Kisman Marine Transit Company

[Skip G]

The George D. Goble arrived at Lorain from Chicago on July 21, 1975, with the deck house components for the James R. Barker and the Mesabi Miner.
I have no copies of the Kinsman Lines book left but could print 10 more if there was sufficient interest.

[Jon Paul]

Back in the day the Kinsman Fleet handled coal, ore, stone as well as the grain trade. They even handled the delivery of the stern cabins to several of the Interlake thousand footers. The cabins were loaded at the Amship yard at South Chicago for delivery to the Amship yard at Lorain, Ohio.

Here is the Geo Goble carrying the stern cabin modules for one of the footers, loaded at AmShip in S. Chicago bound for AmShip in Lorain.

[Darryl]

The Kinsman Line is a great book with many pictures and prose recounting the history of all the boats in their fleet (which might entail 50 or more boats over the course of time - at least two still in use today). Some years in the early 1970s, they ran 20 or more boats.

[Guest]

On October 4, 2004 the chartered to Kinsman Joseph H. Frantz unloaded coal in Superior, Wisc., which was the last time I saw it in service. Over the century of the Kinsman fleet they hauled a variety of cargoes like other independent fleets, which are those not owned by the steel or mining companies. Many stone cargoes were delivered to the Cutler Magner docks in Duluth-Superior for decades. Guthrie-Hubner vessel agent in Duluth arranged for years there cargoes, and it was not just grain. I do have a picture of Kinsman Independent (2) loading ore in the 1980's at the Missabe docks in Duluth. Yes, they hauled grain, but were not exclusive to it only. I did coauthor with Skip Gillham, "The Kinsman Lines" that came out in 2011, so much research went into that book. Skip may have copies left, to get the bigger picture of Kinsman.

[Al]

Kinsman boats hauled mostly grain in the 1980s, but they still occasionally carried other cargoes. This is the Kinsman Independent unloading stone at the CLM dock in Superior in fall 1985.

[St Crapo]

When Oglebay Norton left the shipping busines Kinsman got a favorite of mine in the M.V.Joseph H. Frantz and though her main cargo was a grain product that she loaded in Superior and unloaded in Buffalo, she did carry some stone cargoes for them. I saw her a few times unloading stone on the Saginaw River like she did frequently when she was with Oglebay Norton. Just my two cents.
Dan McNeil

[Guest]

Skip Gillham's book "The Kinsman Lines" has details on the cargoes handled by individual ships in the '70s' I would say a large percentage of their vessels spent the majority of their time in the ore trade, while often back-hauling with coal. A few of the ships spend most of their time carrying grain.

[pcolachap]

Through the years, Steinbrenner carried many ore cargoes as an independent for different steel companies. Point of reference, in 1972 after the sinking of the Sidney Smith, there were large traffic jams at Port Huron / Sarnia. The Smith's hull had not been salvaged yet. One trip there were almost 2 dozen boats at anchor in the river waiting their turn to continue upbound. It seemed like half of them were Steinbrenner boats. So it's summer time and these vessels were surely engaged in the iron ore & coal trade. Mike

[toledoboatphotographer]

Back in the day the Kinsman Fleet handled coal, ore, stone as well as the grain trade. They even handled the delivery of the stern cabins to several of the Interlake thousand footers. The cabins were loaded at the Amship yard at South Chicago for delivery to the Amship yard at Lorain, Ohio.

[Guest]

I know that Kinsman operated exclusively in the grain trade beginning during the 1980s, but I was wondering how active it was outside of this trade during the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Did its ships operate primarily in the grain trade during this time, or was ore a common commodity?