Ice Strengthened Expedition Ship OCEAN EXPLORER

And then there was one piece left in my latest jigsaw puzzle to be placed. Not a logo or a flag this time around but instead this piece featured something most of us boatnerds probably had never seen before prior to this shipping season, a deckhand standing on a platform extended out of the bow of the uniquely designed passenger ship OCEAN EXPLORER just feet above Iroquois Lock's water level on September 6, 2022. 

The upbound 342.5' OCEAN EXPLORER was one of about seven foreign flagged passenger ships to cruise along the Seaway and Great Lakes for most of last summer. After two shipping seasons of seeing virtually no cruise ship passages due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was pretty amazing to see all of these huge liners and for me especially, this one again with its unique ULSTEIN CX130 reversed bow.

OCEAN EXPLORER has a beam of 59' which allows her slightly more the a 10' of play in the 80' wide lock. Her width would normally allow vessels her size the ability to stay dead centre in the chamber and slip through the guard lock quite quickly once the outer gates are opened.  However on that day the 162 passenger vessel was encountering strong winds and with gusts of approximately 30km/hr and since Iroquois Lock is not equipped with Hands-free Mooring equipment like the flight locks, tying her up was going to be needed. 

The "fo'c's'le" or "forecastle" which is pronounced "fok-sell" (easy for me to say 😬), is the forward deck of a ship. It derives its name from sailing ships days when the raised forward deck was known as the fore-castle, a typically raised, castle like platform for archers to shoot down on enemy ships, and as a defensive stronghold if the ship were boarded. Also as it was then and on most vessels we see on the Great Lakes these days, essential machinery used for anchoring and tying off a ship is located on that forward deck. Not the case as you can see for the OCEAN EXPLORER with its inverted X-Bow, as her "fo'c's'le" is located below deck beneath an attractive forward observation area. 

   

While it great that her anchor windlass and tie-off winches are well protected from harsh salty seas, getting a line ashore is another matter. Quite a delicate operation as seen in these pics of the deckhand feeding a line to the right of the wheelhouse so that a deckhand there can toss it below to the lock linesman.

With the lines secured, it's all stop as first the gate arrester is lowered...

...then the bascule bridge...the gates are almost closed in the background too.

Due to the winds forcing the levels downstream, the built in 2021 ice-strengthened expedition ship is raised about a foot that day to Lake Ontario levels.

The patented ULSTEIN X-bow design on OCEAN EXPLORER offers her the ability to navigate with improved stability in comparison to the traditional bow designs. X-bow vessels are less subject to vertical motions induced by waves continuing on course smoothly while maintaining her top speed of 16 knots.  Also her engines use less fuel resulting in reduced air emissions and fuel consumption.

Iroquois Lock's west end gates begin to open....

...the lock's linesman stands ready by the snubbing post to let go of the line...

...not a commander's salute like what Meg Meakin gets every time a ship passes by her neighbour's Thousand Island dock, but instead a single blast from the EXPLORER's horn signals it's time let go the lines...

...the linesman pulls up the loosened but still heavy mooring line...

...and then walks it towards lock wall...

...line is let go...

...then hauled into the"fo'c's'le" from the lowered platform...

...the platform raises and time to get underway...

I got myself a big wave from a ship's officers which moments earlier was spot the distance to lock wall as the American owned but flagged the Bahamas OCEAN EXPLORER makes another trip into the Great Lakes. 

Before returning this spring along with her sister OCEAN POLARIS, the Polar Class 6 ice breaking cruise ships built with the capability to cut through a metre or 3 feet of ice, will have been exploring the south seas around Antarctica during our winter months. Now that's a voyage I'll definitely be adding to my bucket list. 

    

Thanks again Alan Wooller for your technical assistance. Enjoy your upcoming shipping season on the veteran 730' gearless bulk carrier, TIM S.DOOL. I have photographed her many times including when named SENNEVILLE I got her at Ramey's Bend when then she was the first downbound laker to enter and transit the new 8 mile long Welland Bypass on March 28, 1973. 

It was a big day because previously ships would have to make a fairly sharp turn to the left at "Ramey's Bend" (when the location was actually a change in direction) and continue along a narrow and fairly straight channel for a time. After passing beneath Bridge 18, which my dad use to operate in Dain City and I rode a few times too, a downbound would pass under four more lift and by a swing bridge before cutting through the heart of Welland's busy downtown core. While I have many fun memories of those days, many others were frustrated with the delays and the car traffic gridlock that happened when especially the Main Street bridge, #13 went up for one or sometimes more vessels. It was as it was but the outcries resulted in the excavation of a bigger ditch, with two tunnels to keep the car and rail traffic moving and fairly straight and much wider channel between Port Colborne and Port Robinson. It was the definition of progress then and still today almost 50 years later.

Classic Self Unloader MICHIPICOTEN

The unique Lower Lakes Towing and Grand River Navigation logo and acknowledgement of Indigenous Peoples throughout North America on the MICHIPICOTEN's stack was last piece to be placed in my latest Jigsaw Planet puzzle of leaving Iroquois Lock on July 18, 2020. Like so many others in the combined Rand Logistics fleet that are named after First Nation's leaders, rivers and lakes, MICHIPICOTEN is an Anglicization of the original Ojibwe word "Mishipikwadina" meaning "Big Bluff" which refers to the high hills near the mouth of Michipicoten River where the First Nation band has lived since before the the first arrival of European settlers at the north-east region along the shoreline of Lake Superior. Located16 kilometres at its closest point to the Ontario mainland, Michipicoten is also the name of the Lake's second largest island which is known for its rugged steep slopes and is plentiful of wildlife like beaver, woodland caribou and birds.

Her name was ELTON HOYT 2nd named for the then President of mining company Pickands Mather when launched in 1952 for Interlake Steamship Company and she was one of three lakers that were built along the Atlantic seaboard at the Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard at Sparrows Point, MD, because shipyards on the Great Lakes were backed up in orders. The other two lakers owned by Bethlehem Steel were the JOHNSTOWN, named for the community where one of their steel mills was located in Pennsylvania, and SPARROWS POINT, for the location of their shipbuilding operation.

Since the vessels were to be brought to the Great Lakes via the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, their size was limited. The ELTON HOYT 2nd measured 626 feet 6 inches long, 70 feet wide, and 37 feet deep, which gave her a capacity of approximately 20,000 tons. However to clear the lower bridges along the waterways north, her cabins and pilothouse were cut apart and carried on deck for the tow through the rivers. After being assembled in Chicago, the HOYT entered service on August 15, 1952, and like other Interlake vessels, she began hauling iron ore mainly from the docks in Duluth or Superior to steel mills in various of lower Lakes ports. The ELTON HOYT 2nd also visited the new loading dock at Talconite Harbor, taking on talconite pellets that were mined at the Hoyt Lake which was founded by her namesake in 1955.

Though lengthened by an additional 72' in 1957 to her current size of 689.5', the time spent unloading the straight-decker made the vessel less competitive. While the HOYT was slightly smaller than other vessels her age, she would still spend upwards of 12 hours unloading. So in 1980 the vessel was converted to a self-unloader at American Ship Building Company in Toledo, which added many years to her career.

However after a 3 year layup in Superior, WI due to a reduced demand in steel, the sailing days for this hardworking ore carriers that bore the same name and flew the Interlakes Steamships flag for 51 years ended when she was sold to the Canadian shipping company, Lower Lakes Towing of Port Dover, ON, on April 10, 2003. The renamed MICIPICOTEN entered service for here new owners primarily supplying taconite pellets to the Algoma Steel mill at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in May 24, 2003.

While her size and stern mounted self unloading boom has offered the MICHIPICOTEN the ability to discharge a variety of cargoes to ports seaway-max vessels couldn't visit, it was iron ore that the 68 year old veteran laker was hauling to Quebec City when I caught her slowly entering Iroquois Lock and positioned perfectly all the way in due to the cautious eye of her deckhands spotting her distance away from the rugged concrete lock walls.

Like the CSL TADOUSSAC had just completed and was returning up towards to the Lakes when I caught her a month earlier on June 15th at the Seaway lock, Minnesota mined iron ore that had been discharged by thousand footers like the EDGAR B. SPEERS at Conneaut, OH, was then loaded onto Canadian bulk carriers like the MICHIPICOTAN, because there are simply not enough American-flagged seaway-max self unloaders to do the job. 

Iroquois Lock is a great place to view boats and a family of osprey perched atop a former light standard seen to right of the MICHIPICOTEN's wheelhouse.

Seaway workers were on hand to secure or walk the MICHIPICOTEN through the lock that's normally lowered about foot for downbound vessels.

Though currently flagged Canadian, the U.S. flag flies from her forward mast as a courtesy of the several times the bulk carrier will enter American waters during her St. Lawrence Seaway transit.

Visible through the legs of one of the two control dam gantry cranes capable of lifting 350 tons, the 453' HAPPY ROVER waits on Lake St. Lawrence for her turn in lock.

Ore dust laying everywhere and clinging to her side gives the normally immaculate vessel an unfair rustic look.

Further down she moves but not wanting to touch the steel fluorescent-marked arrester which protects the lock's gates and bascule bridge...

As the west-end arrester is lowered...

...the opening of the gates and the raising of the bridge and arrester at the other end of the lock signals to the skipper it's time to get a move on.

At the end of her 2010 shipping season, MICHIPICOTEN's original steam turbine and boilers were removed during her winter layup in Sarnia and replaced with a new MaK 6M32C 6 cylinder 8,160 BHP diesel engine. Combined with a newly installed controllable pitch propeller, the new powerplant was capable of pushing her up to 14 knots when she returned to service in May 2011 while being more fuel efficient and reducing emission levels.

And with her big engines churning away, the classic MICHIPICOTEN makes her out of the lock allowing the bound for Monroe, MI, Big Lift general cargo vessel HAPPY ROVER to take her place and become the subject for my next Jigsaw Planet puzzle...click the link below to put it together. It can be a lot of fun, No bluffing, really c):-D

https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1f87603fab71

Former Self Unloader ALGOMA ENTERPRISE

 ENTERPRISE fueling up in Port Colborne - March 8, 2006

 

And then there was one last piece to put in place to complete my Jigsaw Planet puzzle of the 730' ALGOMA ENTERPRISE last Tuesday night. As you can see in the pic above it was the Algoma Central Corporation "Bear" logo or emblem that can be seen at the bow and also on the stack on any of their vessels. The ENTERPRISE didn't always bear the bear. While being built in 1979 at Port Weller Dry Dock, her hull was painted black and the familiar Upper Lakes Shipping's white trimmed diamond logo was displayed on her red and black twin side by side stacks until she and the Upper Lakes fleet were sold to Algoma Central Corp in February 2011. 

Originally her name was CANADIAN ENTERPRISE, and she was the last of five self unloading newbuilds that were uniquely designed with relatively blunt non-angled bows, flattened sterns and a long single hold all done to maximize cargo capacity. Along with introducing this new design of ships to the fleet, it was also the start of Upper Lakes including the prefix "CANADIAN" to a ship's name which generally commemorated a special event, a type of commerce or tradesman in Canada. 

The CENTURY was renamed JOHN D. LEITCH after her mid-body was rebuilt wider in 2002.

The first, the CANADIAN CENTURY with her tall "high-rise-like" wheelhouse situated a short distance from the point of her bow, resembled a traditional Great Lakes straight-decker, and commemorated Canada's Centennial year in 1967, the year it was built. The CANADIAN PROGRESS was next and the first of the remaining newbuilds that were wheelhouse aft, built in 1968 and her name acknowledged Canada's Centennial theme:"A Century of Progress". 

The TRANSPORT & OLYMPIC at Port Colborne, March 10, 2005.

The CANADIAN OLYMPIC was named after Canada's first Olympic games in Montreal in 1976, the year she was built.  The CANADIAN TRANSPORT named for the primary purpose of each vessel, to "transport" coal to Ontario's coal-burning power plants, was built in 1979 along with the CANADIAN ENTERPRISE which was named for the long-term business arrangement that was created to haul the coal from Thunder Bay to various Ontario Hydro power plants on the lower lakes. As Ontario Hydro's coal-burning plants began phasing out in the early 2000's, the vessels were used to haul other cargoes like grain, iron ore and road salt.  There were many other ULS ships that bore the prefix "CANADIAN" like the LEADER, HUNTER, and MARINER to name a few that joined the fleet through acquisitions or as rebuilds like the RANGER and EXPLORER, but most of them had already been sold for scraps before  Algoma Central took over the Upper Lakes Shipping and their fleet on February 25, 2011.

CANADIAN PROGRESS at Port Colborne, January 16, 2003.

Soon after the prefix "CANADIAN" was replaced with "ALGOMA", named for the region the corporation which started in 1899 first as a railroad and then a steamship company the following year was based, in Sault Ste, Marie, Ontario. 

 Others like the NAVIGATOR and TRANSFER continued to sail with ALGOMA prefix but they're now gone too including the special-built Ontario Hydro coal haulers, PROGRESS, OLYMPIC and now the ENTERPRISE arriving for dismantling at Marine Recycling Corp. ship-breaking yard in Port Colborne just last weeks ago.

The TRANSPORT with the OLYMPIC at her stern wintering below Lock 8 in Port Colborne in January 2, 2011, a little more than a month before being sold to Algoma Central Corporation.

While her days of hauling cargo is over, she looked very much alive and useful when I snapped ALGOMA ENTERPRISE for the first time while bearing the bear as she cautiously approached then passed the old Iroquois Lock entrance to the former Galop Canal as she made her way to the newer Seaway lock on September 14, 2015

For a 76' wide ship passing through several 80' wide Seaway and Welland Canal locks all season long, a few visible scrapes above the waterline is more than acceptable.

The side engine room hatches are great for ventilation and a wonderful vantage point to see the world go by.  

It was like I was looking at my dad as the seaway worker with a white hard hat on for safety and suspenders, (for doing what they're supposed to do), walks the big self unloader into the lock and then stops to look at her draft in front of the lockmaster's shack. It was a task or routine I saw my dad do many times when he was a lockmaster at Lock 8 in Port Colborne until he retired in 1991. Fond memories. He's gone and so soon will be the ENTERPRISE.

Beyond the bascule bridge but the tall superstructure of the ENTERPRISE with her 250' long discharge boom extended from it must still get by the east end arrester before the gates are closed and the ship is raised to Lake Ontario levels is needed.

Just about as far she'll go at the bow...

...the west end gates crack open....

...the arrester goes up...

...and then the ALGOMA ENTERPRISE gets underway. Got to love the observation area at Iroquois Lock.

My next rendezvous with the ALGOMA ENTERPRISE was almost a year to the day later on September 19, 2016 from my balcony at the Inn at Lock Seven as the big downbound self unloader entered then passed through Lock 7 in Thorold. It's a wonderful vantage point and an interesting tale to tell and see on another day.

In my last photo of the ENTERPRISE on December 29, 2018, she sat high in ballast and looking a little worse for wear while wintering in Port Colborne. Despite her looks, the hardworking girl would ply the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway for another two seasons while the ships to her stern, the former package freighter and then cement carrier ENGLISH RIVER, tug ROBIN LYNN and Algoma fleetmates ALGOWAY and ALGORAIL wait for dismantling to begin at the Marine Recycling Corp's ship-breaking yard there. Today, they are all gone but not forgotten while the ALGOMA ENTERPRISE sits in their place after more than a half of her tattered hull was hauled out of the water last week.  She served her owners well,  and was a great home away from home for her officers and crew for just over 40 years. Soon she'll be taken apart like a completed jigsaw puzzle and for many more years to come, her pieces will be used to make something new, over and over again  Not a bad a way to go. 

ALGOMA ENTERPRISE being hauled ashore on huge inflatable rolls in this photo by Bill Salton with his DJI Mavic Mini drone. Great shot and thanks Bill. Be Safe my friend.