Lots of Freighters

August 16, 2015

First, we would like to say thanks to those wishing us a fun and safe trip and to our friends watching out for the home front while we are gone.  It means a great deal to us.

We departed yesterday to make an intermediate stop at Wilson State Park located on Budd Lake in Clare County.  This was a “scouting” trip to see if the park would be a good destination for a future visit over July 4th.  It’s a small park but access to the lake is poor from the park as it sits on a bluff.  It also has a big fireworks across the street on the 4th; so it’s a scratch.

Today we are in Sault St. Marie at  Aune-Osborn campground on the St. Mary’s River.  We have a riverside site and the freighters travel right by us.  For a freighter watcher like Dan, it’s a candy store!

Went up to the Locks for a while and saw the Capt. Henry Johnson lock through up bound. We have piloted ourselves through more locks than we can count, so the process wasn’t anything new for us.  We spoke to a knowledgeable volunteer at the lock and he told us most Lakers have  captains who are qualified to pilot their own ships through.  International ships require local pilots to get them through.  Most Lakers run a route between Duluth, MN and Detroit.  Round trip is slightly over a week.  So these guys lock through a couple times a week.

There are 4 locks at the Soo, The McArthur at 800 ft, the Poe at 1000 ft, and the Davis and Sabin locks both now nonfunctional.  The McArthur is currently undergoing a repair on its gates.  Earlier this year they became misaligned; reason unknown.  So as you can imagine, there is a bit of a traffic jam around here.  Good for us, we are seeing lots of freighters.  They plan to test it tomorrow so we may go back for a while to check it out.

August 17, 2015

The test of the McArthur Lock was a success and it is again in operation.  This is a smaller (shorter) lock than the Poe so it is used for pleasure craft, the Soo Locks Tour boat and smaller ships.  The Soo Locks Tour boat is shown entering today.

 

The freighters designed for, and operated exclusively in the Great Lakes, are unique compared to ocean freighters.  They are longer, many exceed 1000 feet in length, and carry more cargo weight, nearly 80,000 tons.  Their cargo is in bulk form, consisting of taconite, grain, cement, fertilizer, or coal.  There are also tankers equipped with double bottom hulls.  Lakers have unique on-loading and off-loading equipment that is fast, highly efficient, and thoroughly automated.  Watching one off-load is quite a site.

The life of Lakers is 40 to 50 years compared to “Salties”.  The reason is two-fold; fresh water and winter.  Maintenance is conducted during the winter off-season and of course, fresh water doesn’t corrode like saltwater.

Today we visited an old freighter in service from 1917 to 1966, the Valley Camp.  Now a museum and still afloat.  The focus is on Great Lakes shipping with many artifacts and stories.  The Valley Camp was powered by an 1800 hp triple expansion, coal fired steam engine.  State of the art in the early 1900s.  It was 550 ft long, the maximum to fit through the locks back then.  In fact, Lakers are still built to just fit through the Soo Locks.  The Tregurtha at 1013 ft is at that maximum.

The Valley Camp was owned by Republic Steel Company.  When originally christened in 1917 it was named Louis W. Hill and owned by National Steel Corp.

Controls in the engine room

Pilot House

Looking Astern Dock Cable Winch

  Fresnel Lighthouse Lens 4th Order

In the rain!

Wow, as I’m writing this here comes the Paul H. Tregurtha, the biggest of the freighters.  A picture follows.

Note that the pilothouse is in the stern.  The captain is looking across 3 football fields to the bow.  That’s like another zip code!

Here comes another one!  More tomorrow!

August 17, 2015

Today is our last day at the Soo.  After some freighter watching this morning and a few casts for some fish, we visited the River of History Museum.  We think this is pretty new as we did not see it on previous visits.  It’s theme is to explain the history of the area, but it included all of Michigan.

We did not learn much new, but a recurrent theme here as well as other museums we have visited, the US commercial interests were threatened, a fort was built, battles were fought, and and we took the land.

In this case, initially, it was fur and it involved the French, British and Indians.  French had a huge influence in this area.  In the U.S. version, Britain (Canada) were the bad guys.  At the Welland Canal, during our winter visit to Niagara, The Treaty of Ghent depicted the U.S. as the bad guys.

The museum was OK, but displays had poor lighting and lots of fine print, which was difficult to read.  Probably would not go back.

Not much to share today photographically, except for  freighters.  Well OK, you talked us into it, here are a couple.

Getting the mail

Up close view!

Tomorrow we enter Canada.  If all goes well we will be at Lake Superior Provincial Park for the next 4 days.  No WiFi for miles there, so this will be our last post for a few days.