Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Champlain broke her moorings April 5, 1957 and struck the Fasset Street bridge during high-winds.

In the photo, it looks like that laker didn't do that bridge any good when it hit it! A couple spans laying in the water.

Champlain was in winter lay-up on 04-05-1957 with another unidentified Cliffs bulker at today’s ADM grain dock in Toledo.

Thanks Chuck & John for your help
on pinpointing the exact date of the Pioneers 79 christening.

Also thanks for the BGSU information on layups, I'll research it
soon. I use just the first year of the layup list for simplification
of column headings as I put three years on one page. So I am seeking
56/57 and 57/58 along with the previous years mentioned.

Thanks again to both of you for your help.

John

Don't know your proximity to Bowling Green, OH, but I looked through the inventory description for the Lake Carriers Association Records - GLMS 44 at the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes. Two boxes might contain information of interest:

[i]Box 78: Subject Correspondence

37-38. Mooring Lists for Winter, 1947-1973[/i]

[i]Box 100: Subject Files

2. Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., 1935-1963
3. Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., 1964-1973
4. Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., 1974-1977[/i]

Information is available on-line at the following link:
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/cac/ms/page43230.html

Building on the previous post, the following information was published in Vol 11, No 9 (mid-summer 1979) issue of the The Scanner published by the Toronto Marine Historical Society:

[i]Medusa Cement is not yet ready to proceed with conversion of HULL NO. 3, (a) McINTYRE (43), (b) FRANK PURNELL (I)(66), (c) STEELTON (III)(78), and in addition has decided to reduce the cost of a future conversion by eliminating plans for a self-unloading boom and making her into a conventional bulk cement carrier. Meanwhile, HULL NO. 3 has been chartered for three years to the Cleveland-Cliffs Steamship Company. She fitted out at Erie and, on June 24t was rechristened (e) PIONEER (III), sponsor for the ceremonies being Mrs. John L. Horton, wife of the Marine Division manager of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. The invocation was to be rendered by the Erie port chaplain, but he was unable to attend and his place was taken by a rabbi who just happens to be one of PIONEER's wheelsmen! She sailed on June 25, her new name displayed and the stack in Cliffs colours, but the hull still in Bethlehem red with white forecastle. Her appearance is somewhat strange.[/i]

Information can be accessed directly at the following link:
http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/scanner/11/09/default.asp?ID=s003

Regarding the 1956 lay up list - are you looking for the winter of 1955/1956, or the winter of 1956/1957? I found a 1955 - 1956 winter lay up list published in the Feb 1956 issue of Great Lakes Review; unfortunately, I couldn't find it for subsequent years.

Hi John- here's what I have: Pioneer was christened on June 24th by Mrs. John L. Horton, wife of Cliffs’ marine division manager. Erie’s port chaplain was unable to give the invocation, and his place was taken by a Rabbi who was a crewmember. Pioneer sailed on June 25th with Bethlehem colors and the Cliffs stack.

I am looking for Cliffs lay-up list for the years:

1904, 1910, 1934, 1936, 1956 and 1957

I am looking for the date that Cliffs christened the Pioneer (3).
I believe it was June of 1979, can anyone pinpoint it for me?

Thanks in advance to any help.