Canallers

[William Lafferty]

Keyvive unloaded at Cleveland's Republic Steel plant on 5 September 1954 and left the next day to load coal at Ashtabula.

[BobG]

Canallers began delivering "Labrad-ore" to lake ports in 1954. Hall Corp's John H. Price brought what may have been the "maiden" cargo, arriving at Buffalo's Republic Steel plant in August, and Keystone Transport's Keyvive unloaded Ungava ore at Cleveland sometime in the fall of that year. I don't know the name of the canaller that brought the first-ever ore from that region to Ashtabula, but it must have been around August or September.

[pcolachap]

As a young lad I remember going down to "the Point" in Ashtabula to watch the first load of Labrador ore being unloaded from a canaller at the Pennsylvania RR ore dock (PY&A). Must have been about 56 or 57. Then, in 59, there was the long steel strike, 116 days. Hanna ran the Humphrey, Thompson and Weir down the Seaway and were joined by the "Canadian Hanna boat", the Menihek Lake. Most of the ore docks & boats were shut down because of the steel strike. Pennsy Ashtabula ore dock was non-union, so the boats ran until they filled the storage area completely up. Mike

[BobG]

The canaller "fleet" was mostly worn out, anyway. Most of them had been built prior to 1930, and by 1959 it was no longer cost-effective to maintain them in running condition, much less actually operate them versus the proliferating Seawaymax vessels, or even CSL's new-gen package freighters.

[Al]

I was surprised that they did not find a niche in the industry. I thought small ports could still benefit from them.

There were other economic factors at play. At one time most small ports had a coal dock to handle coal for use in heating homes and running factories. Those disappeared as people switched to other fuels. Small grain elevators closed as the number of small farms declined and the cost efficiency of loading bigger boats made the small elevators less competitive. Hauling automobiles by rail became more competitive as the railroads designed better railcars for that purpose, and moving store goods by truck became cheaper as roads were improved.

[Guest]

I was surprised that they did not find a niche in the industry. I thought small ports could still benefit from them.

Some did, but there was only demand for just so many. The supply far exceeded demand once the Seaway was built so there was mass scrappings in the early 1960's.

A 730' x 75' lake freighter didn't cost much more to run, so the savings was insurmountable for a canaller to compete in mainstream trades.

The small niches, like pulpwood deliveries to Waddington NY for an example where they continued to be useful, could only absorb so many of the hundreds of canallers that suddenly were obsolete for the jobs that they were originally built for.

[BobG]

Small ports did provide work for a few canallers for some time after the Seaway opened, but not enough to justify indefinite operation. Even with some newer canallers "jumbo-ized" (lengthened ~ 100 feet and deepened 5-6 feet). tolls and rising crewing costs (canallers needed the same crew numbers as ships with eight-to- tenfold greater cargo capacity) added to an increasingly unprofitable picture.

[Jared]

I was surprised that they did not find a niche in the industry. I thought small ports could still benefit from them.

[Guest]

The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway was the cause.

[Guest]

I guess the "Seaway" caused the demise of the canallers.
I was on one of them ,& also 3 package frieghters. Iwould say the economy back then along with the newer highways finished the package freight business.

[BobG]

Once the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959 with its larger locks and deepened channels the canallers were no longer economically viable except in very limited roles which in turn gradually disappeared.

Package freight transport continued for some time, with CSL building larger vessels for this trade, but was eventually superseded by containerization and rail/truck transport of offloaded containers in ports such as Halifax and Montreal.

[TWilush]

What caused the demise of the small canallers? I see that in the 60's that they almost disappear into oblivion with many being scrapped. Did it have something to do with a decline in packaged freight?

Also what did cause packaged freight to disappear? Infrastructure or export to other areas?
Thanks

Do you think perhaps it might have been because of the replacement of the small, old canal system they were built for with the modern St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959?

[Jared]

What caused the demise of the small canallers? I see that in the 60's that they almost disappear into oblivion with many being scrapped. Did it have something to do with a decline in packaged freight?

Also what did cause packaged freight to disappear? Infrastructure or export to other areas?
Thanks