Boatnerd News – August 12, 2025
Crew Safe After Radcliffe R. Latimer Engine Room Fire
SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – Algoma Central Corp.’s Radcliffe R. Latimer experienced an engine room fire around 11 p.m. Monday as the vessel was downbound in Whitefish Bay. The engine room crew was evacuated and the vessel’s C02 system was activated to put out the fire.
The Soo, ON-based tug Wilfred M. Cohen was dispatched to the scene and assisted the Latimer, which was without power, to safe anchorage five nautical miles southeast of Ile Parisienne. There are 21 crew on the vessel and all are safe, according to U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Joseph Snyder. No pollution was observed.
Since the incident occurred in Canadian waters aboard a Canadian-flagged vessel, Snyder said Canadian authorities are taking the lead on the investigation and are putting together a transit plan. The U.S. Coast Guard Group Soo dispatched as 45-foot response boat as a precaution, he added.
The Latimer has a cargo of petroleum coke loaded at Superior Midwest Energy Terminal Aug. 10 and is bound for Port Daniel, Quebec.
The Latimer started out as a 1978 product of Collingwood Shipyards, in Collingwood, Ontario, as Algobay. She is 740’ feet long and 77.8’ wide. She was towed to China in 2008, and rebuilt and re-engined. On October 4, 2012, the Algobay was renamed Radcliffe R. Latimer in ceremonies at Port Colborne, Ontario.
She underwent a class/renewal survey in Veracruz, Mexico, this past winter.
Jim Lehocky, Boatnerd Staff
Storm damage closes island with
iconic Lake Michigan lighthouse
By Tanda Gmiter | tgmiter@mlive.com
Published: Aug. 11, 2025, 10:01 a.m.
Several areas in Wisconsin continue to recover today from the weekend’s historic heavy rainfall and flash flooding that filled streets and homes with water, knocked out power and left people stranded.
In some places like Milwaukee, it’s being described as a “500-year flood,” with more than a foot of rain falling within a short period of time.
And while that record-breaking rain did not cross the big lake and deliver the same blow to us, storm damage did shut down a Lake Michigan island known for its iconic lighthouse.
Cana Island is closed until further notice after Saturday night’s storm downed about 30% of the island’s trees and trapped staff and guests in the parking area for hours.
The lighthouse with its 89-foot tower is one of the most photographed spots on Wisconsin’s popular Door County Peninsula. It sits along the peninsula and across the lake from our own famous Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Cana Island officials said the building’s interpretive center sustained some damage in the storm. So far, there’s been no talk of the lighthouse itself being damaged.
“Cana Island is CLOSED until further notice,” officials posted on their FB page on Sunday. “Crews are working today to clear the island. It’s estimated that 30% of the trees have been lost. It’s not safe to be there. Please give crews the courtesy of space to do their jobs safely and stay off the island until it’s been made safe.”
The lighthouse was built in 1869 and its island edged by Lake Michigan is considered a prime beauty spot for Wisconsin’s lakeshore tourists. Open seasonally, you can access the tower and climb the 97 steps to the top for an even better view of the Door County Peninsula.
But the damage there was light considering what happened in other parts of Wisconsin during the weekend’s massive storm.
The culprit in this big mess? Several rounds of heavy rain that came packed with high winds and hail, according to the Associated Press.
Milwaukee was among the hardest-hit areas, with 14 inches of rain tallied by Sunday, the National Weather Service reported. Thousands were left without power and some motorists abandoned their cars in flooded roads.
“Really unfortunately, it’s just a really bad overlap of circumstances in terms of how all this rain fell but then fell over such a populated area,” said Andrew Quigley, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
“Firefighters responded to over 600 calls including for gas leaks, flooded basements, electrical outages and water rescues, according to the Milwaukee Fire Department,” the AP said.
Like the ship it commemorates, the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim is imperiled
LAKE HURON – In a frustrating irony, the commemorative swim meant to complete the interrupted voyage of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald through the Great Lakes might itself not get to finish the journey because the boat escorting the swimmers is facing engine failure.
The Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim, as it’s called, is a 411-mile relay staged to honor the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the infamous freighter in Lake Superior during a winter storm on Nov. 10, 1975, taking the lives of all 29 men on board.
The swim began July 26 at the spot in the water where the freighter’s journey ended, 17 miles northwest of the Whitefish Point lighthouse, which in fatal happenstance was inoperable the night of the ship’s sinking. The plan is to follow the ship’s planned route along the Lake Huron coastline until arriving at Belle Isle on Aug. 27, just a few miles north of the freighter’s intended destination of Zug Island, followed by a memorial service at Mariners’ Church in Detroit.
The four stage three relay swimmers set out on the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim route from the Point Iroquois Lighthouse on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
But by the time the swimmers got as far as Alpena on Aug. 9, the 43-foot American tugboat guiding them began leaking oil. And without another boat to take its place and accompany them along the journey, the event is at best delayed, and quite possibly in jeopardy.
“All I can say is, if we don’t have a boat, we really cannot continue until we do,” said Jim Dreyer, the 61-year-old organizer of the event on Sunday, Aug. 10. “I mean, as horrible as that sounds, there really is no other choice.”
Dreyer conceived of the event two years ago as a unique way of marking the half-century anniversary of the sinking of the ship, which was hauling 27,000 tons of iron ore from Wisconsin to Detroit when it went down in 530 feet of icy water.
Though there have been more than 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes that have taken 30,000 lives over the past few centuries, the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest of them to go down. It’s also the only sunken ship commemorated in a hit song — Gordon Lightfoot’s long, detailed account in the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” in 1976 went to No. 1 on the Canadian pop charts and No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 100 in America. To this day, a memorial is held every year for family members of the deceased crew at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, where the bell that was recovered from the ship is rung in their honor.
“It’s the most famous shipwreck not named Titanic,” Dreyer said. “And the story itself is so compelling. I mean, you know, the 29 men are obviously very, very worthy of us carrying on their memory. But the backstory’s even bigger. You know, a lot of people don’t understand that these Great Lakes are inland seas. They’re called ‘lakes’ because they’re freshwater, but they’re larger than a lot of seas on this planet. And they’ve taken a lot of lives. They’ve eaten a lot of ships. And the Edmund Fitzgerald has kind of come to represent all of them. So when we ring the bell 29 times for the 29 men on the 10th of November, we always ring it a 30th time for all mariners lost in the Great Lakes. Because it really is a staggering number.”
Their course is split into 17 stages, with 16 stops on the shoreline along the way. Sixty-eight swimmers signed up to participate, with several backups waiting in the wings. Each of them swims for a half-hour, then rests on the boat while someone else in their team takes over. All the way, the swimmers are carrying iron ore pellets to symbolically finish the job for the doomed crew. The pellets will be presented to the mayor of Detroit at the end of the journey. A documentary crew is chronicling the effort.
Dreyer is an unlikely leader of the mission. He used to be so terrified of drowning he didn’t even learn to swim until he was 32. “The open water was my biggest fear in life,” he said, ever since he was 3 years old and fell off a dock into a cold lake, where he was found floating face down by his sister. He’s since swum across all five of the Great Lakes on his own, only the second person ever to do so.
On the first day, four swimmers dove into the very part of the lake that swallowed the men of the ship, where they floated a commemorative wreath during a ceremony in which the names of the dead were read aloud, and put a white rose in the water for each of the crew members as a bell was rung during a moment of silence. They then swam to the lighthouse that the ship was desperately trying to reach that night.
Marquette resident Grant Combs took the first shift of the swim.
“It was a very unique and rewarding experience,” said the 24-year-old. “It’s a really big, really important way to pay tribute to the ship in terms of finishing its last journey. I know there were a number of family members of the men who passed away who, unfortunately, weren’t able to come on the boat with us, but they were at the lighthouse, watching over what we were doing.”
That lighthouse, built in 1861, is in need of repairs. Besides simply marking the loss of the ship, the swim is a fundraiser for the Great Lake Shipwreck Historical Society, which is responsible for the light station. So far, the swimmers have raised nearly $200,000 as attention to this tribute, and the cause it bears, has grown.
“It was amazing from start to finish,” said 49-year-old Elizabeth Healy of Portage, whose leg of the relay began in Lake Superior. “We had people following us at different parts along the way. We get into the Soo locks and there’s people with signs, you know, cheering us on, and some of them had waited there upwards of an hour and had signs for us.”
As expected, there have been challenges along the way.
“We had swimmers who had various issues,” Dreyer said. “We had a respiratory issue. We had severe cramping where we lost two swimmers in a stage. We got some swimmers driving all the way up from Chicago to take their place. And then we had a major squall yesterday, like 57-mph sustained winds. So it got really, really harrowing for them out there yesterday.”
“Man, it was a crazy experience, to say the least,” said Quinton Bernard, 26, of Allendale, whose swim began near Presque Isle. His wife, his mom and his in-laws came out to cheer him on. “It was a crazy knowing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime, historic event that I was able to be a part of, but also getting out there on the open water was an eye-opening experience in and of itself; just how tough it was swimming out there. It was very, very hard. We were dealing with a headwind, so if you would stop swimming the current would pull you back.”
Then the boat broke down.
Now, any interruption in the schedule could have a ripple effect, Dreyer said, putting the whole endeavor at risk.
“It could be a substantial delay, and then we have to figure out how that would work because people have made their travel plans, they’ve made a three-day commitment to be here,” he said. “And we could be well outside that three-day commitment if we’re waiting on a boat. And then we don’t know if we can count on anybody at all. And then we’re looking for all new swimmers. I mean, that would be unbelievably horrible. It’d be a nightmare.”
Stage three swimmers in the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim wave goodbye as they set out on the morning of Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
The boat is piloted by a licensed captain and first mate, and includes a doctor, while Dreyer acts as a rescue swimmer for anyone struggling in the water. All of them are now waiting ashore in limbo.
Everyone involved says there’s more at stake than just a novel commemorative event.
“It’s very important not just for the swimmers, but it’s important just to finish what we started, to carry this out in memory of all the lives lost.” Bernard said. “It’s a new way of bringing new light to a very tragic and serious moment in history. Everyone has put so much time and energy into fundraising and making this thing happen. And now we’re here, and we just can’t stop now.”
Anyone interested in helping secure a new boat is asked to contact Jim Dreyer at eventmarketing@Comcast.net.
Petoskey News Review/Detroit Free Press
Great Lakes Iron Ore Trade Down in July
CLEVELAND – Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes totaled 5.1 million tons in July, a decrease of 10.9 percent compared to 2024. Shipments were below the month’s 5-year average by 1.7 percent.
Year-to-date the iron ore trade stands at 21.8 million tons, a decrease of 14.9 compared to a year ago. Iron ore shipments were 7.3 percent below their 5-year average for the first seven months of the year.
Since 1880, Lake Carriers’ has represented the U.S.-flag Great Lakes fleet, which today can move more than 90 million tons of cargos annually that are the foundation of American industry, infrastructure, and power: iron ore, stone, coal, cement, and other dry bulk materials such as grain, salt, and sand. More information is available at www.lcaships.com.
See Gallery below for charts
Lakes Limestone Trade Down Slightly in July
CLEVELAND — Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 3.5 million tons in July, a decrease of less than one percent compared to 2024. The trade was below the month’s 5-year average by 6.7 percent.
Loadings from U.S. quarries totaled 2.9 million tons, a decrease of one percent compared to a year ago. Shipments from Canadian quarries decreased by less than one percent to 646,418 tons.
Year-to-date the Lakes limestone trade stands at 12.7 million tons, a decrease of five percent compared to a year ago. Loadings from Michigan and Ohio quarries total 10.4 million tons, a decrease of 3.2 percent. Shipments from Ontario quarries total 2.3 million tons, a decrease of 12.6 percent compared to 2024.
See Gallery below for charts
Cleveland Boatnerd Gathering Planned Sept. 6
Cleveland’s first annual Boatnerd get together will be at the Whiskey Island Still & Eatery in Cleveland on September 6 at noon. Join us for an informal gathering of food, fellowship and hopefully some boat watching as well. Meet your fellow area boat fans! Food will be ordered off the menu and table service provided by the staff of the restaurant, which is located adjacent to the historic C&P Dock, where the 1,000 footers unload.
Directions and info for the restaurant: https://www.whiskeyislandstillandeatery.net/
Bill Kloss
2025 Luck of the Lakes Raffle Includes Ship Trips
Your raffle ticket purchase supports the Great Lakes Historical Society and its National Museum of the Great Lakes whose mission is to preserve, share, and celebrate the past, present, and future of the Great Lakes story.
Details here:
https://nmgl.org/2025lolraffle/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMDBTFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFZUGV4UFMxNFFGYUpPbTZ2AR5OikAHiWMuo30CZrAqM9nuK93_xmmqYBsoAerabXJ3sBlZWNxpz7mZwoLuFw_aem_1pxrUONQfReTGS4dlnAgzg
Know Your Ships EXTRA Magazine 2025 Released
When Patrick Devine found out, in the summer of 1975, that he was being moved over to the Edmund Fitzgerald as a relief deckhand he was on top on the world. He had gone from one of the oldest boats in the fleet to one of the newest and best. He was devastated when union rules forced him off that September. He had lost his dream job. Then came the sinking and its horrific aftermath. He hasn’t talked about his experience until recently, and he gave Know Your Ships an exclusive interview for the 2025 Know Your Ships EXTRA midsummer magazine, now on sale.
The magazine also includes an interview with Great Lakes top cook Sissy Payment. Find out her recipe for success and learn something surprising about her in the story.
EXTRA 2025 remembers the loss 50 years ago of the EDMUND FITZGERALD with four stories.
- EXCLUSIVE! Meet Patrick Devine, who thought he had found his dream job when he signed on to the Fitz as a relief deckhand in June 1975.
- Explore the Fitzgerald’s influence in popular culture: Music, art, literature and – yes – souvenirs.
- Did you know there were two vessels named Fitzgerald on the Great Lakes, and both were lost in November storms? And yes, their namesakes were related.
- Consider what might have been if the Fitz had not gone down.
ALSO
- Check out the Great Lakes Lore Museum at Rogers City, MI, where sailors are in the spotlight.
- Read about the William G. Mather, the ‘Ship That Built Cleveland,’ which turns 100 this year.
- Litton on the Lakes: Find out how a group of California upstarts turned the Great Lakes shipping industry upside down in the 1970s with their fancy ideas about 1,000-footers.
- Catch up with the latest Great Lakes/Seaway news.
- Enjoy even more images from readers in the ongoing series FAN-TASTIC PHOTOS.
This is the third year for the Know Your Ships EXTRA Magazine, which offers even more ship, sailor and industry stories, recent shipping news and many more of the stunning photos – current and historic – for which Know Your Ships has become known for the past 66 years. Please note that the Extra, which is a feature magazine, does not duplicate the vessel and fleet listings found in the regular Know Your Ships book.
Order at www.knowyourships.com
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
Municipal Port Director – City of Milwaukee
Recruitment #2508-5750-001
VIEW COMPLETE JOB LISTING
The City of Milwaukee is seeking a Municipal Port Director to lead Port Milwaukee operations, strategy, and long-term growth. This cabinet-level position offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of a dynamic port, advance economic development, and strengthen international partnerships.
ABOUT THE POSITION
As a member of the Mayor’s Cabinet, the Municipal Port Director (“Director”) works closely with the seven-member BHC, providing leadership, strategic planning, and executive direction over all port activities and operations. The Director plays a key role in maximizing job creation and revenues by administering the Port’s existing leases, maintaining tenant and customer relations, and marketing Port Milwaukee assets domestically and internationally.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate will be an experienced leader with strong management skills and in-depth knowledge about port administration and operations, including lease negotiation, carrier negotiations, business development, financial planning, and economic and market research. The City is seeking a visionary leader, a consensus builder, and an excellent communicator with the ability to build partnerships with all levels of municipal, state/provincial, and federal government in the United States and Canada.
Screening for this position will be based on an evaluation of each applicant’s education, experience, and professional accomplishments, which should be detailed in a cover letter and resume. Cover letter and resume must be received via email before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 22, 2025 for consideration.
