WW2-era Great Lakes freighter’s final port is Canadian scrapyard
Sault Ste. Marie, ON – The freighter Mississagi made its final voyage this week up Lake Huron to a scrapyard in Canada, where she’ll be cut up and recycled after a 78-year career hauling bulk cargo around the Great Lakes.
Boatwatchers converged on the St. Clair River and St. Marys River this week as the Mississagi departed under tow from Sarnia, Ont. on Friday, Oct. 8 and arrived at the Purvis Marine scrapyard in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. on Sunday, Oct. 10.
The Mississagi was among the last ships of its era on the Great Lakes. Launched amid World War II, the 620-foot ship would have been eligible to collect social security checks about 15 years ago were it a person.
“She was a busy boat right up to the end,” said Roger LeLievre, editor and publisher of the annual “Know Your Ships” guide to Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway boat-watching.
“She hauled a lot of salt in her final years, which really does eat away at the innards of those things,” he said.
Read more and view a photo gallery at this link: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/10/ww2-era-great-lakes-freighters-final-port-is-canadian-scrapyard.html
Kingston coal dock undergoes survey in preparation for cruise ships
Kingston, ON – A former industrial dock that is being converted to a temporary deepwater berth for Great Lakes cruise ships has undergone a detailed survey by the federal government.
The Canadian Hydrographic Service, a division of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, conducted the survey of the former coal dock near the former Rockwood Asylum. Attracting Great Lakes cruise ships was a key part of the city’s strategic priorities and Tourism Kingston’s multi-year plan to improve the local tourism sector.
“Kingston’s location where Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River meet, and situated between Toronto and Montreal in the Thousand Islands, makes the city an ideal stop for a Great Lakes cruise,” Megan Knott, executive director of Tourism Kingston, said. “With a safe and welcoming dock capable of hosting these larger ships, we know Kingston will attract new cruises and visitors and become a desirable addition to cruise itineraries.”
The creation of a permanent deepwater dock was one of the initiatives that city council voted to shelve earlier this year because of the ongoing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey of the dock and the surrounding area generated up-to-date hydrographic data, including water depth next to the dock, that is to be used to prepare the dock to safely accommodate cruise ships
“We are pleased to be able to bring the Kingston Coal Dock back to life as a marine asset,” said Ben Doornekamp, director of H.R. Doornekamp Construction Ltd., the company that owns the dock and is partnering with Tourism Kingston to create the temporary dock.
“Since we have this dock on Kingston’s showcase waterfront, we enthusiastically support Tourism Kingston in welcoming Great Lakes cruise ships to our community and the region. Great Lakes cruising is a terrific means of experiencing the wonders of eastern Ontario with guests from near and far, and will be a tremendous addition to Kingston’s superb tourism offerings.”
Great Lakes cruising is expected to resume in earnest in the spring of 2022.
“Kingston is one of the most rewarding ports of call on any Great Lakes cruise itinerary,” Stephen Burnett, executive director of the Great Lakes Cruise Association, said. “It has all of the elements necessary to deliver a first-class holiday experience and to be the perfect component on any cruise itinerary. The new deepwater mooring wall will be a significant asset for Kingston and a welcome stopping place for the Great Lakes cruise fleet.”
Whig Standard
Algoma Central fleet starts own YouTube channel
View it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClKzHG-muSohLakgj57pahA
OBITUARY: G.I. “Buck” Longhurst, Great Lakes historian and author
Prolific marine historian and author G.I. “Buck” Longhurst passed away Oct.12 in Sudbury, ON, with his family at his side. Born in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, he sailed for the Yankcanuck and Purvis Marine fleets and retired from Algoma Steel in 2004. He lived in Gore Bay, ON., with his wife, Eldene.
Longhurst had many titles to his credit, including several books exploring the histories of smaller Canadian shipping companies, among them Purvis Marine Ltd., A.B. McLean & Sons, the Abitibi tugs, Yankcanuck Steamship Co, and “The Last Boats On the Turkey Trail,” about vessels that traveled the route from North Channel (above Manitoulin Island) into the St. Marys River, named for the many courses which zigzag through the area’s islands, shoals and ports. His usual co-author was the late E.B. “Skip” Gillham, however he also co-authored a history of Algoma Central with Rod Cunningham. Both were honored by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit as Historian of the Year, Longhurst in 2008 and Gillham in 1994.
He was also a founding member of the The St. Marys River Marine Society in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, and contributed many articles for the newsletters published by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit and the Toronto Marine Historical Society. He was a longtime member of both groups.
Buck’s pride and joy later in years was the William Purvis Marine Centre in Gore Bay, which housed his huge collection of nautical memorabilia gathered during his long career on the Great Lakes.
His love of the ships started when he was young. As a kid, I was always at the dock watching the boats unload,” he said in an interview with the Manitoulin Expositor in 2018. “I watched all day as the boats came through, the boats I’d read about.”
After high school, Longhurst went into the navy until Canada’s defense forces were amalgamated in 1965, then became a letter carrier and supervisor until 1970 when his life changed on meeting Jack Purvis on the waterfront in Sault Ste. Marie, ON.
He started working for Purvis soon after their meeting on the docks, spending years on Mr. Purvis’s small vessel Yankcanuck as a deck hand, crane operator and second engineer, earning his tug master and marine and hoisting engineer credentials as he went. In the museum, he proudly shows off the Yankcanuck’s steering column, wheel and ship’s bell below a photo of the ship as he fondly remembers it.
“I used to see all these old boats out there,” he told the Manitoulin Expositor in a 2018 interview. “With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, all the little canal boats, the small upper lakes boats, were disappearing. I started taking photos and whenever I got a vacation I’d be at Sarnia or the Welland Canal taking pictures or getting rides on boats and taking more pictures. My hobby turned into an obsession.” As he towed ships to their final resting places in the scrapyard, he’d salvage unwanted name plaques, keys, flags, log books and brass railings to add to his growing personal collection.
He remembers the long-gone days when “supplies were hard to come by and costly. Boats got through where cars and especially trucks could not. … When I look around today I can say, ‘I dredged the marinas at Gore Bay, the Sault, at Spider Bay in Little Current. I put in the helipad at Gros Cap Lighthouse, built the Lafarge docks at Birch Island. In Gore Bay, all the boats in the marina are making use of the work I and others did; it makes the toil and hardship worthwhile. If you helped to shape the face of the area, it’s great to know your work means something.”
At his request, there will be no services.
2021 Marine Mart Saturday, Oct. 16 in St. Clair Shores, MI
The 2021 Marine Mart, sponsored by Dossin Great Lakes Museum, will be Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the VFW Post in St. Clair Shores, MI. Buy, sell and trade photos, books, models, artwork and other Great Lakes memorabilia. There will be a special table where photos by the late Jim Hoffman and other items from his collection will be sold to benefit the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. Food will be available. See the ad in the photo gallery for details.
