Lake freighter
[1][2] Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the engine located at the rear of the ship.
Lakers have been used since the late 19th century to haul raw material from docks in the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway regions to the industrial centers of Ontario, Quebec, and the American Midwest.
The navigation season typically begins in late March and ends mid-January due to the formation of ice on the lakes.
[3] The largest lake freighters can travel up to 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)[4] and can carry as much as 78,850 long tons (80,120 t) of bulk cargo.
[citation needed] SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975, became widely known as the largest and most recent major vessel to be wrecked on the Great Lakes.
R. J. Hackett featured a raised pilothouse at the bow, situated on top of a set of cabins, and a boxy hull to maximize cargo capacity.
Between the raised forecastle and engine funnel at the stern was a long, unbroken deck lined with hatches spaced 24 feet (7.3 m) apart (to match the chutes of the gravity ore dock in Marquette, Michigan).
In an effort to make shipping more efficient and profitable, Michigan representatives appealed to the federal government for funding to build a canal.
Around this time, steel was quickly becoming a standard hull material as a result of the Bessemer process making it more affordable.
These had cigar-shaped bodies that barely rose out of the water when fully loaded, and carried bulk cargo on the lakes from 1888 through 1970.
[13] After World War II, several ocean freighters and tankers were transported to the Great Lakes and converted to bulk carriers as a way to acquire ships cheaply.
The iron ore transported from the upper Great Lakes primarily supplies the steel mills of the Midwest.
[36] Other destinations include coal-fired power plants, highway department salt domes, and stone docks, where limestone is unloaded for the construction industry.
[citation needed] Destination harbors, ship sizes, and legal restrictions greatly affect the pattern of haulage.
[citation needed] The more recently built lakers, like CSL Niagara, have a single large superstructure island at the stern.
The shallow draft imposed by the St. Marys River and Lake St. Clair restrict the cargo capacity of lakers.
These vessels vary greatly in configuration and cargo capacity, being capable of hauling between 10,000 and 40,000 tons per trip depending on the individual boat.
Modern lakers are usually designed and constructed for a 45-50 year old service life, outlasting ocean-going bulk carriers.
[51] The most recent losses of modern lakers were: The salties Prins Willem V and Monrovia sank in the Great Lakes during the 1950s; both in collisions with other ships.
Another saltie Nordmeer grounded on Thunder Bay Island Shoal in November 1966, but before it could be refloated, it was further damaged in the same storm that sank the Morrell and was declared a total loss.
Lakers have been subject to frequent groundings in ports and channels because of varying lake levels and silting, collisions with objects (such as the 1993 collision of the Indiana Harbor with the Lansing Shoals Light Station),[51] icing in during winter trips and shipboard fires (including the unusual case in 2001 where a drawbridge ran into the Canadian grain carrier Windoc causing a fire).
To prevent collisions and groundings, the Great Lakes are well-served with lighthouses and lights, and floating navigation aids.
In addition to this, the ship was regarded for its "DJ Captain", Peter Pulcer, who frequently played music to entertain onlookers.
Algoisle (formerly Silver Isle) (1962 – 715.9 ft, 218.2 m) was the first modern laker built with all cabins aft (a "stern-ender"), following the lead of ocean-going bulk carriers and reprising a century old form used by little river steam barges and the whalebacks.
[citation needed] Also of note is the steamer Edward L. Ryerson, widely known for her artistic design and being the only remaining straight-decker still in active service on the US side of the Great Lakes.
In 1965, the John W. Boardman was renamed Lewis G. Harriman and used to store cement during the Poe Lock construction in Sault Ste.
The ship was sold for scrap 2003, but the pilothouse and hull of Lewis G. Harriman were saved and now are used as a residence along the lake shore.
[71] SS John Sherwin, not sailed since 1981, is currently docked in DeTour, Michigan after conversion to a self-unloader and repowering was halted in November 2008.
[72] The pilothouse of SS William Clay Ford is part of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.
The forward cabin and pilothouse was moved in 1986 to a cliff on South Bass Island, near the village of Put-in-Bay, Ohio in Lake Erie.
