Self Unloader PETER R. CRESSWELL

Hey, look what the PETER R. CRESSWELL dropped off at the Rideaubulk Terminal near Morrisburg on Thanksgiving evening last Monday. Is that a boatload of snow? Not Quite!! Actually it's a whole lot of road salt which is the product most used in Canada to melt the snow that falls on our roadways during our long and cold winters. Well, maybe not last year, but that could change. However, according to the Feds, more than 6.8 million tonnes of road salt was sold for deicing in 2003. To maintain its 12,000 lane-kilometres of roads and 2,000 kilometres of sidewalks during the winter, the City of Ottawa uses an average of 175,000 tonnes of road salt every year, which is probably where most of the CRESSWELL's precious cargo is going, or not. FYI: Most of Ontario's road salt is produced in Goderich, Ontario which has the largest rock salt mine in the world. The mine is 1,750 feet below the surface and extends 7 square kilometres under Lake Huron. 

Meanwhile, my doc says I have to watch my sodium chloride, so let's go back to talking about boats like the 730' CRESSWELL which when launched in 1982, her name was ALGOWEST and was built as a gearless bulk carrier to primarily carry grain from the Lakehead (Thunder Bay, that is) to St. Lawrence River ports for furtherance to overseas markets. In the late 90's when the grain trade declined significantly, the ALGOWEST was converted into a self unloader. Eight month and $20 million later, and re-named PETER R. CRESSWELL, after the former President and CEO of Algoma Marine, she became better equipped to carry such cargoes as coal, iron ore, stone and of course, road salt. 

Yes, that is a bulldozer in top of one of those piles of road salt, and how's it going to get down? Probably the same way it got up there, very carefully!!