Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Alex, the boat was the Lyman C. Smith and the year was 1964, I dont remember the month but it was late summer. She was a good boat and nice engine room. Chief Engineer was J. Lesley Hall and the First assistant engineer was Joe Polczak, a really great guy.

Jerry, which boat was it?

The source of the coal a DeTour was several places. It was brought in by boat. Some of it produced more clinkers than head. A bad load would puff up like popcorn and produce low heat. We even had to cut the engine back on the Smith once because the boilers could not provide enough steam and that was with three of us firing including the first engineer.
Jerry

The Bradley boats would bring it in.

Where did the Coal at DeTour come from?

Thank you for the information.

Here's the West Shore at USS South Works fueling the Avery.
http://www.mhsd.org/photogallery/westshore.jpg

At one time there were coaling stations in almost every port. Some were large high speed affairs while others were just a crane and a clamshell at a coal dock. Some of the bigger coaling stations were Lime Island and Detour in the St. Marys River, Port Huron, Detroit and Windsor. Chicago and Buffalo had bunkering barges that were small coaling stations mounted on barges.

Here is a thread from the past that discussed coaling. As mentioned the big plants could do around 600 tons per hour, so 200 tons could be taken in 20 minutes. Much quicker than pumping liquid fuel on board.

http://newsearch.boatnerd.com/viewtopic ... ing#p10289

This second link is to an online copy of the 1936 Green's Maritime Directory for the Great Lakes. I did a sort on fuel, so each page number listed at the top should have a reference to fuel on it. Many are ads for fuel docks, some of which include pictures.

http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreat ... MHGL.66371

Used to take on @200 ton of coal at Detour once a trip (@ week)

When coal was used as fuel for the freighters how much coal would be needed to move a cargo of ore from Duluth to Gary for example. Would ships need to refuel with coal one or more times. Where on the route would the coal stations be.