Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Denny wrote:I don't know if there are any pictures of the Blough in Calcite

There are plenty of pictures of her in Calcite, as she was loading during the Boatnerd tour of Michigan Limestone in September of 2004!

Thanks for the confirmation and the link! We used to get some really fast load times out of Conneaut usually under 4 hours but then again most of the boats I was on only carried 12,000 to 15,000 tons.

Yes, they've loaded in Conneaut. Indiana Harbor has loaded there as well. See the bottom of the Barker's Fleet page for photos of her loading there, pulled in.

http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/jamesrbarker.htm

Earlier in the thread someone mentioned Interlake footers loading coal in Conneaut. Just curious if anyone can confirm that. Having been on boats that loaded coal many times in Conneaut back in the 70's I am hard pressed to believe a footer could be loaded there. The dock area is not all that spacious and the configuration of the loaders would have made loading anything bigger than 730 x 75 a real chore if not impossible.

They were unloaded in Ashtabula.

Check that on the American Spirit as she may have unloaded those stone cargoes possibly in Ashtabula, Ohio and not in Conneaut as I had previously stated. Sorry for the confusion on where she unloaded at however, I can confirm that she most definitely did indeed load two stone cargoes out of Calcite during the mid-summer period in 2012 late June or July.

I don't know if there are any pictures of the Blough in Calcite or in Cedarville loading however, during the 2012 season, the American Spriit made "two" trips to Calcite and loaded stone for Conneaut, Ohio. This was done I believe in late June or in early July last year and it was a first for the Spriit visiting Calcite as she had never done this before. In 2011 she also did a rare and only one trip coal run in mid-April to the St. Clair Power Plant and she also carried some coal in either 2010 or in 2011 from Duluth to Silver Bay and then loading iron ore pellets from Silver Bay or Two Harbors after that. Hope this helps.

Any pictures of the Blough in Calcite or Cedarville?

Years ago back in the maybe early portion of the 2000's I can remember Interlake used two of their 1,000 footers for the purpose of "backhauling coal." The James R. Barker and the Mesabi Miner both would load in Conneaut, Ohio and then head up to Marquette to deliver it for the power plant there. If memory serves me correctly, I believe the last season that they did this run was in 2006 as I have photos of the Barker in Marysville and he was clearly loaded with coal from Lake Erie. Sometimes the Presque Isle would load stone at Stoneport and then deliver it down Lake Michigan to Buffington, Indiana and I believe she has also carried stone down to Huron, Ohio for the lime plant down there as well. These were after she had delivered ore cargoes to Gary, Indiana or other locations. In years past when the Roger Blough loaded stone at either Calcite or Cedarville, she would mostly carry it up to Duluth, Minnesota and unload at a special hopper at the Ore Dock.

When I sailed on the "river class" boats in the mid/late 70s, an empty run was a rarity. A Real challenge for the deck crew was to unload stone in Conneaut, then get the holds clean during the short run to Ashtabula to load coal- Apparently, stone contaminated coal is rough on the crushers and stokers of power plants. An average "long" dead-head run was from Detroit to Calcite or Stoneport, but even those were rare. If we unloaded stone in Detroit, we would usually head to Toledo or Ashtabula for coal to take back up the lakes.

Some interesting and good info provided by many here. Thanks for that.

My question still stands and I guess I'm a little lost on the answer. Sorry about that if someone has already provided the answer.

Do 1000 footer's backhaul product from lower lake ports like some of the smaller vessels? If so, where would they load, and what ports would they discharge their cargo at?

In my memory, I can't recall many 1000 foot vessels doing a back haul of any sort. Every time I see them at the locks, they are in ballast. Every time I see them on AIS upbound, they state in ballast. I do remember Presque Isle loading at Calcite, and I think at Cedarville. Same with the Blough at Cedarville. But was that for a backhaul to a Superior port, or for a lower lakes port?

I know of the power plant at Marquette, but do they only receive western coal, never something from Toledo or Sandusky for example... and by a 1000 footer most specifically? And that's just an example of a product.

Again, most appreciative of the input from others here. Thanks to all for for your insight on this thought.

I think you may have the two ships names mixed up as the American Integrity is the ship that has both the limestone and the iron ore records. In 1992 as you mentioned earlier, the Integrity which was then the Oglebay Norton did indeed set the record for limestone carried by freighter on the Great Lakes. During the 1986 shipping season, the American Integrity which at that time was the Lewis Wilson Foy, set the iron ore record carried on the Great Lakes. The American Century on the other hand which was the former Columbia Star did indeed set the Great Lakes coal cargo record during the 1997 season when she logged and carried over 70,000 tons to the St. Clair Power Plant in St. Clair, Michigan. You had the facts right but, just got the two ships mixed up by names is all.

Brian Ferguson wrote:I know the American Century has the stone record for the Great Lakes in 1992 (as the Oglebay Norton) so she hauled it. Interestingly enough she has the Great Lakes iron ore record which she set in 1986 (as the Lewis Wilson Foy). Now she needs to get the coal record as the American Century. It's rare for big ships to back haul, and the Blough and Burns Harbor didn't when I worked on them but I know the Blough did before I got there. I'd hate to load the Roger Blough at Calcite. That would be a long night of shifting with the fixed loader at that dock.

Oglebay Norton is now American Integrity.

I know the American Century has the stone record for the Great Lakes in 1992 (as the Oglebay Norton) so she hauled it. Interestingly enough she has the Great Lakes iron ore record which she set in 1986 (as the Lewis Wilson Foy). Now she needs to get the coal record as the American Century. It's rare for big ships to back haul, and the Blough and Burns Harbor didn't when I worked on them but I know the Blough did before I got there. I'd hate to load the Roger Blough at Calcite. That would be a long night of shifting with the fixed loader at that dock.

A few years back several footers from several fleets have loaded coal at the CSX Docks here at Toledo for the trip back north.

I do not want to change the subject ,but want to give You a thought on the back haul idea in a truck Drivers Mind .I Haul products and get 40 cents a mile to deliver it.If I make the delivery loaded and return empty is the money load,because I get paid for driving both direction.If I deliver loaded and than drive to another stop and pickup cargo on the way back .I will than have to travel out of My way and load and than I will be gone from Home,or loose another day of paying work to pick up that load and deliver it.

So the company pretty much pays Me the same money to do twice the work for the same pay that takes twice as long.

I would think these thousand footers are in such high demand.That keeping them on a consistent run every 6 days would be the most efficient.

As mentioned above, Presque Isle used to deliver fluxstone to Duluth on a fairly common basis, originally to Hallett #5 and later to DM&IR / CN Dock #6 once they installed the stone receiving hopper. That practice seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years.

I remember the James R. Barker a few years back delivering a cargo to Hallett #5; fairly sure it was eastern coal but I'm not 100% certain on that (could also have been limestone).

It's not entirely uncommon for ships like the Barker and Miner to load eastern coal at Lake Erie ports, though I think that used to happen more often back in the 1980s-early 2000s, and I don't know where they took the coal from there. Presque Isle sometimes delivers stone from northern Michigan ports to Buffington, IN but I'm not sure whether that really constitutes a backhaul since she doesn't usually load at a south Lake Michigan port afterward.

St. Clair used to deliver sugar stone to Reiss-Inland in Duluth on a fairly common basis back in the mid-late 1990s.

The Presque Isle has backloaded stone for CN/DM&IR in Duluth.

The Blough loaded stone from Calcite for Duluth but, that was long ago.