locks close in Michigan is important for an aging fleet of lakers.

“We’re something like an Indianapolis pit crew in the way we do our work, and people coming in don’t want to be here longer than they need to be,” Rau said. “We’re partnering with the boat owners to find ways to extend the life of these boats any way we can.”

The crew at Fraser Shipyards works on vessels year-round, but their work dramatically increases during the winter work season. We more than triple our full-time and contractor teams working on these boats during our winter period,” Kelly said.

According to Kelly, Fraser Shipyards will work on seven to eight ships this winter.

“At this time of year, we’re preparing and getting crews in place and equipment positioned as those boats come in so that we’re ready to work,” Kelly said.

Fraser Shipyards works with a variety of ship ownership groups, including Interlake Steamship Company.

Based out of Ohio, Interlake Steamship Company owns a variety of lakers, including the first Great Lakes bulk carrier built on the Great Lakes in more than 35 years.

“We used the opportunity to build a ship in a way that would promote flexibility and allow for maximizing the resource of our design in starting from scratch,” Brendan O’Connor COO of Interlake Steamship Company, said.

According to O’Connor, the company invests millions of dollars during the winter months to maintain the ships. “It’s all about maximizing the utilization of those ships during their running season,” O’Connor said.

The Interlake Steamship Company owns many aging Lakers including the Lee A. Tregurtha, which was built in 1942. While the company owns an aging fleet, their new build, Mark W. Barker, is exciting shipping experts.

“Seeing that vessel arrive here in the port of Duluth-Superior, the first time and every subsequent time is just an indication of the future being now for Great Lakes shipping,” Jayson Hron director of communication and marketing for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said.

The history of the Duluth-Superior Port began in the 1800s, but the future of shipping is on the horizon. “I mean there’s a wonderful history, a long history of shipping on the Great Lakes, but it’s exciting to work on the future,” Hron said.

The Great Lakes shipping season officially ended when the Soo Locks close on January 15 for maintenance work.