American Fortitude

[Guest]

I don't see American Valor listed in the Photo Gallery along with her history

Look under Lower Lakes Towing. She was sold to them by Algoma.

See it now. Thanks!

[hospitaller]

I don't see American Valor listed in the Photo Gallery along with her history

Look under Lower Lakes Towing. She was sold to them by Algoma.

[Bob]

The American valor is the ship I meant not the fortitude. Sorry I had a senior moment there, thanks for the correction.

[Guest]

I don't see American Valor listed in the Photo Gallery along with her history

[Chris M]

That's the American Valor that will be repowered and refurbished at some point

[Denny]

The American Fortitude was scrapped in 2015. Hope that this helps.

[Bob]

So they are going to scrap the fortitude? I thought they were going to refurbish her and sail her again.

[Denny]

I don’t believe so although they may look similar in appearance yet the Sykes is 678 X 70 whereas the Foritude was 690 X 70. So, the Sykes was built just a few feet shorter. I’m sure there are other differences but I’m not into the full details of that like others are. Surely someone will know the basics and provide full details of the differences between the two here.

[hausen]

Was she a sister too the Sykes?

Not quite identical, so not a “sister ship” as it’s usually understood, but the Sykes & the Weir were definitely of similar design. Fair to say they were close cousins.

[Guest]

Was she a sister too the Sykes?

I don't think it was a direct sister to Sykes although many of the innovations from that ship were carried over to Ernest T. Weir. I recall an article from a GLHS Inland Seas Journal from the 1990s titled A Decade of Great Ships that related the design and building of the Ernest T. Weir, and if I'm not mistaken its relation to the Wilfred Sykes. This ship was surely one of the most attractive vessels built during the 1950s. With some of the examples that came out of the shipyards during that period that is saying a lot!

[Guest]

Was she a sister too the Sykes?

[FWE]

Don’t make em like her anymore eh?

[guest]

Downbound at the Soo July 4, 2008

[Darryl]

Very much enjoyed your poem.

[cloahsark]

Well said.

[ohcaptainmycaptain]

Admins,

Feel free to delete as you wish. I started this a while back when I heard about the plan to scrap her, I started this, and it sat for a while, and now finally got around to finishing it. It may be a touch too saccharine, but y'all can be the judge of that.

The American Fortitude Sent to Scrap

for D.L.L

There’s nothing worse than a friend gone for no reason,
but even when it’s expected—
the brutal arithmetic of cancer,
or Alzheimer’s and the long forgetting,
—absence is its own surprise.

As these things go, she was a small boat,
690 feet, but four laps around her was still a statute mile.
Her steam engine burned heavy fuel oil,
not diesel, but she could still carry
twenty thousand tons of stone or coal,
or with a little imagination,
and more than a bit of augmentation,
do something else,
maybe patrolling the Pacific Garbage Patch,
like some great artificial whale.

But instead, a ship in working order
was idled, then towed away and sold for scrap.
This isn’t about a ship, of course, but the crew,
every ship struck
is a row’s worth of foreclosed houses
in Cleveland or Detroit or Duluth.
This is how it’s always worked:
the ships are laid up,
the crews that are laid off struggle,
and the bosses get their money.

But a short-term outlook gets you a short-lived future.

People have taken to the water here for forever,
in birchbark canoes, Mackinaw boats
whalebacks or thousand footers.
A sailor is a sailor is a sailor.

We’ve always plied the lakes.
That is what they’re for,
so there will always be people
ready to brace against the waves, the cold,
to risk their lives
to experience and survive
the power of water, surf, rocks, and wind.