Cuyahoga’s Final Trip Will End at Scrapyard

TUESDAY 9 a.m. UPDATE: The Cuyahoga scrap tow arrived at MRC Tuesday morning

ORIGINAL REPORT: The McKeil Marine tugs Molly M1 and Wyatt M departed Ashtabula, OH, just before noon on Monday towing the fire-damaged laker Cuyahoga on her final voyage, which will end sometime Tuesday at Marine Recycling Corp., Port Colborne, ON.

Cuyahoga was the last active example out of the 16 Great Lakes freighters built for the U.S. Maritime Commission in 1943 to boost iron ore shipping capacity during World War II (known on the Lakes as the “Maritimers”), and the last surviving example of the L6-S-A1 subclass. The Ayers boasted a modern cruiser stern, rounded pilothouse and, before her repowering in 2000, a four-crank Lentz-Poppet double-compound steam engine rated at 2,500 IHP.  

Hull 828 was originally laid down as Mesabi, and shortly after launching was acquired by Great Lakes Steamship Co., which named her J. Burton Ayers. The Ayers cycled through multiple owners – Great Lakes Steamship Co., Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance (1957), Wilson Marine Transit (1966), and Oglebay Norton’s Columbia Transportation Division (1974). That same winter of her sale to Columbia, she was converted from a gearless bulk carrier and fitted with a two-belt gravity-fed self-unloader with a 250-foot boom.

In December 1989 she was laid up in Toledo, marking the end of her first career chapter. Economic shifts left the Ayers languishing in long-term layup starting in August 1991.

Unlike her contemporaries, her career was not yet finished. A new company, Lower Lakes Towing Co., led by Capt. Scott Bravener, saw an opportunity to purchase the vessel. The sale, official on August 1, 1995, brought the American-built Ayers under the Canadian flag. The vessel was towed to a Toledo drydock for a comprehensive hull survey and painting, then towed to Sarnia for topside outfitting under her new grey-and-white livery.

Rechristened Cuyahoga on October 7, after Cleveland’s twisty river, she embarked on her inaugural Lower Lakes Towing voyage from Sarnia to Meldrum Bay on November 12 to load for Cleveland, ending her maiden voyage in her namesake port.

On the evening of May 23, 2023, Cuyahoga suffered an engine room fire while sailing on Lake Erie bound for Kingsville, ON, from Marblehead, OH. Orders were given to abandon ship and nearby vessels Indiana Harbor and Radcliffe R. Latimer arrived on scene to assist until the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards could arrive. The fire was delayed in being put out by issues with the CO2 system, but it was put out later in the evening. Cuyahoga put down anchor during the event. A few days later she was towed into port at Kingsville, ON, and unloaded her cargo with power from mobile generators. She was towed to Ashtabula, OH, for repairs in early June. Over the summer her engine was removed and refurbished and the fire damage repaired. Cuyahoga returned to service on October 4, 2023.

Fire struck Cuyahoga yet again on March 15, 2024, while in winter layup at Ashtabula, OH. The fire was believed to have been started by sparks from a welder’s torch, but the conveyor belt on the self-unloading boom caught fire and burned, and the deck below the boom sustained damage. Repairs were not considered economical give the age of the vessel.

Janey Anderson, Sam Hankinson, Richard Jenkins, Shipwatcher News