By Jody L. Aho and George Wharton
This classic Great Lakes bulk carrier was built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, and entered service on September 24, 1952. The vessel was built along the same basic plans used for building U.S. Steel’s “Super,”or AA, class of vessels (Leon Fraser and others) in 1942.
The vessel was powered by a high pressure and a low-pressure steam turbine engine, each rated at 2,200 s.h.p., giving her a speed under full load of between 13.5 and 14 m.p.h. The engines were built by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1941 and were originally installed aboard the ocean vessel Alcoa Protector, which was sunk by the Japanese in late 1943. The engines were recovered from the wreck several years later to be used in this vessel. The vessel was fitted with oil-fired, water-tube boilers to produce steam.
The cosmetic differences between her and the Leon Fraser class for U.S. Steel included a larger, more modern pilothouse with the captain’s quarters on the Texas deck behind the pilothouse. The after cabins were enclosed, and she had a smaller, more streamlined stack with the mast attached to the forward side of the stack. Strangely, the vessel had the classic counter stern common on older Great Lakes vessels as opposed to the modified cruiser stern which was becoming more popular by 1952. Nonetheless, she was always an attractive vessel with a look that seemed ahead of its time.
The vessel began its career with the Pioneer Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the Hutchinson fleet, and was originally named Charles L. Hutchinson (2). As Hutchinson was an independent company not closely affiliated with any one steel firm, the vessel’s early years were spent hauling iron ore from Duluth and other ports to a variety of lower lakes steel mills.
When Pioneer folded at the end of the 1961 season, she and 52-year-old fleetmate W.H. McGean were sold to the Ford Motor Company. The Hutchinson became the Ernest R. Breech, while the smaller McGean became the Robert S. McNamara. Under the Ford flag, the Breech took on a different trade pattern. Duluth remained a common ore loading port, as well as Escanaba and Marquette, but the Breech began to make frequent trips to the Ford Motor Company steel-making complex on the Rouge River in Dearborn.
She stayed in that pattern until the early 1980s. With the depressed steel industry during the early and mid-1980s, Ford began to use the Breech to carry grain. The grain was often loaded at the Cargill elevators in Duluth, with occasional visits to other Twin Ports elevators, and was taken to Buffalo.
After Ford acquired the Edward B. Greene and the Walter A. Sterling from Cleveland-Cliffs late in 1984, the Breech began hauling grain almost exclusively. After the 1987 season, the Breech’s career with Ford was over, and rumors were afloat regarding the boat’s future. Scrap was one of the rumors, but early in 1988 the vessel was purchased by Kinsman Lines (Great Lakes Associates Inc.) Rocky River, Ohio, to replace one of the Kinsman fleet’s 600-foot, coal-burning straight-deckers. On June 24, 1988, the newly named Kinsman Independent (3) set sail on her first voyage for Kinsman, and it resumed its familiar Duluth to Buffalo trade route.
Occasionally, Kinsman Independent deviated from that route, usually to load grain in Thunder Bay. On November 24, 1990, she was on one of her Thunder Bay runs when she grounded hard on the rocks off Isle Royale on Lake Superior. The vessel somehow ended up 25 miles off course and was severely damaged. Given the level of damage to the vessel, which was estimated at $2 million, and the uncertainty of salvage before bad weather set in (the fall of 1990 was relatively warm and storm-free), again rumors were that the vessel had sailed her last. However, the Kinsman Independent was towed to Thunder Bay and was repaired over the winter of 1990-91 before resuming service.
Kinsman Independent’s career continued with the seasonal trips from the lakehead to Buffalo until changes in the way grain was shipped brought her future into question. Hauling grain to the elevators in Buffalo was once considered a trade that only suited straight-deck bulk carriers, guaranteeing work for Independent. In 2000, self-unloading vessels began delivering grain and unloading into hoppers without the need for shoreside equipment.
That trend continued, and in 2002 an unloading hopper was installed at the General Mills Frontier Grain Elevator, the elevator serviced by the Kinsman Independent. With the ability to accept grain from self-unloading vessels, the new hopper put the Independent out of work. Kinsman Independent’s fleet mate Kinsman Enterprise was sold early in 2002 for scrapping.
Kinsman Independent laid up for a final time in Buffalo, N.Y., on December 16, 2002, after delivering her final cargo of approximately 600,000 bushels of grain from the General Mills “S” annex in Superior, Wisconsin. With General Mills in Buffalo now capable of receiving cargoes delivered by self-unloaders, her owners replaced the straight-deck bulk carrier by chartering the veteran self-unloader Joseph H. Frantz from Oglebay Norton Marine Services to service their accounts. In the spring of 2004, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) approved the application of Minch Transit Co. (Great Lakes Associates) to sell the Kinsman Independent to McKeil Work Boats Ltd. of Hamilton, Ontario. On September 1, 2004; the Kinsman Independent was towed from Buffalo by McKeil tug Tony MacKay and Nadro tug Vigilant I bound for the Welland Canal and Hamilton, arriving at Hamilton in the late afternoon of the next day.
In late May 2005, the bulker was officially registered and renamed Voyageur Independent on behalf of Voyageur Marine Transport Ltd., Ridgeville, Ontario,(after being acquired by them from McKeil Work Boats). The Voyageur Independent received an extensive refit in Hamilton including the installation of a new General Electric V-16 four stroke, turbo-charged 7 FDM EFI diesel engine rated at 4,100 continuous b.h.p. at 1,050 R.P.M. (3,015 kW), a new propeller shaft, new propeller with a controllable pitch propeller control system and two new Caterpillar diesel generator sets. On November 14, 2005, Voyageur Independent departed Hamilton on her maiden voyage in ballast to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Her passage through the Welland Canal was delayed until November 19 due to high winds closing the canal. After arriving at Richardson’s Elevator and later shifting to Mission Terminals in Thunder Bay on November 21, the Voyageur Independent departed Thunder Bay on November 22 with her first load under her new name. The cargo consisted of 17,673.27 tons (17,957.17 mt) of wheat for a St. Lawrence River port.
On Tuesday, August 28, 2007, Rand Logistics of New York, NY announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Lower Lakes Towing Ltd of Port Dover, Ontario acquired the Voyageur Independent and fleet mate Voyageur Pioneer for $25 million CAD from the Voyageur group of companies. Under her new ownership, Voyageur Independent continued to service companies engaged in the grain trades. On February 29, 2008, Lower Lakes registered the bulker with Transport Canada under the new name Ojibway out of Nanticoke, Ontario.
Due to needed hull repairs the cost of which could not be justified, Ojibway sailed up the Seaway under her own power during spring 2022 for Marine Recycling Corp., Port Colborne, ON, for scrapping.