Lake freighter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lake freighters, or Lakers, are cargo vessels that work the Great Lakes. The most well-known is the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the last major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, not ships. Visiting ocean-going vessels are referred to as "salties." Due to their additional beam, very large salties are never seen inland of the St Lawrence Seaway. Because the largest of the Soo Locks is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Because of their deeper draft, salties may accept partial loads on the Great Lakes, "topping off" when they have exited the Seaway. Similarly, the largest Lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie) because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal that bypasses the Niagara River.
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[edit] Cargo
Lakers are generally bulk carriers, that is they carry loads of rocks, salt or grain in large holds - not in containers. The earlier ships required unloading machinery at the docks but modern Lakers are self unloaders which allows them to unload faster and in more ports.
The most common cargoes on the Great Lakes are taconite, which is a type of iron ore; limestone, grain, salt, coal, cement, gypsum, sand, slag and potash. Much of the cargo goes to support the steel mills for the auto industry which was centered around the Great Lakes because of the ease of Lake transport while other destinations include coal-fired powerplants and stone docks where limestone is unloaded for the construction industry.
[edit] Size
The largest vessels on the lake are the 1000 footers (300 m). These vessels are between 1000 and 1013 feet (305 and 309 m) long, 105 feet (32 m) wide and of 56 feet (17 m) in draft. They can carry as much 78,850 long tons of bulk cargo although their loading is dependent on lake water levels especially in the channels and ports. A dozen of these giant ships were built, all constructed between 1976 and 1981, and none has ever sunk. The most powerful of these, the Edwin H. Gott, carries two diesel engines driving twin propellers and is rated at 19,500 brake horsepower (14.5 MW). This generates a top speed of almost 17 mph (27 km/h). The Paul R. Tregurtha is the largest boat on the lakes, at 1013'6" and 68,000 tons capacity. The Stewart J. Cort, which is not only the first 1000-footer to be put into service on the Lakes, but also the only one built in the traditional wheelhouse-forward Great Lakes style, is another notable vessel. The Cort started life in Mississippi, and was sailed as a much smaller vessel, consisting of only the bow and stern sections, to Erie, Pennsylvania, where an additional 800+ feet of hull were added. Another interesting 1000-footer is the Presque Isle, an articulated tug and barge combination.
More common are boats in the 600 and 700 foot (183 and 213 m) classes and these continue to be built. These vessels vary greatly in configuration and cargo capacity, being capable of hauling between 10,000 and 40,000 tons per trip depending on the individual boat.
[edit] Design
Since these vessels all have to proceed through the locks of the Great Lakes Waterway they have features in common, and their appearance differs from similar sized ocean-going freighters. They are narrower and generally longer. The largest deep lock at the Soo is the Poe Lock which is 1,200 feet (370 m) long and 110 feet (34 m) wide. Thirty vessels on the lakes can only pass between Lake Superior and Lake Huron via this lock although none approaches the lock's size. Many Lakers are restricted to the Lakes, being unable to navigate the St Lawrence Seaway whose locks allow a maximum vessel size of 740 feet (226 m) in length or 78 feet (24 m) in breadth.
Where the superstructure of an ordinary freighter used to have the bridge in the center of the vessel, lake freighters typically have the bridge and associated superstructure right up in the bow. Traditionally they had a second island, over the engine room, right aft in the stern. These dual cabined boats were constructed between 1869 and 1974. The R.J. Hackett premiered the style and the second Algosoo was the final vessel designed this way. More recently built lakers, like the Seawaymax CSL Niagara, have a single large superstructure island right astern.
Lakers differ from salties in having bluff bows instead of raked or clipper bows and in never having Bulbous bow extensions. While the narrow, raked bow of a saltie allows it more speed, such bows are a disadvantage in the floe ice that accumulates in harbors and locks during the earliest and latest periods of the shipping season. A narrow bow will drive into the ice, wedging the ship, (particularly in a lock), while the bluff bows push the ice aside without wedging (and, in locks, bulldoze the ice through the lock ahead of the ship rather than letting it accumulate between the hull and the lock wall). Following World War II, several ocean freighters and tankers were transported to the Great Lakes and converted to Bulk carriers as a way to acquire ships cheaply. Although several of them served well in the role, they suffered problems with ice at each end of the shipping season.
The shallow draft imposed by the rivers (typically dredged to about 28 feet (8.5m) by the United States Army Corps of Engineers) restricts the cargo capacity of Lakers, but that is partially recovered by their extra length. Since Great Lakes waves never achieve the great length or period of ocean waves, particularly compared to the waves' height, ships are in less danger of being suspended between two waves and breaking, so the ratio between the ship's length and its depth can be a bit longer than that of an ocean-going ship. (The latest "thousand-footer" Lakers, taking advantage of the larger size of the Poe Lock, are built to specifications closer to those of similar ocean-going ships but the earlier Lakers had dimensions with much greater length-to-depth ratios.)
[edit] Lifespan
Since the freshwater lakes are less damaging to ships than the salt water of the oceans, many of the Lakers remain in service for long periods and the fleet has a much higher average age than the ocean-going fleet. Boats older than 50 years are not unusual. The St. Mary's Challenger, built in 1906, is currently the oldest boat in active duty on the Lakes. She is managed by HMC Ship Management, LTD. and owned by St. Mary's Cement, a subsidiary of Votoratim Cimentos. The E.M. Ford had the one of the longest careers, having been built in 1898 and still sailing on the lakes 98 years later in 1996. In 2006 it was still afloat as a stationary transfer vessel at a riverside cement silo in Saginaw. The J.B. Ford, built in 1904 and the final ship of the Hawgood Fleet, last sailed in 1985 and in 2006 served in the same capacity as the E.M. at a different cement silo in Superior. Several decorated World War II veteran ships are still in active, although civilian, use such as the tankers Chiwawa and Neshanic, now the bulk freighters Lee A. Tregurtha and American Victory, respectively, and the Landing Craft Tank 203, now the working vessel Outer Island.
[edit] Famous boats
The most famous laker was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The Fitz was the first ship with a length of 730 feet and the flagship of the Columbia Steamship Division of Oglebay Norton Co. The MV Stewart J Cort was the first of the 1000-foot oreboats.
The first laker with self-unloading equipment was launched in 1908 as the Wyandotte. Ford Motor Company's Henry Ford 2nd and Benson Ford of 1925 were the first lakeboats with diesel engines. The Canadian grainboat Feux Follets of 1966 was the last laker to be built with a steam turbine and was the last steamer built on the lakes. The last active ships of 1920s vintage are the MVs Maumee and Calumet of Lower Lakes Towing which were built as the William G Clyde and Myron C Taylor for US Steel. The ST Crapo, inactive since 1996, was built to haul finished powdered cement for Huron Cement Co. back in 1927 and was the 2nd ship of that design, the 1st being the John G Boardman of the same company.
Also of note is the steamer Edward L. Ryerson, widely known for her artistic design and being one of only two remaining straight-decked (without self unloading machinery) freighters still in active service on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes (the other being the John Sherwin which hasn't sailed since 1981 and has little chance of sailing). In the summer of 2006, the Ryerson was fitted out and put back into service following a long-term lay-up that began in 1998. Unlike the Sherwin, which will likely never sail again, the Ryerson had been meticulously maintained, and was often used as a museum boat for tours. It was put back into service due to a lack of reliable hulls on the Lakes, and a need for more tonnage.
In film, the W.W. Holloway is famous for being the lake freighter that the Blues Brothers jump their 1974 Dodge over when Elwood decides to jump the open 96th Street Bridge.
[edit] Museum ships
[edit] Cleveland
The William G. Mather, a laker built in 1925 and a former flagship for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, has been turned into a maritime museum and is open to the public in Cleveland, Ohio in the North Coast Harbor.
[edit] Duluth-Superior
The SS William A. Irvin, named for the president of U.S. Steel at the time of her launching, which served as the flagship of US Steel's Great Lakes fleet from its launch in 1938 to 1975 and was the first laker to incorporate welding in her design is open for tours at the Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. Another museum ship, the Meteor, is the last ship of the whaleback design, and is a museum in Superior, Wisconsin which was the home of the American Steel Barge Company where the whalebacks were built.
[edit] Sault Ste. Marie
The Valley Camp was built in 1917 and served the National Steel Corporation, the Republic Steel Corporation, and Wilson Transit Co during its 1917-1966 working life. It became a museum ship on the waterfront of the 'American Soo', east of the Soo Locks, in 1968.
[edit] Toledo
The Willis B Boyer is another Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company vessel that sailed from 1911 to 1980 and was originally owned by the Shenango Furnace Company and named the Col. James Schoonmaker; she is open to the public as a museum in Toledo, Ohio.
