Great Lakes Shipping History

[northland10]

When I was a wee one (with ugly stripped 1960s/70s pants IIRC), my family stayed at a campground on the river and took one of the Soo Locks tour trips through the locks. I remember it fondly even though I was likey or maybe younger. Mommy was displeased when I went down a slide and muddied my 1970s pants.

https://www.originalsoolocktours.com/

There is another tour on cream and blue boats instead of the green and white boats. I was sad when we were on the white and green ones because I thought the cream/yellowish and blue ones looked cooler. They are the same colors now as they were then (I do sometimes remember colors well, which confuses my family).

[AndyinPA]

We went through the locks and (briefly) into Lake Superior on our Great Lakes cruise a year and a half ago. It's a very crucial piece of US (and Canadian) infrastructure.

[Volkonski]

A Shipwreck Is Found in Lake Superior. Its Captain’s Behavior Remains a Mystery.
The S.S. Arlington sank in a storm after leaving a port in Ontario in May 1940. Researchers have located the wreckage, but cannot explain why the captain remained alone on board as his crew escaped.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/us/s ... ngton.html

As the S.S. Arlington, a Canadian ship carrying wheat across Lake Superior, started to sink in stormy weather on May 1, 1940, its crew clambered into a lifeboat and then gazed upon a strange sight.

There, across the stormy waters, was their captain, Frederick Burke, known as Tatey Bug, waving to them from the Arlington’s deck, moments before he went under with his ship.

The odd behavior of the captain, a solitary figure who was left alone after his men escaped, remains a mystery. And it is likely that an explanation, like the ship itself, will never surface, according to researchers at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, which announced on Monday that the Arlington had been found off the coast of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

“The question is whether he was saying, ‘Hey, hold the lifeboat’ or waving goodbye,” said Dan Fountain, a researcher who volunteers with the historical society and first detected the abnormality in the lake floor that led to the discovery of the Arlington last year.

Hundreds of ships have sunk in the Great Lakes, imperiled by stormy waters as they crossed with cargo. Many of the wrecks have been found over the years, slowly coming into view from the murky depths with the help of sonar or satellite technology.

As with the Arlington, the wrecks can be seen, but the details of the ships’ final moments are often never to be discovered.

Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake by area, has served as a major commercial shipping corridor for centuries. Hundreds of wrecks are estimated to be in the nearly 32,000-square-mile lake.

As lake floor silt is unsettled with currents and time, the wrecks make themselves known in stages. Disturbances in the lake floor show up in remote sensing data and then are confirmed with side-scan sonar, which sends and receives acoustic pulses that help map the lake floor and detect submerged objects. Then remote-operated vehicles pick up the details.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

My grandfather was an engineer on the Soo Locks during WWII (he had polio as a child and his right leg was crippled, so that was his non-combat assignment). My father was born while he was working there. Unfortunately, my grandparents moved to Arizona when I was a toddler, so I never got a chance to go on the tour with Opa.

[northland10]

Here is the the SS Badger coming into Ludington. The Badger is a former railroad car ferry built in the 50s by C&O that is now running an as a tourist seasonal passenger car ferry between Ludington, MI, and Manitowoc, WI (it also carries semis and some really large loads like windmill components among its various unusual loads).

Being a 1950s-era build, it does not have bow thrusters, so to back into the slip, it pulls into the bay, drops the anchor, and then pivots on that anchor until the back end is pointed at the dock. Using telegraphs, the captain then directs the ship into the slip from the aft pilot house. I have ridden it many times, so watch them do this, but not from either pilot house.

Along one side is a set of wooden slats that it will sometimes rub against. When it is far enough in, the toss the cables to the shore where they are anchored and use the windlass (the crank type thing) to secure up the boat and center it to secure to the car ramp. It is a fascinating system.

And no tugboats.



Last summer, a counterweight on the Ludington ramp failed, so they have been rebuilding it over the off-season.

It is one of the last coal-burning ships, but working with the EPA< they have invented an ash collection system, so they are no longer tossing it into the lake as was the original design. The ash is recycled into cement. They also have changed the type of coal they use and installed a new combustion system that reduces the amount of coal used and the ash created.

[northland10]

The M/V Stewart J. Cort is a 1,000-foot lake freighter that started service in 1972. Besides being one of the last ships with the pilot house forward and the only 1,000-foot one with a forward pilot house, it also had an interesting beginning. The bow and the stern were built in Mississippi but since the Welland Canal cannot handle 1,000-foot ships, the middle section of the ship was built in Erie, Pennsylvania.

So, after completing the bow and stern sections, they joined the two sections together (to make a 168-foot boat) and called her "stubby" for her trip to Erie, PA where she was split in half and the the remaining section added.

Here is Stubby steaming her way to find the rest of her.


She is a bit bigger now:

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

[Foggy]

In the future, iron mining will be done on asteroids, imho.

There's more aluminum than iron in the Earth's crust, but iron is easier to extract.

[AndyinPA]

Interesting. Thanks.

[northland10]

I love this thread. I do miss seeing the ships going up and now the lake (when I lived up north I would see them every time I came over the hill into the town, and when I worked in the office down here, I could see the lake).

In the future, iron mining will be done on asteroids, imho.

There's more aluminum than iron in the Earth's crust, but iron is easier to extract.

The fate of iron mining is based on the steel industry. As it has gone down over years, especially on the Great Lakes (and Pittsburgh area as much of that iron was offloaded at ports in NW Ohio). In addition, increased recycling has reduced the need for new iron/taconite. CN Rail recently closed the Escanaba dock since most UP mines have closed. The rest can be shipped through the Marquette docks.

However, shipping is resilient, and because there is more than just iron for the bulk carriers, they are still in demand, so much so that the they took advantage of the weak winter to end their break early. The Soo locks are rebuilding the Davis and Sabin lock to be a single 1,000 foot lock to complement the Poe lock (which was rebuilt to that length in 1968). When asked why they are not making the new one larger, they said, if they made it larger they would make larger ships and then we would be depended on a single long lock, again. If you build it, they will come.

In 2022, the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin launched the first new laker built on the Great Lakes in decades. It is not one of the long ones, but it shows there is an active industry. Hopefully, there will be more.

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/n ... ins-fleet/

Most of the remaining shipbuilding locations on the upper lakes (Sturgeon Bay, Superior, Wisconsin, Erie, Pennsylvania) build smaller ships and repair the existing fleets. Fincantieri Marinette Marine, formerly part of the Manitowoc Company in Marinette, Wisconsin, generally specializes in Navy/Coast Guard/Government boats (and some of the Staten Island Ferries).

[much ado]

I thought this video on how canals on Harsens Island are affected by passing ships on the St. Clair River was interesting. I forget how I found this video. It may have been posted on The Fogbow, I don't remember.

Displacement from Ship causing damage

[northland10]

I am a little confused. He is making it sound like this is a recent issue but the last 1,000-footer was launched over 40 years ago so having them cause wakes in channels should not be a new thing.

[RTH10260]

Also too I remember to have seen similar effects shown from costal areas when a cruise ship moved upstream. I don't believe that erosion is a real thing, nature has adapted. As for the one in costal area that complaint started once the newer generation of huge cruise liners and cargo / container ships appeared.

[bill_g]

There is further explanation below the video at YT.

► Show Spoiler

7,056,171 views Jun 8, 2011
UPDATE:
--------------------------------
Since publication of this footage, shipping traffic has been slowed to proper speeds and monitored by the US & Canadian Coast Guard to ensure all vesels maintain compliance.

This video was part of a series of videos studied and analyzed by the USCG to determine that the upriver vessels were traveling anywhere from 3 knots to 5 knots over the allowed 8 knot (land relative) upriver limit (10.4 knot water-relative limit) during the shipping season.

Speed limits have now been re-enforced throughout the St Lawrence seaway, and the issues shown in this video have since subsided.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/ship-...


SHIPPING TRAFFIC INFORMATION
--------------------------------
Great Lakes Shipping traffic scaled up in the 1970s with the addition of the "seaway cut" at the entrance of lake St. Clair. This cut allowed larger vessels to navigate the great lakes, and the narrow connecting waterways (as seen in this video). Despite vessel size increases, commercial shipping vessels have coexisted happily with land owners. In fact, for nearly 100 years - shipping traffic and effects have been non-problematic in this region, due to vessels traveling at slow speeds through navigable waterways.

However, recent technical advances in GPS and computer aided steering mean that large vessels raging from 500 - 1,020 feet in length can now navigate the waterways much faster than before. Combined with shipping companies placing increased time-pressure on vessels - this has lead to ships moving much faster than seaway engineers have engineered for. Previously large Taconite Ore carriers, such as the vessel shown, moved much slower due to human operation of steerage and navigation.

While increased speed is good for profit, the negative effect is that faster speeds through narrow waterways cause an increased amount of "Tidal Bore" due to fluid dynamics and displacement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore

Even small increases of speed of only a few Knots can greatly magnify the effects of tidal bore exponentially (an increasint log when graphed) due to water being a "non compressible medium".

The displacement effect in this video is being caused by a 1000' long Freighter heading northbound on the St. Clair river, running at 4 knotts over the allowed speed of travel early in the shipping season.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIDEO AND ISLAND:
--------------------------------
Many the cottages on Harsens Island have existed since the early 1800's, and all have coexisted, without issue, with shipping traffic happily. The small brown cottage in this video actually dates back to 1850 (with obvious structural modifications made over 150 years).

This property in particular has been family-owned and is historically considered one of the original island cottages, with deeded family records dating back before Michigan declared statehood.

Information on Harsens Island:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsens...


NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF INCREASED SPEEDS DURING 2011 - 2014
--------------------------------
Until 2011 - This canal used to be a breeding ground for numerous fish species such as Bass, Walleye, and Sturgeon. Ship traffic in the main channel wasn't a problem in the past, as strict speed limits on freighters was maintained. Due to the washouts created during this shipping season, the breeding grounds were eliminated - and the St. Clair river sturgeon is now considered and "endangered species"
https://www.fws.gov/Midwest/sturgeon/...

[bill_g]

Off Topic

Water caused erosion and underminement of bridges is a thing around here. Lots of streams in the mountains, and lots of small bridges to cross them. None of them are marvels of engineering, and all are susceptible to the seasonal deluges we get. So, until late Summer, it's best to approach each crossing you encounter in the woods with suspicion. I've seen washouts that look intact at first from the truck windshield. But, investigation on foot proved stopping was the right decision. We do our best to tape off the road well before the washout to warn future travelers. Then we try to find another way.

[northland10]

There is further explanation below the video at YT.

► Show Spoiler

7,056,171 views Jun 8, 2011
UPDATE:
--------------------------------
Since publication of this footage, shipping traffic has been slowed to proper speeds and monitored by the US & Canadian Coast Guard to ensure all vesels maintain compliance.

This video was part of a series of videos studied and analyzed by the USCG to determine that the upriver vessels were traveling anywhere from 3 knots to 5 knots over the allowed 8 knot (land relative) upriver limit (10.4 knot water-relative limit) during the shipping season.

Speed limits have now been re-enforced throughout the St Lawrence seaway, and the issues shown in this video have since subsided.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/ship-...


SHIPPING TRAFFIC INFORMATION
--------------------------------
Great Lakes Shipping traffic scaled up in the 1970s with the addition of the "seaway cut" at the entrance of lake St. Clair. This cut allowed larger vessels to navigate the great lakes, and the narrow connecting waterways (as seen in this video). Despite vessel size increases, commercial shipping vessels have coexisted happily with land owners. In fact, for nearly 100 years - shipping traffic and effects have been non-problematic in this region, due to vessels traveling at slow speeds through navigable waterways.

However, recent technical advances in GPS and computer aided steering mean that large vessels raging from 500 - 1,020 feet in length can now navigate the waterways much faster than before. Combined with shipping companies placing increased time-pressure on vessels - this has lead to ships moving much faster than seaway engineers have engineered for. Previously large Taconite Ore carriers, such as the vessel shown, moved much slower due to human operation of steerage and navigation.

While increased speed is good for profit, the negative effect is that faster speeds through narrow waterways cause an increased amount of "Tidal Bore" due to fluid dynamics and displacement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore

Even small increases of speed of only a few Knots can greatly magnify the effects of tidal bore exponentially (an increasint log when graphed) due to water being a "non compressible medium".

The displacement effect in this video is being caused by a 1000' long Freighter heading northbound on the St. Clair river, running at 4 knotts over the allowed speed of travel early in the shipping season.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIDEO AND ISLAND:
--------------------------------
Many the cottages on Harsens Island have existed since the early 1800's, and all have coexisted, without issue, with shipping traffic happily. The small brown cottage in this video actually dates back to 1850 (with obvious structural modifications made over 150 years).

This property in particular has been family-owned and is historically considered one of the original island cottages, with deeded family records dating back before Michigan declared statehood.

Information on Harsens Island:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsens...


NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF INCREASED SPEEDS DURING 2011 - 2014
--------------------------------
Until 2011 - This canal used to be a breeding ground for numerous fish species such as Bass, Walleye, and Sturgeon. Ship traffic in the main channel wasn't a problem in the past, as strict speed limits on freighters was maintained. Due to the washouts created during this shipping season, the breeding grounds were eliminated - and the St. Clair river sturgeon is now considered and "endangered species"
https://www.fws.gov/Midwest/sturgeon/...

Thanks. I did not check that earlier (darn Sunday morning work to go to). That really helps the context and makes sense. It is now more understandable why he is making sound like an issue as it is if they don't slow down.

[bill_g]

There is further explanation below the video at YT.

► Show Spoiler

7,056,171 views Jun 8, 2011
UPDATE:
--------------------------------
Since publication of this footage, shipping traffic has been slowed to proper speeds and monitored by the US & Canadian Coast Guard to ensure all vesels maintain compliance.

This video was part of a series of videos studied and analyzed by the USCG to determine that the upriver vessels were traveling anywhere from 3 knots to 5 knots over the allowed 8 knot (land relative) upriver limit (10.4 knot water-relative limit) during the shipping season.

Speed limits have now been re-enforced throughout the St Lawrence seaway, and the issues shown in this video have since subsided.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/ship-...


SHIPPING TRAFFIC INFORMATION
--------------------------------
Great Lakes Shipping traffic scaled up in the 1970s with the addition of the "seaway cut" at the entrance of lake St. Clair. This cut allowed larger vessels to navigate the great lakes, and the narrow connecting waterways (as seen in this video). Despite vessel size increases, commercial shipping vessels have coexisted happily with land owners. In fact, for nearly 100 years - shipping traffic and effects have been non-problematic in this region, due to vessels traveling at slow speeds through navigable waterways.

However, recent technical advances in GPS and computer aided steering mean that large vessels raging from 500 - 1,020 feet in length can now navigate the waterways much faster than before. Combined with shipping companies placing increased time-pressure on vessels - this has lead to ships moving much faster than seaway engineers have engineered for. Previously large Taconite Ore carriers, such as the vessel shown, moved much slower due to human operation of steerage and navigation.

While increased speed is good for profit, the negative effect is that faster speeds through narrow waterways cause an increased amount of "Tidal Bore" due to fluid dynamics and displacement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore

Even small increases of speed of only a few Knots can greatly magnify the effects of tidal bore exponentially (an increasint log when graphed) due to water being a "non compressible medium".

The displacement effect in this video is being caused by a 1000' long Freighter heading northbound on the St. Clair river, running at 4 knotts over the allowed speed of travel early in the shipping season.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIDEO AND ISLAND:
--------------------------------
Many the cottages on Harsens Island have existed since the early 1800's, and all have coexisted, without issue, with shipping traffic happily. The small brown cottage in this video actually dates back to 1850 (with obvious structural modifications made over 150 years).

This property in particular has been family-owned and is historically considered one of the original island cottages, with deeded family records dating back before Michigan declared statehood.

Information on Harsens Island:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harsens...


NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF INCREASED SPEEDS DURING 2011 - 2014
--------------------------------
Until 2011 - This canal used to be a breeding ground for numerous fish species such as Bass, Walleye, and Sturgeon. Ship traffic in the main channel wasn't a problem in the past, as strict speed limits on freighters was maintained. Due to the washouts created during this shipping season, the breeding grounds were eliminated - and the St. Clair river sturgeon is now considered and "endangered species"
https://www.fws.gov/Midwest/sturgeon/...

Thanks. I did not check that earlier (darn Sunday morning work to go to). That really helps the context and makes sense. It is now more understandable why he is making sound like an issue as it is if they don't slow down.

You're welcome. That little (more) buttom just below the video quite often holds a lot of information.