New “Know Your Ships” book launch party Saturday in Algonac
The official book release event for the popular Great Lakes shipwatching field guide “Know Your Ships” 2025 will be Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Algonac-Clay Historical Society Maritime Museum, 1117 St. Clair River Dr., Algonac, MI.
Joining Editor/Publisher Roger LeLievre and KYS crew member Matt Miner will be special guest Andrea Guerriero (DRE Designs Great Lakes Marine Products) from Sault Ste. Marie, ON. Previously announced guest Ship to Shore Chef Catherine Schmuck will no longer be able to attend.
A $5 donation at the door includes admission to the museum and earns buyers $5 off on their total purchases.
This marks Know Your Ships’ 66th year of publication.
Know Your Ships
Victory Cruise Lines Returning to Great Lakes This Summer
Victory Cruise Lines is relaunching this month with Great Lakes and Canada cruises. American Queen Voyages’ founder John Waggoner is reviving the brand with two 190-passenger ships, Victory I and Victory II.
The vessels, which were purpose-built to sail the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and French-Canadian Maritimes, were previously owned by American Queen Voyages before it shut down last year (Waggoner was no longer involved with the company at the time). American Queen Voyages acquired Victory Cruise Lines in 2019.
Both ships have been refurbished, and will sail popular and lesser-visited ports within North America. Many of Victory’s customers want to “wrap (themselves) in the American or Canadian flag,” according to founder and chairman Waggoner.
“I think what we find is that a lot of our guests have traveled all over the world, and now they are looking for something that’s at home,” he told USA TODAY.
Waggoner and his wife Claudette, who co-owns the company, will host Victory’s first cruise of the year. The 10-night cruise aboard Victory I will sail from Portland, Maine to Toronto, Canada on April 16 ahead of the ship’s christening. Victory II will be christened in Chicago on May 12.
Victory will sail itineraries ranging from nine to 14 nights in 2025. Those include All 5 Great Lakes cruises, which visit Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior, sailing from either Chicago or Milwaukee to Toronto (or departing from Toronto).
The 5 Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway itinerary will sail between Chicago and Montreal, while the Great Lakes & Thunder Bay cruise round-trip from Chicago includes two great lakes – Michigan and Superior – and an overnight stay in Michigan’s Mackinac Island, among other sailings.
Stops will include Detroit and Marquette in Michigan; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Port Colborne, Ontario – giving guests access to Niagara Falls – and more. Victory will also be the only cruise line to dock at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
The company offers a variety of excursions along the way, from a visit to the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and the Museum Ship Valley Camp, where guests can learn about the area’s history, to a behind-the-scenes tour of Lambeau Field where the Green Bay Packers play.
“And then you hit Cleveland, where you dock right (near) the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Waggoner added. “And then Detroit, where you get to go to the Henry Ford Museum of (American) Innovation.”
The ships will also host a LakeLorian program in partnership with the National Museum of the Great Lakes, offering lectures from historians and naturalists. Other onboard features include three dining concepts, a sun deck and a salon and spa.
Available cruises currently start at $4,999 per person, according to Victory’s website. The fares include a pre-night hotel stay, transfers from the hotel to the ship, food and drinks onboard, a tour in each port, Wi-Fi and more.
“What I hope (guests) take away is the grandeur and the beauty of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway,” Waggoner said.
USA Today
Help Wanted: Isle Royale ferry seeks engineers, deckhand
2025 “Know Your Ships” available now
The new shipping season is at hand, and so is the release of the 2025 edition of Know Your Ships, the popular annual field guide to boats and boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway, now in its 66th year.
New this year is the ability to preorder the midsummer EXTRA magazine, which will feature a 50th anniversary tribute to the Edmund Fitzgerald and her crew, when you preorder the book.
Order at this link: www.knowyourships.com
Exhibit “Steam and Steel: Propelling the Future of the
Great Lakes” Opens May 23 at Great Lakes Science Center
Cleveland, OH – Explore the history of Great Lakes shipping as Great Lakes Science Center celebrates the centennial of the Steamship William G. Mather with a special exhibit, Steam and Steel: Propelling the Future of the Great Lakes, from May 23 through September 1. Once the flagship of the Cleveland Cliffs, Inc., the Mather is now a museum allowing guests to explore the ship and see its huge cargo holds, brass and oak pilot house, elegant guest quarters, and four-story engine room.
Entering the Steam and Steel exhibit inside the museum, guests will first encounter a 14-by-10-foot replica of the front hull of the ship, providing the perfect place to snap a selfie before embarking on your journey into the history of the Mather and the world of Great Lakes shipping. Displays of artifacts from the Mather, and historic photos chronicling Cleveland’s shipping history, will showcase how Lake Erie and access to the other Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Atlantic Ocean helped shape the growth of Cleveland as a hub for commerce, industry and innovation.
Interactive exhibits will allow guests to experience what it was like to steer the mighty Mather, load and unload cargo, and raise and lower the drawbridges on a model canal lock. Other exhibits will allow guests to see how technological innovations in shipping, including the addition of radar, dual propeller bow thrusters, and the automated boiler system, contributed to the Mather’s long and successful run as a Great Lakes freighter and helped it become “the ship that built Cleveland.”
Great Lakes Science Center
