Manistee scrap tow imminent
Toledo, OH – The tug Beverly M1 left Port Maitland early Saturday afternoon on her way to Toledo to pick up Manistee and tow her to Port Colborne. ETA for the scrapyard is Tuesday but weather is the unknown factor at this point.
Bill Bird
Authors, photographers, artists and ship lovers alike gather at Soo Locks Visitor Center
Sault Ste. Marie, MI – To accompany the opening of the Soo Locks at 12:01 a.m. Friday morning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Soo Locks Visitor Center from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for its annual open house, in which out-of-staters, community members and families got together to learn all about the locks and big boats.
In the mix were boat nerds, like “Know your 2022 Ships” author, Roger LeLievre, Great Lakes Fleet deckhand Jarrett Dodge, Soo Locks Visitors Association Board Member Andrea Guerriero of DRE Designs – Great Lakes Marine Products and local woodworking artist Pat Whitehead.
Meanwhile, kids interacted and played with much smaller Soo Locks gravity elevator replicas. This enabled them to open or close the MacArthur and Poe Lock valves, filling and emptying its chambers with the 22 million gallons of water needed for ships to pass smoothly along the 21-foot drop of the St. Marys River.
Families climbed up and down the stairs of the tri-level visitor’s deck to look out to the Soo Locks, where 1,004-foot Great Lakes Fleet sister ships Edgar B. Speer and Edwin H. Gott floated through the Poe just hours prior.
After a late night of ship watching, many awoke to travel straight to the visitor’s center. Much needed chocolate-chip cookies and coffee awaited them.
At the center of all of it was club “king” LeLievre, a title bestowed upon him by U.S. Army Corps Chief Park Ranger Michelle Briggs, who, in good fun, sought to recognize him for sharing his passion and knowledge of ships with the world.
“These are the ‘boat nerds,’ LeLievre grinned, softly extending his arms up and down. “These are my subjects.”
For nearly 30 years, LeLievre has taught people about water vessels of all shapes and sizes through means of multiple visual, verbal and written works.
While at the open house, he socialized with friends and signed books from noon to 2 p.m.
Read more and view images at this Soo Leader link: https://www.sooleader.com/local-news/authors-photographers-artists-and-ship-lovers-alike-gather-at-soo-locks-visitor-center-5201109?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
Story behind the Top Hat at the Welland Canal opening
Port Colborne, ON – Ships’ captains do not usually wear top hats unless they’re on land at a fancy ball. So how exactly did the Top Hat Ceremony come to mark the annual opening of the Welland Canal – an event that happened March 24).
According to the City of Port Colborne, the Top Hat Ceremony was started in the early 1970s by then-Mayor John Buscarino so it’s been happening for about 50 years.
It is meant to bestow honor upon the captain of the first boat passing downbound (towards Lake Erie) through the canal each season, the nautical equivalent of the season opening game. This year, that was Captain Wilson Waters (representing Captain Jesse Vickers) of the CSL Tadoussac.
The ceremony wouldn’t exist for another 30-plus years after the Welland Canal was officially opened on August 6, 1932.
So, March 24, on the 90th Grand Opening of the canal, the captain of the first ship through was presented with the top hat.
The hat itself is the most colourful part of the ceremony as it is steeped in history. On loan from the Port Colborne & Historical Museum since 1999, it’s a beaver felt fur hat that was given to the Historical & Marine Museum by an anonymous donor.
It’s a 1900 top hat that was created by Tress and Co., a hat firm from London, England. The founder of the company was Cooper Tress Sr (1787-1869), who was joined at the company by his son Cooper Tress Jr. and later by Cooper Tress Jr.’s sons, Sidney Cooper Tress and Herbert Charles Tress.
The business was active in England for over 100 years, being established in 1846 and eventually selling to Christy’s in 1953 in the neighboring suburb of Bermondsdey. So that very specific top hat has come a long distance. After today’s ceremony, the hat was stored in an acid free box in the Captain John W. Sharpe Heritage Resource Centre, a climate-controlled building that was built in 1995 to house over 17,000 artifacts and archives.
But the captain presented with the hat isn’t left empty-handed. Every year, the first captain through is given a keepsake top hat to take with them on their downbound journey.
Inniagara.com
