Monroe container port poised to move best of Michigan autos, agriculture

MONROE, Mich. — Michigan’s first container terminal is rising here, potentially positioning the state to grow its supply chain, support auto manufacturing and move the state’s agricultural goods to faraway markets.

The Port of Monroe recently received $16 million in state and federal grants to build a terminal that will allow the port to handle container shipments, the most common and efficient shipment method for goods. The port is located on River Raisin, connecting to the west end of Lake Erie.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters announced in October that the Port of Monroe would receive roughly $11 million through the Port Infrastructure Development Program. The grant was awarded by the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It also received $5 million in state funds in November. As a part of Michigan Maritime Gateway, it will be the first maritime container terminal in the state and the most modern such facility on the Great Lakes.

“This port has been working for more than seven years to be able to handle containerized cargo, and now with the new container terminal, Michigan automakers can export cars and trucks they make to Europe via the St. Lawrence Seaway,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during a tour of the port Monday, adding that the state is in the process of building five electric vehicle battery plants, semiconductor chip facilities, solar panels, and wind turbines in Michigan. “By supporting facilities like the Port of Monroe on a state, federal, and local level, we can work together to bolster Michigan’s supply chain.”

She added: “This port is really vital to our state’s economy. The goods that flow here represent some of our most profitable and important industries like mining, energy, and soon, agriculture. The diversified economy activity spurred by the port supports thousands of jobs through the supply chain and drives tens of millions of dollars of profit. It’s a big deal.

“If you look at a map and see all of the commerce that comes through this part of the Great Lakes system, you’d recognize that this is a really important place for us to be,” Whitmer said. “This is critical. A lot of facilities here were born in the 1930s and have not been significantly upgraded until now.”

The monies will go towards updating the port’s riverfront, turning basin, maritime readiness slip construction and shore power infrastructure, according to its site. Also on tap would be a cargo scanning facility, the governor said.

Riverfront work will include replacing the surface of the existing wharf, constructing a second riverfront wharf to be used exclusively for vessel transfer of wind energy cargos, and reinforcing shoreline stabilization. Turning basin work will include rehabilitating the concrete dock cap, bollard and fender installation, and replacing roughly 390 feet of failed sheet pile.

The small boat readiness slip construction will include demolishing and rehabilitating an existing small boat slip to be used by harbor assist vessels. And shore power infrastructure will include removing existing overhead lines and providing shore power to the riverfront wharves.

Coal for DTE Energy Co.’s power plant in Monroe accounts for most of the cargo received at the Monroe port, which received about 2.5 million tons of cargo in 2022. It moves other major freight via ships, trains, and trucks. The Monroe port, the only one on Lake Erie, will be the first container facility in the country to scan, by radiation and X-ray, 100% of the containers that come through the facility, said Paul LaMarre, the port’s director.

“Now, Michigan will be in that business to ensure that goods can travel to and from our region as expeditiously as possible and as economically as possible,” LaMarre said. “We won’t be moving record numbers of containers. We will be moving value containers that are adding value to our regional manufacturing.”

Over 10 years ago, the port was a field “overgrown with trees and an underutilized piece of property that wasn’t creating jobs or commerce,” LaMarre said. “We’ve gotten to a point where we are being regarded as a national example of how you put a port and intermodal facility in a small community like Monroe back on the map.”

“We’ve been making ongoing investments in the port since 2012,” he said. “We’ve had the most exponential tonnage growth of any port in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system during that time. … We’re the biggest little port on the Great Lakes,” he said.

The port is expected to finish its updates for its full-service container business by the Spring 2024.

Detroit News

Shipping season starts with top hat ceremony in Goderich, Ont.

Captain John Lavery had the honour of wearing a ceremonial top hat after being the first ship to arrive in the Goderich, Ont. port this shipping season.

“My first time, being first. I’ve been here plenty of times over the years, but this is the first time I’ve been first,” said Lavery.

The ceremonial top hat has been awarded in Goderich every year since 1932.

Historically, it used to be a race to get to port after the Great Lakes ice breaks up, but ice cover wasn’t a problem this year. In fact, there’s been a 75 per cent decline in ice cover on the Great Lakes over the past 50 years.

“Usually, you get some ice near the Mackinaw Bridge. This year, there was some, but not much. Usually, we need the Coast Guard to cut us through there, but this year there might have been one or two days they needed assistance,” said Lavery.

Lake ice is a huge impediment to shipping, said Lavery, especially back in 2014 when the ice cover surpassed 80 per cent. It only reached 20 per cent this winter.

“That year we had all the ice, we left Port Colborne for Thunder Bay. That’s usually a three day trip. Took us three weeks, because of the ice,” said Lavery.

So this winter, with no lake ice, shipping only stopped for a couple weeks for ship maintenance and mine maintenance in Goderich, making the top hat ceremony more about tradition than actually kick-starting the shipping season.

“We’ve been doing this since 1932. Even during COVID, we were able to hand out the top hat. It’s an important part of our community,” said Goderich Deputy Mayor Trevor Bazinet.

London CTV News

Well-known but ‘humble’ Port Huron philanthropist Jim Acheson dies at 86

PORT HURON, Mich. – During one Southside Summer Festival in the early 2000s, Donna Niester remembers being stopped by local residents who had positive feedback on the event – unaware its benefactor sat beside her.

The festival was among the many acts of goodwill for the businessman, Jim Acheson. But on that occasion, Niester, now president and CEO of Acheson Ventures, said Acheson remained silent, listening, even though the compliment was his. “He would not speak up. He wouldn’t acknowledge that he was right next to me and tell them, ‘You’re welcome,” she said Monday. “He would just smile, not looking for credit at all. So, to me, that truly speaks volumes.”

Acheson Ventures confirmed early Monday that Jim Acheson, the longtime philanthropist died Sunday. He was 86.

Neil Schultheiss, founder of the boatnerd3.jasonbowlerdesign.com/ web site, remembers Acheson as a down-to-earth kind of guy. “He was a fan of the site and gave us all the resources of Acheson Ventures to establish Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping as a 501(c)(3). He was a very kind man and avid boater, he would stop and talk about the freighters and you would think he was just a regular guy.”

Acheson was also the guiding light of the Great Lakes Maritime Center, now a staple of the Port Huron waterfront and for many years host to a Boatnerd research center.

Following the sale of his family’s business, Acheson founded Acheson Ventures in the late 1990s and other charity programs, particularly through the Community Foundation of St. Clair County. He was also known for using his fortune to buy roughly 30 waterfront acres off of Fourth Street, where he had wider dreams to redevelop and improve the area.

Niester, who’s worked with Acheson since his foundations’ inception, said his friends and loved ones were “flooded” by memories of him this week. “We would truly have to argue with Jim to put his name on something,” Niester said. “He just always wanted to do it quietly and sometimes he did it in somebody else’s name. He truly was a humble man.”

Randy Maiers, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, said something similar about Acheson, who, despite the range of support the multimillionaire could afford, kept himself out of the limelight.

More recently, he was often at his home in Florida, Maiers said, trusting his philanthropic activities to be overseen by Niester and a close set of advisors. “He trusted his team completely to carry on his legacy,” Maiers said. “Jim was most comfortable just at his house or on his boat with friends.”

Acheson was 'a visionary of what Port Huron could look like.'

He was the grandson of inventor and Thomas Edison protégé, Dr. Edward Acheson, who founded Acheson Colloids Co. The company would become the massive and international Acheson Industries before the family company was sold in 1998.

Originally uninterested in the family business, Acheson went to the University of Michigan, leaving after three years and joining the U.S. Army. It wasn’t until later that he joined the company, manning the helm after his brother and father each died within months in 1975.

Acheson Ventures laid the groundwork for decades of philanthropic work. By the early 2000s, Acheson was already having a widely-recognized impact on the community despite his often-noted unassuming nature and casual approach in dress and demeanor.

In 2001, the multimillionaire philanthropist and businessman topped the list of a Times Herald survey, asking readers who “runs Port Huron.” At the time, he told the newspaper he and his family were well taken care of, only needing so much support financially and joking he was "just throwing money at things” he believed in.

Over time, Niester admitted that the list became difficult to measure. “It is so immense that it’ll take a while to talk about that,” Niester said. “But the other piece is his vision, or specifically, Jim grew up on the southside of Port Huron, which is why it has been the focus of so much of what he’s donated. He’s done things to help the schools and (in) health care. He truly was a visionary of what Port Huron could look like.”

Acheson has supported the city of Port Huron and its parks and recreation and police departments, Port Huron’s largest hospital, the YMCA, St. Clair County Community College, SONS Outreach, and more.

"(Jim) Acheson was a champion for our city and our residents," City Manager James Freed said in a message. "His deeply held belief in what our city could become instilled confidence and hope in others. So many community goals were achieved, so many lives (were) touched because of his philanthropy. … He was a good friend and a decent man, a true gentleman."

Early on, in addition to the Southside Summer Festival, Acheson used his entities to pay for other community features and improvements, sponsoring a tall ship event at the Seaway Terminal and a host of other smaller projects with the Community Foundation, including a youth home for homeless teens and the establishment of Studio 1219, a former art gallery space that’s since been sold and operates as the Foundry.

Maiers said the most visible of his philanthropy might be the Blue Water River Walk, the mile-long stretch on the St. Clair River shoreline he gifted the Community Foundation in 2010.

“Jim’s dad actually helped create this foundation here in 1944. So, I know Jim was real proud to carry on the legacy that his dad and grandfather started. But it’s hard to overstate what the Acheson family has meant to Port Huron, in this region, and certainly, the Community Foundation,” Maiers said. “He loved Port Huron. He loved the southside. It’s not a coincidence that our offices are on the southside just down the street from Jim Acheson’s office.”

Funeral arrangements hadn't been announced as of Monday afternoon.

Times-Herald

Historian and author Joel Stone is Detroit group’s Historian of the Year

DETROIT –  Joel Stone, a public historian and curator emeritus at the Detroit Historical Society, has been named Historian of the Year by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit.

He was presented with a plaque Saturday at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, OH, by MHSD President Roger LeLievre. The award is conferred annually.

Raised in the Detroit area, Stone learned the love of boats from his parents, and by extension his grandfathers – one a sailboat enthusiast, the other a professional photographer who captured the passing parade on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Joel began sailing competitively after college and worked foredeck on more than a dozen Bayview-Mackinac competitors. For the last 20 years, he has crewed on a Capri 25 out of the Grosse Pointe Boat Club.

He holds degrees and certificates in journalism, history, archaeology, and archival management from the University of Detroit, Wayne State University, and the University College Cork, Ireland. During his time at UofD, he sought out MHSD charter member Fr. Edward Dowling – like so many others – for studies in Great Lakes research. He spent a summer spinning records on the Bob-Lo boats, and while in Ireland became interested in the culture of coastal trading.

Following his undergraduate years, Stone enjoyed a rewarding stint in music retail before moving into his first career as a graphic artist, designer, and fabricator. Clients included Detroit’s automotive Big 3, as well as cultural institutions, national healthcare organizations and numerous marketing firms.

Stone was hired by the Detroit Historical Society (DHS) initially as a maritime docent in 2006. A year later, he became curator for the Detroit Historical Museum, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, and the Collections Resource Center. In 2012, he was named Senior Curator, and in 2013 participated in a full renovation of both museums. He later helped develop an internationally recognized community history project related to Detroit’s 1967 racial uprising.

Stone is a past president of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History and co-editor of its Great Lakes Art Database. He currently edits Telescope magazine as a member of the Great Lakes Maritime Institute. Joel belongs to the International Ship Masters’ Association Lodge #7 and the Prismatic Club of Detroit and has been a volunteer reader at the Detroit Radio Information Service, an audio news carrier for the print-impaired, since 1986.

He authored “Floating Palaces of the Great Lakes: a History of Passenger Steamships on the Inland Seas” (University of Michigan Press, 2015), and more recently “100 Years of the Detroit Historical Society” (Wayne State University Press, 2021). He also wrote and illustrated “Grandpa’s Big Book of Boats” (Bishop’s Gate Publishing, 1993). Edited works include “Detroit1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies” (Wayne State University Press, 2017), “Interpreting Maritime History at Museums and Historic Sites” (AASLH/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), “Border Crossings: The Detroit River Region in the War of 1812” (Detroit Historical Society, 2012), and “Revolutionary Detroit: Portraits in Political and Cultural Change, 1760-1805” (Detroit Historical Society, 2009).

Joel lives with his wife, Linda Mast Stone, in Bloomfield Township near Detroit, and has been known to get paid to sing chanties and sea songs in public.

Group says Kingston is SS Keewatin’s best option for survival

Moving the SS Keewatin to Kingston is the best way to save the ship from the scrapyard, the man who led the effort to bring the ship to Port McNicoll and restore it over the past decade said.

“It is the only option and, trust me, we tried them all,” said Eric Conroy, founder of Friends of the Keewatin and part of the group that brought the ship back to Canada from Michigan in 2011.

“The problem is everybody these days is protecting their waterfront,” Conroy said. “Nobody wants, you know, a 118-year-old ship on their waterfront.”

Nobody, except for the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, that is. It made attaining the ship as a tourist attraction a key part of its renewal plan after returning to the Ontario Street location.

The land surrounding the Keewatin’s current location has been sold for residential development, so even if the ship were to stay in Port McNicoll, there would be no site available to accommodate it.

It’s a similar story in nearby communities that have been offered the chance to accept the ship but declined, Conroy said.

While Conroy admitted many in Port McNicoll are sad to see the ship go, the volunteers who helped restore the Keewatin in recent years are helping prepare it for the move and are training marine museum volunteers.

In late May, the ship is to be towed to a shipyard near the Welland Canal to undergo about $2 million worth of cosmetic refurbishment before being moved to Kingston in the late summer.

Among the work to be done on the ship is replacing the promenade decking, reinforcing the funnel, painting the ship’s two masts and rebuilding the wheelhouse.

“The ship itself inside is absolutely immaculate, including the engine, which is similar to the two that were on Titanic. It works,” he said. “The Smithsonian Institute is prepared to buy the engine, which would mean we’d have to scrap the ship to sell them the engine, which is worth $4 or $5 million on its own.”

Conroy said the plan to have the ship on display in Kingston is fitting, given its connection to Sir John A. Macdonald, who was instrumental in the creation of both the dry dock adjacent to the marine museum and the construction of the Keewatin and its sister ships.

Having the ship in Kingston will also mean many more people will see it compared to how many visited it in Port McNicoll.

“Even the best summer we ever had, which was the last one (2019), we got 10,000 visitors, so 10,000 visitors won’t pay the bills. It’s an expensive thing to keep,” he said. “If you live in an old house, you know you’re always fixing something. You get a great big ship like this and, boy, it’s expensive to operate.”

Conroy said he is confident the marine museum will be able to attract many more tourists to the ship.

In the next few weeks, volunteers in Port McNicoll, with the help of some from Kingston, are packing up the artifacts on board the ship for its trip down the lakes.

Conroy said donors have been offered the opportunity to have items returned prior to its departure, but the vast majority of the artifacts are staying with the ship.

Ottawa Citizen

Great Lakes Maritime Academy open ship details

TRAVERSE CITY — The community is invited to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy’s “Open Ship” showcasing the training ship State of Michigan from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 22.

The day will include:
· Self-guided tours of the T/S State of Michigan
· Interaction with current Maritime cadets
· An opportunity to learn more about the Maritime Academy, Maritime careers, how to become a chef on a ship and Navy commissioning options.

Tours will begin at the pier security gate entrance on the north side of NMC’s Great Lakes campus, 715 E. Front St. Low-heel, closed-toe, soft-soled shoes are highly recommended. The event will occur rain or shine.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Great Lakes Maritime Academy
maritime@nmc.edu
(231) 995-1200

GLMA

New icebreaker plans scaled down. Waaaaaaaaay down

WORSHINGTON, AC/DC – The recently-approved $858 bazillion defense bill included funding for a new ice breaker on the Great Lakes at least “as capable” as the current ice breaker S’mackinaw – which may or not be a good thing, according to Ollie O’Pinionated, certified amateur professional waterfront smack-talker.

“All that thing does is go around in circles,” opined O’Pinionated, from his lofty perch in Never-Neverland. “They should really bring back the original S’mack,” he harrumphed.

With the new breaker at least 11 years away, however, the USCG has expressed an interest in a simpler, less expensive vessel to help fill the gap. She is expected to be labelled WLBB-30.5 (or 30 1/2) and will likely be dubbed “Really Really Little S’mack” for the time being.

The word on the waterfront is that several northern Michigan helpful hardware places have expressed an interest in building the vessel for the coast guard. “We’re aces at that kind of thing,” said self-proclaimed nuts-and-bolts king Jack Hammer, based at Salt Saint Mary. He added his team has years (and years and years) of construction experience building spare keys for the adjacent Sioux Lox.

Is she coming or going? Even the company doesn’t know

EEEEEERIE, New Pensylhiork – With the acquisition of the former ASC by Bland Ill-logistics, it was announced today that the forebody of LLT’s Saginaw, formerly ASC’s John J. Boland, has been joined with the stern of the former ASC’s John J. Boland, along with a clone of the stern of the former ASC’s John J. Boland which was created in a shipyard accident involving an office copier and a time machine.

The new ship, christened the John John Jay Bollllllland, will position the combined fleet for greater efficiency, said Randy L. O’gistics, chief chief offfficer.

“It can load and unload at the same time,” O’gistics said. “Even better, it can unload the cargo from one hold into the other hold, and vice versa, continually loading and unloading the same cargo. We figure we can get 1,701 trips out of one load.” As of press time, company officials were studying. whether the ship needed to actually sail.”

Barkerbark belches record cargo of ping-pong balls

GREENJEANS, Wisnesotagan – A port record was set today when Interflake’s “Big Jim” Barkerbark unloaded a cargo of 1,771,561 Ping-Pong (insert registered trademark symbol here) balls in approximately 30 minutes.

“This achievement represents Interflake’s commitment to finding ever more diverse cargoes,” said “Big Jim” Barkerbark, namesake of the boat. Barkerbark credited relief crewman/utility infielder M.I. Moosey with the idea. “He said he got it from the place he used to work,” Barkerbark said. “Some TV show, I think.”

The cargo presented a unique challenge in navigation. “Stuffed the holds full-to-bursting and hardly got the load lines wet,” said Barkerbark’s relief skipper, Captain Ken Garew. “Wound up ballasting all the way to the top of the tanks and parked a few trucks on the deck just to keep the props and rudders in the water.”

The cargo presented few challenges in unloading. “They should be coming off the tip of the boom any minute now,” said Garew, moments before he was buried under an avalanche of small white plastic spheres.

CRAB-TUGs save time by being built, scrapped in same year

PORT ABULL, Michneconsin – The United States Navy today announced a new partnership with Tincanfactory Shipyards of Port Abull to produce the Navy’s new class of Combat Remote Articulated Barges. “These new, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge surface combatant assets will leverage the flexibility of multiple propulsion options with the cost-cutting measures of separately contained motive power and – what the hell was I talking about?” said Admiral Culler Teevy, chief of the Navy’s Warfare Application Visual Electronics Systems.

Each CRAB will be accompanied by an auxiliary command and propulsion system called a Terminal Unit Guidance. The CRAB-TUGs will replace the Littoral Combat Ships being built, and almost just as quickly slated for decommissioning, at shipyards on the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast.

“Those things couldn’t maneuver worth a damn in tight spots without the help of a tug, so we figured, what the hell, why not just have each unit come with its own TUG?” said Commander Hayle Merrypass, chief of the Navy’s Partitioned Limited Alternative Networking Bureau. “So we just decided to take the concept up a notch, so to speak.”

The CRAB-TUG concept evolved, in a manner similar to, but not quite like, the Skunk Works program that resulted in the Stealth fighter, with a suggestion from the Tincanfactory Ancillary Research and Development Internal Systems Division. “We had proposed to the Navy simply notching and converting the LCS’s slated for decommissioning, including some that were sitting in the building dock at the time,” said “Doc” Torhoo, at the time lord of TARDIS.

“That would have made too much sense – I mean, that would have resulted in a suboptimal implementation of specifically designed technologies,” said Commodore Sykes DeFore, chief of the Navy’s Gadget Utilization Electronic Seagoing Systems. “So we decided to build new.”

The first CRAB-TUGs are expected to enter service in 2026, with decommissioning later that year.

Edward L. Ryerson tunes up for new career in the music biz

CROOKED REEEVR, Oh-High-Oh! – Get your tickets now! The Cuyahoga Cliffs Co. ended months of rumors, speculation and uninformed opinions today by announcing they will be converting the much fawned-over Great Lakes freighter Edward L. Ryerson into a traveling steamboat/concert venue.  The rapturously-adored vessel will be entering a shipyard soon for the addition of massive loudspeakers, a stage, mosh pit and deluxe seating in the cargo holds.  The vessel’s hatch crane will be used to convert the indoor facility into an outdoor amphitheater on nice summer days and the ballast pumps will be used to turn the mosh pit into a wading pool.

Company spokesperson Mag Netite said the conversion is a wise use of an under-utilized asset.  “Once we witnessed the chaos surrounding the November 2022 sale of Taylor Swift tickets, we realized there is more money to be made in entertainment than in iron mining and steel making.” During the peak months of the shipping season, the vessel will visit ports from Duluth to Montreal, providing afternoon and evening concerts. In the off season, the ship will be tied up next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to offer an even more hands-on experience to visitors.

Fast Eddie will provide a spacious and acoustically-pure venue for all sorts of musical acts from county music to symphony orchestras.  The owners are currently in negotiation with Spruce Bringsteen to provide concerts on frequent repositioning cruises from port to port. “The Boss is famous for his land-based concerts that can last four hours or more“ said Ms. Netite.  “So filling a 8-12 hour cruise from say Cleveland to Detroit should be no problem for the E-Street Band.”

Also under negotiation is a 54th anniversary tour for the Beatles Yellow Submarine album and film.  If Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr can be convinced to re-unite, the vessel’s side ballast tanks will be converted into glass-fronted freshwater aquariums.

At least one popular musical act has already been blacklisted from performing on the vessel. Florence and the Machine, which is currently on world tour, have been asked not to perform at the new venue.  Nautical engineers expressed concern that lead singer Florence Welch’s thunderous voice and iconic vibrato could literally “shake rivets loose throughout the vessel.”  And the owners also expressed concern that Ms. Welch’s preference for performing barefoot might not end well, given the vessels steel decks can reach 140 degrees in the hot summer sun.

Be sure to watch Ticketblaster and the BoatWeird classified pages for future ticket sales.

Kale and kombucha on the menu may help recruit younger sailors

Upper Cholesterol, OH – Trimming the fat, and looking to spice up the appeal of sailing the Great Lakes, the long-standing Saturday night steak dinner on lakers may become a thing of the past.

In a recent interview, crew recruiting specialist Will U. Joinus observed that as older and too-much-salt-using veteran sailors retire, they’re taking the meat and potatoes diets with them. Newer, younger people have demanded healthier, more balanced meals, he said, adding that the industry is going to ridiculous lengths to crew the freighters.

“New alternatives could evolve into new traditions,” enthused Joinus. “For example, who doesn’t like grilled kale, served alongside a nutritious umani soup? Couple that with a fresh smoothie bar and bottomless kombucha and we’re sure to offer an irresistible working environment new recruits will line up to sign on to.”

Bacon at breakfast is also on the chopping block, he added. “Think of all the poor pigs being senselessly slaughtered just because bacon is the perfect pairing with eggs! Oink! The humanity!”

Crew of one the ultimate cost-cutting measure

ANOTHER CLEVERLY-NAMED CITY, Minnie-soda: In-Between-Lakes Steamship Co. has announced what is believed to be the second new boat built on the Great Lakes in 35 years. We’ve obtained a sneak preview of the design concept drawings. Built for maximum efficiency and lowest cost possible operation the vessel will feature a crew of one – a multi-talented multi-licensed, multi-tasking combination captain/mate/ chief steward/engineer/wiper/deckhand.

“We are going to save soooooo much money!” chortled J.C. “Cash” Penny-pincher, fleet See-E-Oh.

The vessel incorporates a one-time-only “paint product” and will be built for simple conversion to a museum upon retirement, a one-vessel-fits-all needs design.

Corpse forges ahead with lock connecting Duluth to Lake Agassiz

WISHWASHINGTON – The Corpse of Engine Ears today announced it was ready to award contracts for a new lock connecting Duluth to the sixth, and largest Great Lake, Lake Agassiz.

“Maintaining this vital waterborne commerce link to the largest of our freshwater assets is crucial to the economy and environment of the region, and to the nation and world as a whole,” said Gen. Storrs, commandant of the Corpse.

“Furthermore, it maintains the link between us and our Canadian cousins, and their numerous port cities along the shores of this 170,000-square-mile body of water,” Storrs said.

The awarding of contracts comes after decades of studies, requests-for-proposals, bid and rejected bids, not to mention the shifting attitudes toward the project, hailed as a boon or a boondoggle depending on who was in office.

“But now we’re ready to dig,” said Storrs. “We’ve bought the land, condemned the properties, moved the equipment into place and we’re ready to dig.”

Responding to a reporter’s question about whether the new lock, or even a canal, was necessary because Lake Agassiz dried up thousands of years before the Great Lakes even existed, Storrs said that should not affect the project much at all. “We’ll continue to reevaluate the needs of the project as more information becomes available,” he said.

Saavik. Savic? Cliffs Victory? If you get it, you get it. Live long and prosper

“CETI ALPHA SIX, OR MAYBE FIVE – During a lonely, rainy Friday night with nowhere to go and nothing good on the tube, Cliff Cleveland, assistant to the chief assistant designer at Cleveland-Cliffs, undertook a design feasibility efficacy study to investigate the possibility of reconstituting converting the long-ago scrapped Cliffs Victory into a self-unloader.

“Nah,” he said, and headed out to the theater where the latest Star Trek movie was playing. The one with Montalban in it. “Saavik,” he mused, later, in the darkened theater. “Saavik. Savic? What an interesting name.”

Yesterday in Great Lakes History

The success of converting excursion boats such as the famous Seeandbee to aircraft carriers to train World War II U.S. Navy pilots led to unexpected confusion after the war ended. The practice of building extra decks on lakes steamers to transport cars offered much flexibility to shipping lines, but the practice of calling the new expanses of relatively unobstructed space “flight decks” caused confusion to post-war pilots.

It has not been confirmed that the advent of tail fins on 1950s cars was simply the result of airplanes attempting to land on the “flight decks” of lakers carrying cars and crews trying to make the best of the resulting mess.

“Fortunately, this was while they were still using propeller planes,” said Otto Karrier, captain of the Parker Lott, one of the ships modified to carry automobiles. “Think of the mess if they’d been using jets. We’d have had to invent the thousand-footer at least 20 years early.”

April Foolishness brought to you by Roger LeLievre, Tom Hynes, Dave Nobbe and Don Lee. The real news continues below.

Michigan maritime: Ports set to grow economy throughout the state

MONROE, MI – A new law that gives the state’s 32 ports tools to expand and grow the maritime economy started out as a community project for a handful of University of Michigan students.

U-M students first worked with the Port of Monroe in 2012 and over the next decade would make the case for investing in ports around the state to increase container and industrial shipments, which is expected to lead to job creation.

The Maritime and Port Facility Assistance Grant Program Act, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed in July, sets up an office in the Michigan Department of Transportation to oversee the grants. It puts the Great Lakes state ports in line for federal grant dollars that neighboring states have enjoyed for years.

The Port of Monroe, Michigan’s only Lake Erie port, received $5 million in state funding this summer, which helped it to leverage an $11 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in November. The funding will help it build a container cargo scanning facility and a riverfront wharf for vessel transfer of wind energy cargos and other improvements.

Paul LaMarre III, port director for the Port of Monroe and chairman of Whitmer’s Port Advisory Committee, said the work of U-M students was foundational in the port’s growth strategies.

“The University of Michigan has been involved with the Port’s rebirth,” LaMarre said. “Our introduction to Liz Gerber in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is likely one of the most fruitful relationships that I have had since being at the Port of Monroe for roughly a decade.”

Gerber, the Jack L. Walker Jr. Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and director of the Program in Practical Policy Engagement at the Ford School, said that studying policy alternatives is an important part of the coursework.

“The port is now bringing in a lot more money serving more customers and providing an environmentally friendly transportation alternative to heavy materials relative to trucks, which is how most heavy materials get moved around,” she said. “Also, by changing policy, there are potential long-term benefits for the state as well. It’s setting up a mechanism to support the maritime industry throughout the state, which can provide real benefits to not just the ports themselves, but also all the stakeholders who benefit from activity in the ports.”

The students’ research found that Michigan’s ports were underutilized and could contribute to the state’s growing economy if given more investment.

Read the rest of the article here: https://impact.govrel.umich.edu/ports-grow-michigan-economy/?fbclid=IwAR2jaO1dCe_4QS8CseB17_-N8s3kpNVXZ29st7nGCR_EMBadyYD2AYo9AuE

Michigan Impact, University of Michigan

Manistee magic: Shipping season begins, first ship arrives

MANISTEE, MI – Coming and going, Sam Laud turned some heads the past two days.

The 635-foot freighter sounded its ear-piercing horn just after 8 p.m. Wednesday — one long blast and two short blasts to signal its long-awaited arrival to Manistee — that officially begins the shipping season for this Lake Michigan port.

If it seemed like a maritime deja vu, it was — Sam Laud was the same ship to sail past the historic Manistee Lighthouse and Pier last shipping season, too. The diesel-powered ship — launched in 1975 — is expected to make a return trip to TES Filer City in about two weeks and several more times this shipping season. On Wednesday it delivered over 13,000 tons of coal from Toledo, Ohio. The next ship scheduled to arrive in Manistee is expected to be the Mark W. Barker.

According to MarineTraffic.com, the Mark W. Barker was expected into Ludington’s harbor late Thursday night.

After word got out, and information was posted on various shipping-related websites, that Sam Laud would enter the Manistee harbor at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, the river-channel and shoreline became inundated with area residents and many others from surrounding communities who converged on the area to watch the ship slowly make its way into Manistee Lake.

Many who were sitting in the cars, honked their horns. Those standing along the riverside and shoreline, shouted, whistled and waved their hands. Of course, just about all of them took pictures.

Coming and going, it was a raucous welcome and parting, to be sure, just as it is just about every time a great ship like Sam Laud does the same. And there is a fantastic fleet of such vessels that come and go.

U.S. Coast Guard Machinery Technician Petty Officer Second Class (MK2) Caitlin Woodworth stood outside Station Manistee Wednesday to watch Sam Laud as it once again became the first ship of the season to pass by that Coast Guard building, and she watched again the following morning from the opposite side of the river as it left at 10 a.m.

“It came in a little quicker than I expected this year,” she said. “Really, time has been moving really quick, and it just means that we’re about to have more people coming here and it means we’re going to have to get ready, even sooner.”

Ludington Daily News

NACC Quebec first arrival at Oshawa

The first vessel of the 2023 shipping season at the Port of Oshawa, NY, was the NACC Quebec. The vessel arrived from Port Daniel, delivering cement to St Marys Cement on March 27.

Captain Orval Bouchard has been with Algoma for nearly three years. He was a senior captain with BC Ferries on the West Coast and has a naval background.

Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority

Using hand-held marine VHF radios on land law reminder

You must have a special license, called a marine utility station license, in addition to a ship station license, to operate a hand-held marine radio from land — a ship station license IS NOT sufficient.

You may apply for this license by filing electronically in ULS with the FCC. To be eligible for a marine utility station license, you must generally provide some sort of service to ships or have control over a bridge or waterway. Additionally, you must show a need to communicate using hand-held portable equipment from both a ship and from coast locations. Each unit must be capable of operation while being hand-carried by an individual. The station operates under the rules applicable to ship stations when the unit is aboard a ship, and under the rules applicable to private coast stations when the unit is on land.

FCC

Paul LaMarre III, port director for the Port of Monroe, said the work of U-M students was foundational in the port’s growth strategies.Paul LaMarre III, port director for the Port of Monroe, said the work of U-M students was foundational in the port’s growth strategies.

Federal Dart sets first saltie of season record

DULUTH — When the 656-foot Federal Dart passed under the Aerial Lift Bridge at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, it became the earliest oceangoing vessel to arrive in the port of Duluth-Superior.

It beat the previous first-saltie-of-the-season record set March 30, 2013, by two days, according to Jayson Hron, spokesperson for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

The Federal Dart, a Marshall island-flagged ship owned by Fednav, arrived with 23,000 short tons of Turkish cement and will unload it at the CRH / Ash Grove Cement Terminal on Rice’s Point in Duluth, Hron said.

According to VesselFinder.com, the ship left Turkey on March 3 and made a brief port call in Spain before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and completing the 2,342-mile voyage from the Atlantic Ocean to North America’s farthest-inland seaport.

The Great Lakes shipping season began last week when the St. Lawrence Seaway connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean opened Wednesday and the Soo Locks connecting Lake Superior with the other Great Lakes opened at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Ships that remain in the Great Lakes, or lakers, began moving Wednesday and the shipping season is now in full swing.

The Federal Dart’s early arrival was aided by a low-ice year. As of Tuesday, the Great Lakes have less than 5% ice cover, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The latest first saltie of a season to arrive was May 7, 2014, a year with significant ice coverage.

Visit Duluth is now looking through entries submitted in the 40th annual First Ship Contest to determine whose guess was closest to the Federal Dart’s actual arrival.

Duluth News Tribune

Shipbuilding, repair winter season closes for one Erie company

The tide continues to bring new ships to Erie’s port as Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair’s winter season has come to an end.

“We’re really fortunate we have one of the only shipbuilding facilities on the Great Lakes that can accommodate the fleet that goes through the Great Lakes, so it’s a tremendous asset for our community,” said James Grunke. president and CEO, Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership (ERCGP).

It’s been all hands on deck as the winter ship repair season comes to a close.

“We’re a full-service shipyard. We do everything from electrical to piping, painting, and welding. We do joiner insulation — pretty much anything that a vessel would need.” said Rick Hammer, general manager, Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair.

Their facility includes a 1,000-foot dry dock to handle vessels of that size. The general manager said that their winter season was smooth and went according to plan.

“The mild weather certainly makes the job a little bit easier for these employees going out working in the weather every day. It’s definitely a little more bearable,” Hammer added.

While many may think summer is the busier season, winter is when the majority of ships come in for repairs and inspections.

“This year, we actually have two additional dry dockings to do, and we got quite a bit of new construction to complete this summer,” said Hammer.

“The people that they have working there are some of the most highly skilled craftsmen there are. The loyalty that they’ve been able to establish with their employees is a real testament to the company. It’s really, really hard work but the people there just seem to love it,” said Grunke.

Companies throughout the Great Lakes are expected to continue looking to our community to meet their needs over the summer season.

Your Erie

Young ‘boatnerd’ meets ‘Know you Ships’ author, befriends Edwin H. Gott captain

When the 1,004-foot-long Edwin H. Gott passed through the Poe Lock at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 25, “Know Your Ships: Guide to Boats & Boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway” author Roger LeLievre was just one of the few hundred watching and waiting on U.S. Army Corps property.

But several fans were just as excited for Soo Locks Visitors Center to open at 9 a.m. later that same day, where LeLievre signed the 64th edition of “Know your Ships.”

First and foremost, “The Boatnerd King” celebrated the Gott as the most powerful ship on the Great Lakes. He said the freighter runs on two 8-cylinder MaK/Caterpillar 8m43C diesel engines that produce 19,500 horsepower. It travels up to 17 mph.

The American Century and John J. Boland followed close behind the leader ship early Saturday morning.

Following in the footsteps of LeLievre and bands of boatnerds was young fan Ethan Plaska, age 10. He was joined in the visitors center by his little sister and parents, Matt and Katherine.

“We came up to Tahquamenon Falls one year and thought, ‘Let’s go to the Soo Locks,’” said Plaska, unaware he would soon come face-to-face with his future passion. “The freighters were really cool and big.” The whole family soon jumped aboard and learned to share his Great Lakes engineering interests. “Then, around Christmas, we watched the M/V Sam Laud and Stewart J. Cort,” Plaska said. “The Gott blew its horn at us.”

Plaska’s mother emailed Great Lakes Fleet, and was able to get her son in contact with Edwin H. Gott Captain Tim Alfson. “He emails to ask questions, and the captain answers,” Mrs. Plaska said, smiling.

While she spoke, young Plaska’s face was buried in LeLievre’s latest “Know Your Ships” book.

According to the Know your Ships website, the 2023 edition provides “essential” statistics pertaining to the owner, year built, length, capacity, and any former names for hundreds of freighters, tugs, barges, coast guard cutters, cruise ships, and visiting saltwater vessels.

The book also contains information about cargoes carried, where they load and unload, along with the meaning behind all the distinctive bells and whistles, stack markings, and flags aboard.

Readers will find an all new section on Great Lakes marine museums, as well as spotlights on sailors and maritime adventures.

LeLievre was more than happy to sign Plaska’s treasured book and talk about freighters.

Next up to meet LeLievre was proud Famous Soo Locks Boat Tours employee Gabrielle Roberts, present Lake Superior State University (LSSU) nursing student.

She has fallen in love with the water, tour boats, and much larger shipping vessels.

“We have copies of Roger’s books aboard,” said Roberts, who uses them as guides to watch for freighters. “I open his books every day that I work.”

She left Soo Locks Visitors Center Saturday afternoon with her own signed copy and big smile.

Original Soo Locks Boat Tours Narrator Edward Reining was also on site, volunteering his time to educate visitors on the Soo Locks.

Hobby freighter artist and photographer Linda Terentiak sat near LeLievre and his entourage of boatnerds with pictures she had painted.

“I just started painting ships this year,” she said. “I love them.” Terentiak’s new hobby has introduced her several new friends. “I have met many people connected by ships,” she added. “It has been amazing.”

For nearly 30 years, LeLievre has taught people like Plaska, Roberts, and Terentiak all about the engineering marvels of the Great Lakes.

“My grandfather worked on the Kemp Coal Doc,” LeLievre explained. “It used to be where the SS Valley Camp is now, and we had a cottage on the river. So, I couldn’t just not. The boats were right there and I was fascinated with them.”

While still a young kid, LeLievre met his mentor, Tom Manse. Manse had written and photographed an entire series of “Know Your Ships” books.

“He saw that I was interested in this stuff, and took me under his wing,” LeVievre said. “He taught me how to take pictures in the dark room and file negatives. He hauled me around when he was delivering books around the lakes.”

Inspired by Manse’s teachings, LeLievre went off to study journalism at Central Michigan University. Following graduation, he worked for approximately 30 years with the Ann Arbor News.

“When he (Manse) died in 1994, he left the book to me,” LeLievre continued. “I picked up where he left off. I have been doing it ever since.” He has carried on his life-long friend’s mission. “What was a little sideline job actually turned into my retirement job,” LeLievre said.

U.S. Army Corps Chief Park Ranger Michelle Briggs was happy to welcome LeLievre back again this year to answer questions about the Edwin H. Gott, sign “Know your Ships” books, and talk about freighters.

Visit the Know Your Ships website to order a copy of LeLievre’s latest, “Know Your Ships: Guide to Boats & Boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway.”

Soo Leader

Mark your calendars for Soo Boatnerd Picnic and Freighter-Chasing Cruise

Join us for the Annual Boatnerd Picnic and Freighter-Chasing Cruise on the St. Marys River during the annual Engineers’ Day weekend at Sault Ste. Marie June 29-30. Find details on both events here: https://boatnerd3.jasonbowlerdesign.com/boatnerd-soo-gathering-june-29-30-2023/

Midnight madness at Soo Locks as hundreds watch first freighter

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – Parking on Portage Avenue was hard to come by Friday night as people made their way into the Soo Locks Park to watch the first freighter officially open the 2023 shipping season in Sault Ste Marie.

A few hundred people packed the viewing platform at midnight to photograph, video, and talk about the 1004′ x 105′ Edwin H. Gott slowly working its way into the Poe Lock from the east end of the Soo Locks.

It had been tied up there since Thursday afternoon after arriving from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Nineteen-year-old Camden Olson made the trip from Spooner, Wisconsin, for the first time to watch the opening of the Soo Locks.

“I met some friends who loved freighters a few years ago, and over the course, over the years, I got more and more into it, and now I am here. This is my second time here to the Locks but the first time for opening night,” Olson said.

“The Locks are pretty important to the American economy. If we don’t have the Locks, we don’t have iron ore heading to the steel plants,” Olson added.

Olson, along with his boatnerd friends, were just a few of the dedicated boat lovers in the crowd.

“I think it is pretty amazing that this many people are this dedicated to come out here and see this boat come through late at night to open the shipping season,” said Olson.

Soo Today

Top Hat Ceremony opens 2023 shipping season

THUNDER BAY – The MV Harvest’s arrival marked the beginning of the 2023 shipping season for the Port of Thunder Bay on Sunday.

“It’s a sign of spring for us, and at this time of year, once the first ship comes in, this is the furthest inland port in Canada, so you know, we see the commerce starting up again,” said Tim Heney, CEO, Thunder Bay Port Authority.

“It’s a pretty exciting time for us and everyone’s optimistic. It’s a, you know, great day, beautiful weather, perfect”

The Harvest Spirit crossed Thunder Bay’s breakwall at 0500 hours, a day after passing through the Soo Locks and tied up at Superior Elevator and departed Sunday Night for Windsor with a 14,200-tonne load of canola.

Captain of the Harvest Spirit, Adam Hagen said that being the vessel that opens Thunder Bay shipping season was quite an honour.

“We know that the Thunder Bay is one of our main ports of call, this is my first time captaining in the first ship of the year and you know anything to promote the industry as I I feel that things are on the up with the with the shipping industry,” he said.

“With the price of fuel and a lot of the environmental implications that are coming lately, definitely shipping anything by water is many, many times more environmentally friendly and efficient than by rail and certainly by truck.”

The 2012-built Harvest Spirit is a bulker in the McKeil Marine fleet. McKeil is a marine service operator with over 50 vessels, a sailing and shore-based crew of about 350 and offices in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Harvest Spirit is a regular site in the Port of Thunder Bay, having made 21 trips for grain during the 2022 season. The vessel was second-to-last out of port before its winter closure in mid January.

In a traditional Top Hat Ceremony on Sunday, Captain Hagen and Chief Engineer Gavin Pink received welcoming remarks and tokens of appreciation for opening the navigation season from the Port of Thunder Bay, the City of Thunder Bay and the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.

“The top hat is an old tradition that they give to the first captain of the year that’s in it and as as you’ll see from in the inside here there’s a lot of old captains that have signed on here and some of them I recognize the gentleman that I’ve had the pleasure of working with and working for over the years,” said Captain Hagen.

“So, to be it’s a bit of a club I guess and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

TB News Watch

New developments ahead for Great Lakes ports as 2023 shipping season kicks off

Great Lakes ports are gearing up for the start of this year’s shipping season, which is bringing new developments at ports in Duluth-Superior and Milwaukee. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway opened to the first vessels of the season Wednesday, and the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan open on Saturday.

For the first time in years, container shipping service returned to the nation’s furthest inland port in 2022. With the expansion of service, the Port of Duluth-Superior became the only U.S. port besides Cleveland, Ohio, capable of handling maritime container shipments on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.

Now, the port is partnering with Amsterdam-based Spliethoff, which is one of the largest shipping lines in the Netherlands. Spliethoff will provide monthly container shipping service to the port for the first time in decades, according to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. Port officials say they’ll be capable of carrying raw materials, finished goods, and machinery. Goods will be shipped back and forth to Europe.

“That’s a big win from a supply-chain perspective for the region,” said Deb DeLuca, the port authority’s executive director.

Shipping customers have been seeking other options for container shipping in the face of inadequate rail service and congestion at coastal ports. DeLuca said a global shortage of containers due to supply chain constraints in recent years appears to be easing. The port authority is also planning an $8.5 million expansion of its warehouse space with the addition of 55,000 square feet to support materials moving through its terminal.

In Milwaukee, construction of the roughly $35 million DeLong Agricultural Maritime Export Facility is ongoing. Jackie Q. Carter, director of Port Milwaukee, said that will introduce new cargo in the form of dried distillers grains — a byproduct from beer and ethanol production that is used in livestock feed.

“We’re hoping in the next few weeks that construction will wrap up,” Carter said. “Of course, you got to go through and make sure everything is sound and ready to go, but we think we’ll probably see some activity as early as May.”

Carter said the final parts of rail construction and inspection are ongoing right now. She said they anticipate the facility will increase tonnage moving through the port by about 400,000 metric tons. The port handled about 2.3 million metric tons last year, which was down about 5 percent from its five-year average.

Read the full article here: https://www.wpr.org/new-developments-ahead-great-lakes-ports-2023-shipping-season-kicks

WPR

Joseph L. Block opens Duluth season

DULUTH, MN – The first ship to arrive at Duluth this 2023-24 season was the Joseph L Block, coming in light on Sunday heading to the CN dock to load iron ore. Last season they visited Duluth 16 times.

View a video at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-1boWxNhJs

Paul Scinocca

Two lighthouses receive funds to focus on critical preservation initiatives

Two historic lighthouses will have long-term preservation efforts assisted with the help of $106,000 in Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program (MLAP) grants from the State Historic Preservation Office.

The lighthouses receiving grants are the Rock of Ages Lighthouse and the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, both located in the U.P. On average, every $1 invested in land conservation leads to $4 in economic benefits for families, small businesses, and local communities, according to a news release.

“The historic lighthouses lining our freshwater shoreline—the longest in the world—are part of the splendor of Pure Michigan,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “I am proud that we are making an investment today to preserve these structures, reminding us of our past and encouraging us to move towards the light.”

Read the full article here: Soo Leader article

Meet the Shipbreakers of the Great Lakes

Have you ever wondered what happens to ships once they’ve reached the end of their lives?

For many in the Great Lakes, that place in Marine Recycling Corporation in Port Colborne, Ontario. Marine Recycling has recycled more than 100 vessels for their steel. Field producer Jeyan Jeganathan talks to the founder Wayne Elliott about how long it takes to recycle a ship, why shipbreaking is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and how his company competes with shipbreakers around the world.

Watch the video by clicking this link: https://www.tvo.org/video/meet-the-shipbreakers-of-the-great-lakes?fbclid=IwAR3uEbt2JWenhsJ9gyWecE1G3x6ZyQapUBVsjbdSZxHJeo9tkCdegQc4vkY

TVO

Mark your calendars for Soo Boatnerd Picnic and Freighter-Chasing Cruise

Join us for the Annual Boatnerd Picnic and Freighter-Chasing Cruise on the St. Marys River during the annual Engineers’ Day weekend at Sault Ste. Marie June 29-30. Find details on both events here: https://boatnerd3.jasonbowlerdesign.com/boatnerd-soo-gathering-june-29-30-2023/

Edwin H. Gott leads the way as the Soo Locks open for the season

Sault Ste. Marie, MI – At exactly 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the massive Poe Lock gates opened, allowing the 1,004-foot-long Edwin H. Gott to enter the chamber, thus becoming the first commercial passage of the 2023-24 season.

Ship fans were out in force, filling the two-deck observation platform and spilling out along the ground level fencing. Although there was no official tally, those attending agreed that the was the best-attended opener since the event started.

Captains Tim Alfston and Keene Weekley sounded a throaty three long and two short on the horns as the vessel moved into the chamber, delighting the onlookers, who responded with cheers and clapping.

The Gott, operated by the Great Lakes Fleet, Duluth, MN, is bound for Two Harbors, MN, to load ore. Behind her were American Integrity, John J. Boland, Joseph L. Block, Harvest Spirit, Stewart J. Cort, CSL St-Laurent,CSL Laurentien, and Great Republic, with more heading for the Soo, promising a busy weekend for boatwatchers.

Last year, the Gott’s fleetmate Edgar B. Speer was first vessel. The Soo Locks have been closed since mid-January for annual winter maintenance.

Lee A. Trugurtha, which loaded ore at Marquette, followed by American Mariner, will be the first downbounds.

Watch a video from earlier in the day as a local delegation visited the vessel to present the crew with plaques, first boat caps and Know Your Ships books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P51ICzhC5FQ

First ship through the Soo Locks for the shipping season will be the Edwin H. Gott

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – We got the Gott.

Those were the words of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which shared Thursday that the M/V Edwin H. Gott will be the first vessel to pass through the Soo Locks when the 2023 shipping season begins just after midnight on Saturday.

As part of the annual tradition at the landmark Upper Peninsula facility, freighter fans – often called Boatnerds – typically gather at Rotary Park near the locks to see which Great Lakes freighters will be the first to pass through.

On Friday, dignitaries from the City of Sault Ste. Marie, the Soo Locks Visitor Center Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau will greet the ship’s crew and present plaques and other commemorative gifts to the Gott’s captain.The publisher of the book Know Your Ships will also be there to present the crew with copies of the 2023 edition.

The 1,000-foot Gott is already moored near the Soo Locks facility in Sault Ste. Marie. It will be the first of hundreds of ships to pass through the Soo Locks this season. After she locks up, she will be followed by American Integrity, John J. Boland, Joseph L. Block, Harvest Spirit, Stewart J. Cort and, later, CSL St-Laurent and Great Republic.

Icebreakers from the U.S. and Canadian coast guards passed through the facility on Wednesday.

Launched in 1979 and now part of Canadian National Railway’s Great Lakes Fleet, Inc., the Gott is named for former U.S. Steel chairman and chief executive officer, Edwin H. Gott. Along with the Edgar B. Speer (which opened the season last year), the Gott is the largest of CN’s Great Lakes ships.

The vessel mostly transports dry bulk commodities such iron ore to port son the lower Great Lakes.

The park and viewing platform at the Soo Locks will open March 24 at 11 p.m. and close March 25 at 1 a.m. The Visitor Center will host an open house March 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For those not able to come to the Soo Locks opening, there will be a Facebook Live stream of the first ship, which can be found here.

MLive

St. Lawrence Seaway shippers eye EV materials, but grain and ore remain the staples

SAINT-LAMBERT, QC. – Shippers who ply the St. Lawrence Seaway view critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries as key to their future — but it could be a while before the floodgates open on Canada’s largely untapped reserves.

Until then, grain and iron ore remain the staples, comprising nearly half of the 36.3 million tonnes of cargo that traversed the seaway last year.

Terence Bowles, who heads the management authority overseeing the system of locks, canals and channels that stretches for more than 300 kilometres between Montreal and Lake Erie, said he expects a million more tonnes of Canadian grain will float down the St. Lawrence River from Thunder Bay and other Ontario ports in 2023.

“It’s in the silos ready to come … so we’re expecting quite a bump-up,” he said in an interview Wednesday after the opening ceremony for the seaway’s navigation year.

The war in Ukraine will likely extend the spike in demand for grain as well as potash, said Chamber of Marine Commerce CEO Bruce Burrows. Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of wheat, corn, sunflower oil and fertilizer products, but Ukrainian shipments were hampered by a months-long Russian blockade last year, since lifted for the time being.

Iron ore traffic will also pick up as car makers “get back on their feet” and construction activity remains sturdy, Burrows predicted, pointing to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in particular.

“The GTA is still the biggest, fastest growing part of the North American economy. It’s a great sucking sound of special projects, all of which have to be sourced with resource materials that we move by ship,” he said.

Behind him, the Algoma Central shipping company’s Captain Henry Jackman freighter issued a horn blast before disembarking along the St. Lawrence River, hauling iron ore en route to Hamilton’s ArcelorMittal Dofasco mill to be transformed into steel.

St. Catharines Standard

Cross-Lake Ontario hovercraft service won’t launch this summer

ST. CATHERINES, ON – Plans to launch a hovercraft service between St. Catharines and Toronto this summer have been postponed. Hoverlink Ontario Inc. said it has delayed the launch of the 30-minute rapid hovercraft service because time lines to complete the project are “running longer than anticipated.”

In a statement, the company said due to the complexities involved in the project, it is presently re-evaluating its time line for completion. “We want to assure the communities we intend to serve that we are continuing to move forward through the requirements necessary for operational success,” founder and chief executive officer Christopher Morgan said in the release.

In September, Hoverlink announced that after 10 years of work it was in the final approval stages to launch a rapid transit route between Port Weller in north St. Catharines and Ontario Place in Toronto. It proposed to build a terminal at the north end of the Welland Canals Parkway, along with off-site parking lots near the St. Catharines museum at Lock 3 and further south along the parkway.

The hovercraft year-round services will be aimed at tourists and commuters.

Hoverlink said in its recent statement its primary focus now is to complete “necessary protocols” for development of the sites to support “an excellent consumer experience” at the launch of the passenger service. The company did not say how long it expects the delay to be.

Welland Tribune

2023 “Know Your Ships” launches; book signing at Soo Locks Saturday

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – The new shipping season is at hand, and so is the release of the 2023 edition of Know Your Ships, the popular annual field guide to boats and boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway, now in its 64th edition.

To mark the opening of the Soo Locks, Editor & Publisher Roger LeLievre will be at the Soo Locks Visitor Center Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. to sign copies of the new edition. Buy them right from him, or from Das Gift Haus and Island Books and Crafts, bring them to the Visitor Center and he will sign them.

Standard and spiral bindings are available. The standard version features the eye-catching Viking Octantis on the cover, while the spiral shows off the veteran John G. Munson.

In the Spotlight section, you can read stories about the new Mark W. Barker (still has that new boat smell!), Michael Moran’s popular St. Joughnuts sweet treat deliveries at St. Joseph, MI, a look at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy serving a demand on the Great Lakes, and even about boats named after real-life rock stars!

This year’s 200-page book also includes information on U.S., Canadian and international-flag cargo vessels, tugs, excursion boats and barges in regular Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway service, including owner and port of registry, year and shipyard where built, length, beam, depth, cargo capacity and former names, plus type of engine, horsepower and more.

Order at this link: www.knowyourships.com