Self Unloader CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN (Revisited)

I had no idea when I snapped the 730' Algoma Central self unloader CAPT HENRY JACKMAN as she passed us and then the bulk carrier SAGUENAY (below) midstream near Mariatown on Boxing Day that the JACKMAN would be the last upbound to transit the Welland Canal for 2012 and be berthed for the winter in Port Colborne. So she was a must see, along with my mother, of course during last week's 'Short but Sweet' tour to Port Colborne. It was awfully nice of Janice & Tanner to pose for at least one snapshot as CAPT HENRY JACKMAN sat moored below Lock 8 by the stone dock.

Like the SAGUENAY, she was launched as a gearless bulk carrier in 1981 in Collingwood, Ontario. Owned then by Nipigon Transports Ltd., her name then was LAKE WABUSH and she was active in hauling prairie grain from Thunder Bay however her primary focus was to transport iron ore that originated in the Lake Wabush region of southern Labrador from ports near the mouth of the St. Lawrence. In fact according to Alan Wooller, who currently sails on the Algoma fleetmate,  RADCLIFFE L. LATIMER, to remain profitable, LAKE WABUSH had to make at least four ore trips a month to the Great Lakes steel mills. Algoma Central acquired her in 1986 and in the following year changed her name to CAPT HENRY JACKMAN  after a former skipper and part-owner of a fleet of schooners that hauled grain on Lake Ontario in the mid 1800's. Great namesake but after the JACKMAN was converted into a self unloader in 1996 and she’s been more known to carry anything but grain. Amongst a variety cargoes, the CAPT HENRY JACKMAN has carried is road salt like her fleetmate, PETER R. CRESSWELL dropped off earlier at the Rideau Bulk Terminal dock in the background of the bottom photo. You can check out those photos and story in the Oct 15th Carlz Boats,  http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/10/self-unloader-peter-r-cresswell.html or Not!

Road salt from the PETER R. CRESSWELL can still be seen piled high at the Rideau Bulk Terminal west of Mariatown in this rendezvous pic of the former bulk carrier SAGUENAY and the CAPT on December 26. 2012

Update - Feb. 20/20:
She was at the same location though pointed downbound when I photographed the CAPT  again at the stone dock below Lock 8 on November 18, 2018. Due to engine problems, the crew of the then 37 year old self unloader was preparing her for a premature winter layup.

While the hardworking girl's appearance may have suggested her days were numbered when I snapped her along the stone dock wall, it was her virtual twin sister PETER R. CRESSWELL who became the sacrificial lamb, literally and prepared for dismantling that winter in Port Colborne with the removal of various engine parts including an camshaft for the ailing fleetmate. It was a blessing in disguise that kept the CAPT HENRY JACKMAN active for a couple more seasons. She was probably taking on a load of cement clinker at the St. Mary's Cement plant in Bowmanville on Lake Ontario when I snapped her for the last time on June 18, 2018. She arrived under her own power at Montreal on December 27 that year but when she left in the following May, she'd be tied to the deepsea tug V.B. HISPANIA and undertow to Turkey for dismantling while named ENRY.

Former CAPT HENRY JACKMAN awaits the breaker's tourch at Aliaga, Turkey June 29, 2019 - Photo by Salim San