Classic Self Unloader HERBERT C. JACKSON

I don't know about crazy or lazy part but it definitely was hazy and it technically was still summer when Janie & Tanner and I caught view of the Interlake self unloader HERBERT C. JACKSON motoring out of the St. Clair River fog near East China, Michigan on September 20, 2013. It was our last day of our "Whirlwind Tour to the Soo & Back", and having the classy steamer pass by us was a wonderful but serene finale to a great boat watching holiday. The 690' x 75' ore carrier was named after Herbert Cooper Jackson who was a managing partner of Interlake's parent company, Pickands Mather Company and he was present during her launching in 1959 at the Great Lakes Engineering Works on Detroit's Rouge River. Then the steam turbine powered HERBERT C. JACKSON, was a straightdeck bulk carrier and the heaviest vessel to be side-launched at the shipyard. The JACKSON was built to meet seaway specifications which allowed her to transit the then newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway and return to Great Lakes steel mills with Labrador ore.

In 1975, the JACKSON she was converted into a self unloader at Defoe Shipbuilding in Bay City, Michigan and received a 250' stern-mounted discharge boom which increased her versatility when hauling coal, stone, salt, grain and especially talconite pellets from the iron ore mines along Lake Superior.

As the HERBERT C. JACKSON continued downbound past the Saint Clair Power Plant, off to her starboard side was fleetmate, PAUL R. TREGURTHA unloading coal from her raised boom into an elevated hopper. The St. Clair plant primarily burns Western coal from Montana which is loaded into 60,000 ton self unloaders like the TREGURTHA in Superior, Wisconsin. BTW, the PAUL R. TREGURTHA can carry over 68,000 tons of cargo and at 1,013.5 feet in length, she remains the largest vessel on the Great Lakes. COOL c):-o

While so many other steamers or veteran lakers have been cut for scrap or like Interlake fleetmate JOHN SHERWIN (snapped below) which has been tied off to an old coal dock near DeTour, Michigan in long-term lay-up since 2009, the HERBERT C. JACKSON has continued to give her owners value for their money due to timely conversions and upgrades over the years. As a result, you might say the JACKSON is worth her weight in "JACKSONS"**

**(Andrew Jackson, his picture is on the American twenty dollar bill. OK, got that) c):-o

Meanwhile, quite by chance I was able to snap the lonely JOHN SHERWIN nestled amongst the pines on the other side of the St. Mary's River early in our journey to the Soo. Check here to read about that eye-opening adventure http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/12/bulk-carrier-john-sherwin.html or for a more detailed backgrounder, about the "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" SHERWIN, take a look at this Boatnerd link http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/sherwin.htm. You'll be glad you did. Really!, you will! c);-b   

Articulated Tug & Barge EVERLAST & NORMAN McLEOD (Revisited)

Me at Port Colborne's West Street winter lay-up in 1955 (:-)

As long as I can remember while growing up in Port Colborne in the 1950's and 60's, when the Welland Canal closed for the season just before Christmas, a different way of life began. First it was clear passage for walkers and motorists as the bridges did not move for close to 3 month. Almost instantly, lakers took their positions along the outer harbour's east side and West Street walls or above and below Lock 8 almost to Ramey's Bend. Crews could be seen securing lines, anchors, and shore ladders to the wall below along with other "hunkering-down" for winter activities. Soon after, the bulk of the crew were on their way home to reacquaint with their families while a skeleton crew remained onboard to keep watch of the ship and assist marine contractors and handlers responsible for upgrades and other odd jobs to prepare for the upcoming season.
Meanwhile, like the crew member's kids, I got to see more of my dad who during the regular shipping season worked all kinds of crazy shifts as a canal bridge operator and then lockmaster at Lock 8. Once the canal closed though, he worked mostly days doing maintenance jobs along the canal or waterwatch at Lock 8, which like in the snap below, was a job that required him to monitor the pumps that continually emptied water from the bottom of the lock so that annual maintenance checks and repairs could be competed. Winter lay-up was like an extended holiday or an opportunity for many to re-energize or continue life at a slower pace. It may also have been an opportunity to fire up old relationships. I wonder what the birthrate was in the autumn that followed a "winter lay-up". Two of my younger sisters were born in late September. Hmmm!! c):-o

That's the RT HON PAUL J. MARTIN in the background in this March 2005 snap along with Port Colborne's third bridge which means at least one was down at all time for vehicles or pedestrians to cross to the other side.

While laying-up for winter continues to occur, it just seems to be starting later every year for many fleets including two of the three CSL self unloaders that are laying up at Port Colborne (WHITEFISH BAY and RT HON PAUL J. MARTIN) but didn't arrive until the last few days of January.
Meanwhile it business as usual for many other self unloading lakers the CAPT. HENRY JACKMAN http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/02/self-unloader-capt-henry-jackman.html which continues to haul salt to lake port cities like Chicago, or Algoma oil tankers like the ALGOSEA http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/09/tanker-algosea.html shuttling product between oil refineries located in Sarnia and Nanticoke and McAsphalt's articulated tug & barge vessels like the EVERLAST/NORMAN MCLEOD (http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/11/tug-barge-everlast-norman-mcleod.html) transfering liquid asphalt between Sarnia and their storage tanks in Windsor.
Though the term "Polar Vortex" has yet to be mentioned, weather conditions throughout the Great Lakes region has been bitterly cold since early January which has created massive ice jams along the Straits of Mackinac, St. Mary's River and especially the southern channel of the St. Clair River where few ships has been able to pass without being assisted by a US or Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, or both. I really enjoyed viewing the many photos and videos posted on Facebook by my "Know Your Ships" friends living along the St. Clair River of ships going nowhere fast without the constant effort of our coast guard icebreakers. One video that I tried to share with you but won't open was posted by a US Coast Guardsman of his cutter, the BRISTOL BAY, working the CCGS SAMUEL RISLEY as they escorted the Windsor bound articulated tug & Barge  EVERLAST/NORMAN MCLEOD through river brash ice. It's a great video and to view it, go to Facebook's US Coast Guard's page and scroll down to the heading "Keeping Lanes Open". Love the Music too!! ENJOY!!

Instead of ice, the treacherous current leading to the nearby Seaway power dam was the issue of the day for the articulated tug & barge, EVERLAST and NORMAN MCLEOD as they slowly approached the western entrance to Iroquois Lock in May 2013. Their passage was not only observed by myself but also a family of osprey seen viewing the EVERLAST's wheelhouse from a special perch that was built and erected at the top of a light standard by lock workers. There was good reason to be concerned because the barge NORMAN MCLEOD was built to carry a special cargo of liquid asphalt which is typically heated to temperatures as his as 350 degrees celsius. Named in honor of the person who developed asphalt technology and facilitated modern highway surfacing methods in Canada and abroad, the NORMAN MCLEOD was built in 2001 in Nanjing, China then towed to Port Colborne, where all machinery and cargo systems were installed by Fraser Marine and Industrial Ltd. Double-skinned with a spoon-shaped bow, the 379' MCLEOD is owned by McAsphalt Marine Transportation of Hamilton, Ontario and is used to haul up to 11,000 tons of heated liquid asphalt and heavy bunker oil in segregated tanks from oil refineries to their storage facilities on the Great Lakes and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  

Meanwhile, joined at the hip or rather by an articulating coupler system, is the 143' and 6,000 hp tug EVERLAST. When launched in Hakodate, Japan in 1976 for Russian company FESCO, her name was BILIBINO and she mostly pushed ocean barges in Russia's far east. Her name was changed to EVERLAST in 1997 when she became a salvage tug for Greek company, Portolos. In 2001 the EVERLAST was purchased by McAsphalt Marine, a joint venture with ULS group, and she's been pushing the barge MCLEOD around in all kinds of seas and ice conditions everyday since though her coupler system allows her to linked at anytime to the fleet's other asphalt carrying barge, JOHN J. CARRACK.
As the osprey family and I looked on at the EVERLAST's unusual looking bridge which appears to be raised high above her superstructure on 'stilts', you can't help but notice the many familiarities of former Upper Lakes Steamship Company lakers which all were painted with black hulls, white superstructures, and red & black funnels that were adorned with a unique looking 'white diamond'. While the 'white diamond' marking was replaced with a 'black bear' when Upper Lakes Steamships was sold to Algoma Central Railway in 2011, it's certainly nice to see the EVERLAST and her sister VICTORIOUS  motoring along in the original ULS markings on their stack. It has a certain 'everlasting' effect, don't you think? c):-))

Self Unloader ROGER BLOUGH

"There's a big laker called the ROGER BLOUGH, 

With a last name that actually rhymes with COW, 

Though she was built strong and tough,

To haul iron ore and other stuff, 

Her wide curvy stern makes her look like SOW."

A limerick of the ROGER BLOUGH. YES!! c):-) Well maybe not a great limerick, like the one about a man from Nantucket, whose daughter ran off with his money-laden bucket to Pawtucket, or something like that, but at least all the rhymes kind of work, and according to one of the clerks at the Poe Lock information centre, the BLOUGH is known to move very slow like a lazy over-grown pig when transiting the 1200' lock (not his exact words, BTW) 

Though not a 1000 footer per se, the 858'x105' BLOUGH appeared fully loaded and since she had only two and half feet to spare on either side of the lock wall, you can appreciate the "all ahead slow" directive because having the BLOUGH -  "PLOUGH" into a fender or gate is not something any skipper wants on a resume, eh. c):-o

All kidding and innuendos aside, the ROGER BLOUGH has been a unique ship since construction on this classic straighdecker began in 1968 at the American Shipbuilding Company yards in Lorain, Ohio for the USS Great Lakes fleet of Duluth, Minnesota. Built as two sections, the ROGER BLOUGH was christened in June 1972 and named after the retired Chairman of the Board of the United States Steel Corporation.

Though she gives the appearance of a gearless bulk carrier, the BLOUGH is actually a self unloader. Instead of the typical long boom rising high above her decks, the BLOUGH is equipped with a specially designed shuttle type transverse self unloading boom that you can see located below decks behind the engine room at her "sow-looking" curvy stern. SOOEY!! c):-o Meanwhile, when discharging her load of talconite pellets from the iron ranges along Lake Superior, the boom is extended 54 feet on either side of the BLOUGH into compatible hoppers at the US Steel docks in Gary, Indiana, South Chicago, Illinois and Conneaut, Ohio. The ROGER BLOUGH is capable of carrying almost 44 thousand tons of iron ore pellets, and when fully operational, her transverse boom can unload at a rate of 10,000 tons an hour. What a racket that must make, eh? c)8-() Note to Self: Hold off "Power Nap" until this big baby gets underway or when she lays up for winter which she just did this week at Erie, Pennsylvania.
However, though not as much a hassle as when "Polar Vortex" created Lake Superior ice put a hole in her hull at the beginning of this year's delayed shipping season, her journey home was also extremely slow going until US and Canadian icebreakers came to the rescue and helped the BLOUGH plough through the ice-jammed St. Clair River and then underway to her well deserved end of season rest. Ahhh c);-b

Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger VEGA

It's not my fault. I'm a boatnerd and I got spoiled during our first winter vacation in Cuba where a day didn't go by without at least one saltie poke herself over the horizon and then motor past our resort just east of Havana at Playa del Esta. There were tankers, bulk and container ships, an albacore fish factory trawler and this "hippo-looking" monstrosity of a ship, the 656' car carrier MORNINGSTAR CONDUCTOR http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/02/car-carrier-morning-conductor.html. YES!!c):-b

Though I didn't see anything motoring along the horizon last year when we vacationed at Varadero, this year I lucked out real good from another Varadero resort which was located near the end of the 20 kilometre sand-spit peninsula. Though I wasn't able to capture her hull in the snap below as she disappeared over the horizon, it's easy to make out her tall stack and rising aft superstructure. Also, if you look a little further to the right, you can see her white bow mast popping up. My guess is she was a tanker and fairly long based on the distance from the bridge and the forward mast. Exciting stuff eh!! c):-()

When we took the double-decker bus down to the Varadero marina at the end of the peninsula, I lucked out again. First because the new commercial mall there had free wifi whether you were a hotel guest or not, and most importantly parked beyond the catamaran sailboat docks was a boat, the 184' ferry and cargo ship PLUTON. c):-))  Built in Greece in 1966, the PLUTON loads vehicles, truck or whatever, by lowering her partially flattened bow much like a landing craft. COOL!! When we returned to the Marina later the week, the PLUTON had just left her dock and was motoring easterly out Bahia de Cardenas towards one of the nearby Cayos.

Meanwhile, as the landing craft/ferry sailed away, I couldn't help but notice a familiar looking vessel parked in about the same area where the PLUTON was parked earlier in the week. Though it appeared that a large hydraulic shovel was loading something into it, I was certain it was a trailing suction hopper dredger much like the OCEAN TRAVERSE NORD, which I saw near Prescott, Ontario in May 2013. Feel free to check out my post about her: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/06/trailing-suction-hopper-dredger-ocean.html

The name of my mystery red hulled boat was VEGA and after researching for info about her background, I found out that she in fact was a dredger and like the OCEAN TRAVERSE NORD, after sucking silt and sediment from the shallow bottom, the VEGA's contents can be blasted ashore from a huge nozzle you can see at her bow, or dropped freely in deeper water when the hull is opened at her keel. Built in Holland in 1969, the VEGA flies the flag of Cuba and like the PLUTON, is owned by Sermar of Havana.

Though tied off when I saw her last week in Varadero, the VEGA is actively being used to remove sediment due to harsh seas in the many "pocket bays" where current ports like Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos are located. Since most of Cuba's current imports and exports pass through these ports, deepening the bays are essential especially to allow American deep-draft container ship that may soon be transferring cargo as the US embargo with Cuba continues to be lifted. According to those who we talked to last week in Varadero, the Cuban people will be welcoming American commerce with open arms. So what's wrong with a little proactive planning to ensure all obstacles are removed when the business returns. After all, for the first time we were able to buy American made Coca-Cola and Pringles in Cuba. Junk or not, more is on its way. No doubt about it.

Bulk Carrier FEDERAL KUSHIRO

As 2014 came to an end at midnight yesterday, so did the shipping season for the St. Lawrence Seaway including the Welland Canal which meant all remaining salties had to scurry to get out of the system or face  a potentially gruesome Great White North winter at a Great Lakes port. Such was the case for the small British tanker, JACKSON PRINCESS which remained locked in the ice of Hamilton harbour during the winter of 1959-60. c):-o
It looked like a similar fate could happen this season as several salties remained anchored off Port Weller earlier this week waiting for a required pilot to become available to guide their way through the Seaway channels and locks to the lower river, and then eventually the Atlantic Ocean and home. The last ship through St. Lambert Lock at about midnight was the 473' Gibraltar flagged tanker STEN BERGEN. Unfortunately my day job prevented me this week from getting any snaps of the BERGEN or even the second to last downbound, that exited out of the waterway hours earlier, the 624' FEDERAL KUSHIRO. However I do have a few snaps here of the KUSHIRO that I took in May 2013.
On that day, I first snapped her passing the downbound self unloader CSL TADOUSSAC http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/07/self-unloader-csl-tadoussac.html below Iroquois Lock....

....and then she continued to slowly position herself near the entrance of the original Iroquois lock beyond the current lock's lift bridge...

...there the almost motionless FEDERAL KUSHIRO patiently waited for another downbound bulker to exit the lock...

...which appeared to be the once former Fednav fleetmate, and now CSL owned,  BIRCHGLEN http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/08/saltie-laker-birchglen.html.

So you thought FEDERAL KUSHIRO was sitting high out of the water. Check out these snaps taken in May 2009 by my fellow boatnerd, Ron Beaupre of another Fednav fleetmate and featured last week in Carlz Boats, the 607' FEDERAL MATTAWA http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2014/12/bulk-carrier-federal-mattawa.html BIG BOATS!! c);-b

BTW, to find out more about other salties that didn't quite make it out of the Great Lakes before the navigation season ended, be sure to check out a new series in the "News Channels" page of Boatnards.com (http://www.boatnerd.com) entitled "Frozen In" by veteran Great Lakes boat expert/writer, Skip Gilham. It'll give you something to read as we "Escape from old man Winter" for a week in the Hot Hot HOT climes of Varadero, Cuba. Hasta luego, BABY!! c):-))

Bulk Carrier FEDERAL MATTAWA

The last time we ventured down to the St. Lawrence River on Boxing Day there was all kinds of snow on the ground, the temperature was -11 celsius and in the wind, it felt more like -18. BRRR c):-o Well rested and with our tummies full after a great Christmas dinner at our daughter's in Kanata, and with the daytime temperature hovering around +6 celsius, it was all systems go for our last trip down to the river for 2014.

For most Canadians though, whether the weather on Boxing Day is stinking cold or balmy like it was on Friday, it's not a big issue because for the most part they're just mulling around or standing in line at a big box or shopping mall store in climate controlled comfort while snapping up "deals of a lifetime" during the biggest Canadian sales event of the year.
Boxing Day falls on the day after Christmas and though when it started in mid 1800's as a day when British employers would give their workers or servants special gifts of food or money in a "BOX", today in Canada and many other commonwealth countries, "Boxing Day" is a sales holiday much like "Black Friday" is in the United States after their Thanksgiving where retailers will dramatically drop prices throughout the store.
However in recent years, retailers have expanded the sales event to "Boxing Week" which allows more time to burst your budget, or for boatnerds like ourselves the opportunity to snap the many down bound salties that are frantically attempting to make it out of of the St. Lawrence Seaway before it closes for the winter on December 31st, much like the bulk carrier BLACKY was doing when I snapped her passing the Morrisburg dock and my shivering spouse, Janie and TannerDog 2 years ago. See more about the BLACKY here: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/12/boxing-day-is-extra-day-off-after.html, or NOT c);-b

Meanwhile, back at the blog, it certainly was uniquely mild when I snapped our first boat find of the day, the 607" FEDERAL MATTAWA below the Battle of Crysler's Farm Park near Morrisburg, but the wind was howling and I nearly lost my hat. c(:-() In fact earlier in the day, wind gusts were reported to be as high as 60 mph causing many boats to seek shelter in Prince Edward Bay west of Kingston until the winds dropped to a safer speed to navigate the narrow Thousand Island section of the upper St. Lawrence River. Wrong time of year to be blown aground, eh. c):-O

The bulk carrier FEDERAL MATTAWA was built at the Wenchong Shipyards in Guangzhou, China in 2005. Though she flies the flag of Malta, the MATTAWA is German owned but chartered to Fednav of Montreal, Quebec. Fednav is Canada's largest ocean-going dry bulk shipping company and manages over 100 owned or chartered ships throughout the world. They are also the international leader in shipping on the Great Lakes, as well as the Canadian Arctic. Feel free to check out my post about their icebreaking bulk carrier, the ARCTIC, a ship that would have been handy last winter when that "Polar Vortex" locked up the Great Lakes of ice real good. That link is: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2013/12/ice-breaking-motor-vessel-arctic.html
Fednav ships that we see along the Seaway and Great Lakes are generally well maintained, and after their word mark prefix, "FEDERAL" each ship features the name of an international port like http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2014/11/bulk-carrier-federal-kumano.html) or a Canadian river like the "MATTAWA" which flows into the Ottawa River about 300 km northeast of here. On another breezy and balmy day last September, I snapped the MATTAWA as she motored past Windsor, Ontario on the Detroit River in the snaps below.
Meanwhile, the FEDERAL MATTAWA has since cleared the Seaway and is well on her way to Ghent, Belgium, with her load of "Boxing Day Bargains" or NOT! c);-b

Multi Purpose Dry Cargo Ship EDENBORG

Though named after the beautiful and enchanted biblical garden that you may have heard or read about in Sunday School or Catechism, the only thing that the 452' EDENBORG looked fruitful of, was "RUST!!". c):-o I snapped the multi purpose dry cargo ship in September 2012 during our "Whirlwind Tour to the Soo & Back" and since she was parked at the Purvis Marine Salvage dock, is it safe to presume she's was picking up a load of recycled steel, hence her own scrappy appearance? c):-S

Hardly the case but rather her overwhelming display of rust has resulted from constantly battling the harsh ocean seas and salt being sprayed across her bow and all over during several trans-Atlantic crossings annually. Actually her looks clearly explains why we inland-seas boatnerds call them "Salties".
Built in 2010 at her homeport of Delfzijl, Netherlands, the EDENBORG is owned by Royal Wagenborg Shipping which is also based in Delfzijl. Anyone who has spent time snapping boats throughout the Great Lakes, will have seen many Wagenborg ships, all with their red banded grey hull, bold white superstructure and with their names ending with the suffix, "BORG", which is norse for "Fortified or Castle-like". Also, FYI: "WAGEN" is old Dutch for "Wagon" or when used as a verb, it means "To Venture". Therefore, according to the 2014 issue of "Know Your SHIPS", of Wagenborg's fleet of 180 'fortified castle-like' ships, 52 of them 'ventured' through the Great Lakes last year. I did not know that. c):-o
The first Wagenborg ship that we came across was the 469' ATLANTICBORG on Canada Day 2012. I snapped her (below) at Cardinal, Ontario laden with wind turbines bound for near Ogdensburg, New York. To read more about our ATLANTICBORG sighting, click on to this link: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/07/canada-day-2012-and-what-better-way-to.html, or NOT.

Two end of day snaps of two 'sleek and serpent' looking Wagenborg multi purpose cargo ships, and my last batch of boat snaps taken on the Canadian side of the Soo. What we snapped on the other side of the bridge and St. Clair River during that trip, or during our other boat watching adventures to New Orleans, the Detroit River, Fremantle, Australia or while picnicking along the Seaway will be coming along soon to a Carlz Boats near you. I know you can hardly wait. c);-b