There’s just no stopping this girl this year. I bearly made it to Iroquois Lock in time last April to get these snaps of the 730'
ALGOMA TRANSPORT as she made her way downbound heading to Port Cartier, Quebec. And then look at yesterday, while all other of Algoma Central's self discharging and gearless bulk carriers were laid up at variety of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River ports, the
TRANSPORT was still underway motoring downbound on Lake Huron making her way to Sarnia after dropping another load of road salt at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While tracking her last night on MarineTraffic, it looked like she was simply heading down to the Esso dock to top up her tanks in preparation for another salt run but at around 12:15 this morning I saw that with the assistance of the harbour tug,
PRIDE, the hardworking
ALGOMA TRANSPORT's extended shipping season was coming to an end as she backed-in to Sarnia's Government dock.
Like her self discharging fleetmates, the
TRANSPORT remained busy throughout this year's shipping season transferring another bumper crop of prairie wheat to St. Lawrence River grain elevators for deepsea bulk carrier passage to European markets, then hauling Labrador ore back up to Great Lakes steel mills. However the trade that got her season going and ending was hauling road salt like what she was about to do when fellow boat watcher, Bonnie Fera snapped this shot of her loading salt at the Sifto Canada facilities in Goderich,
"Canada's Prettiest Town" by the way according to Bonnie on April 17th. It's what
ALGOMA TRANSPORT was hauling when she motored by me at Iroquois just days later. Meanwhile, in the past few weeks since the Seaway closed for winter, the 35,000 ton capacity
TRANSPORT also delivered the mined under Lake Huron ice and snow melting product to Detroit, Chicago and at least one earlier visit to Milwaukee.
When launched in 1979 at Port Weller Dry Docks for Toronto's Upper Lakes Group, her name was
CANADIAN TRANSPORT which was the name that she bore when I first captured her (above) during winter layup in Port Colborne on January 2, 2011. Little did I know when I snapped this picture that the
TRANSPORT and her Upper Lakes fleetmates would all lose their unique
"CANADIAN" suffix to their name and have it replaced with
"ALGOMA" when Algoma Central acquired the shipping company outright just a few weeks later on February 25th, 2011.
Just like her almost identical former ULS sisters,
ENTERPRISE and
OLYMPIC (
http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/03/self-unloader-canadian-olympic.html),
ALGOMA TRANSPORT remains useful despite their age while wearing the Algoma colours and names. While kicking up the lock waters astern and then turning towards Mariatown,
ALGOMA TRANSPORT looked pretty eager to get to her next destination last April. Meanwhile though, it's time for a much deserved break for all concerned as a new shipping season is fast approaching. I know I can hardly wait. How about you? c);-b
Love it!! Job well done!! Thanks Carlzzzzzz :-)
ReplyDeleteJoanne - The Prescott Anchor
Thank you Joanne c):-D
DeleteI think "Algoma" is just as classy as "Canadian". Of course, I've spent the last 16 years camping in the Algoma District of Ontario. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou're right Charlene, ALGOMA is a classy name. For me seeing ALGOMA as part of their ship's names not only truly identifies this beautiful part of Ontario, but also emphasizes the significants and success of this great transportation and former steel manufacturing company that was not based in Montreal, or Toronto but rather Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. FANTASTIC!! It's just that this group of former Upper Lakes ships also identified a lot of the great things that were happening to Canada during that era when the ships were given their names like PROGRESS, ENTERPRISE, CENTURY, OLYMPIC, TRANSPORT and to me it just doesn't have the same meaning with the word ALGOMA in front of it. But at least, ALGOMA has kept them operational and put to good to use as long as possible. I'll give them two thumbs up for that!! c):-D
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