Sarah Spencer

In 1989, she was converted to a barge by Halifax Dartmouth Industries, Halifax, NS, for Great Lakes Transport of Halifax. She was and renamed Capt. Edward V. Smith in 1991 in honor of the owner’s father, who had been a Great Lakes captain for Keystone Transports on canallers out of Kingston, ON, and later a traffic manager for Hall Corporation of Canada. Operating her as a non-powered vessel allowed the new owners to save on crew costs, shipping regulations and gave the vessel more flexibility in ice conditions. The engine room was gutted and a deep notch was created in the stern for a pusher tug.

Caterpillar diesel engines and generators were added to the barge in the remaining section of the old engine room along with air compressors and other necessary equipment. These compressors were used to operate her pneumatic controlled hopper doors in the unloading tunnel under the holds. The barge’s forward cabins were retained as a lookout station and for storage space. A platform was installed over the tip of the bow to assist with anchor handling operations when the tug needed to break out of the notch and pick up the barge on a wire.

The barge traded across the Great Lakes and East Coast from 1989 to 1990 before being renamed Sea Barge One, a name she carried from 1991 until 1996. Her next name was Sarah Spencer, and until the 1999 season was pushed by the large, raised pilothouse tug Atlantic Hickory almost exclusively in the grain trade. At nearly 700 feet long with the tug in the notch, it became the largest vessel to pass the Ohio Street turn on the Buffalo River when it traveled up to the ADM Standard Elevator during the 1998 season.

The tug Atlantic Hickory was on charter from Atlantic Towing and was wired into the notch while pushing. This arrangement proved less than ideal, and the owners decided to buy the Brazilian work tug Jane Ann IV. The new tug and the old barge were converted to the Bark River Articulated Tug Barge Coupling System. This involved the installation of a set of hydraulically controlled pins in the tug and reception ladders in the barge’s notch. The barge was also given a set of new skegs below the waterline to help improve seagoing performance. The coupling system allows the tug to move in pitch, but not in roll or yaw.

The tug and barge could operate as one vessel under almost all conditions. Control was been moved to the pilothouse of the barge section to reflect this change. The captain sat in a large plush chair at the center of the barge’s bridge and his navigation commands were relayed back to the tug through a flexible control conduit hanging over the notch. During the late 2000 season, the captain frequently stopped the vessel, boarded the tug and left the notch to assist the Coast Guard in ice breaking operations. The new coupling system allowed for better control of the barge, reduced down time, and kept her a viable carrier for some time while blending the look of an old laker with modern technology.

In February 2005, while at winter lay-up at Goderich, ON, the Sarah Spencer and the Jane Ann IV were listed as for sale direct from the owners as a unit by ship brokers Marcon International, Inc. of Coupeville, WA. In 2006, the pair was sold to TGL Holdings of Plymouth, MI and Toronto, ON, but both tug and barge retained Canadian registry and management, and were given a refit. They finally laid up in Detroit in 2009, never to sail again. Jane Ann IV sank at least once (in 2013) and perhaps again.

Jane Ann IV arrived at the old ADM dock in Toledo May 1, 2014, under tow of the tugs Kimberly Anne and Andrew J. Sarah Spencer followed on May 6. They had been in lay-up at Detroit since November 2010 at the Nicholson Terminal dock. Tug and barge broke away from their moorings March 15, 2015, when strong current propelled large ice flows down the Maumee River. The tugs Mississippi and Nebraska went to the aid of the vessels. After that incident, both were moved to the Frog Pond for continued layup.