Scrapyards before Port Colburn

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Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Jared »

Thank you all for the replies. I want to hunt down photographs of the old lakers being scrapped in the 40s and 50s. Thank you again Mr. Link for posting a very interesting video.
Mr Link
Posts: 1198
Joined: December 6, 2014, 3:43 pm

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Mr Link »

Interesting question. Not sure about before 1970, but here are a few scrappers mentioned in old editions of the Toronto Marine Historical Society's Scanner from the 1970's and 1980's:

United Steel and Refining Co, Hamilton
Newman Steel, Port Maitland
Western Metals Corp, Thunder Bay
Affiliated Marine Metal and Marine, Toronto
Unnamed company, Windsor
Advance Metals, Buffalo
Unnamed company, Port Stanley.

And here are some places where I have seen vessels scrapped in the past 20 years or so. Not sure how long they were in the scrapping business:

Dean Construction, LaSalle, Ont. (several carfloats and barges)
Verplank dock, Muskegon ( Sea Castle and barges)
Julio Contracting yard, Ripley, MI (across from Houghton). (tugs and fish tugs)
Unknown company adjacent to St. Marys Cement, Lake Calumet (Mostly inland river barges, but they were scrapping for years, so they probably did tugs and lake barges as well.)
Reid Metals, Dafter, MI (tugs and fish tugs trucked whole to their yard in Dafter, or larger vessels cut up at the Soo.)
Purvis dock above the locks.


And of course Ford scrapped hundreds of vessels at the Rouge plant after World War I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEP2fSuBv-Q
Guest

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Guest »

Isn't there a scrapper up in Duluth. Someone was ripping up an old laker about a year ago. I think it was the JB Ford but I'm not 100 percent sure other than I saw a backhoe going with great enthusiasm on the ship's stern!
badger

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by badger »

yes marine salvage at rameys bend owned by the dwor family. a couple of years ago jeff dwor was going to buy the norgoma at the canadian soo and live on it in the port colborne area. i guess that idea was a flash in the pan! shes still there any new takers?
Doodleasc

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Doodleasc »

Just to name a few up in Duluth was Hymam-Michaels they did a lot of the older USS vessels. Across from the mailboat over in Canada was another slip that scraped a few . Ashtabula use to run a breaker yard too then of course Port Colborne Intl Marine Sslvage .Don’t forget the Phoenix Sun ( or was it the Star) that the Toledo Ship Yard scrapped while in dry-dock only not too many years ago . Of course many many went overseas in years gone by.
Guest

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Guest »

The current scrapyard at Port Colborne, Marine Recycling Corporation (MRC), was formerly International Marine Salvage, which I remember was setup by Upper Lakes Shipping around 1983. Before 1983, the land was formerly Canadian Furnace, a part of Algoma Steel - and a pig iron plant.

International Salvage scrapped several vessels at Port Maitland in the 1980s and 90s.

A bit north of Port Colborne, on the east side of the Welland Canal (Rameys Bend), was Marine Salvage. Scrapping operations began in 1946 with the dismantling of several surplus corvettes, and lasted until 1992 when the tug James Battle was dismantled.

The Steel Company of Canada (Stelco) dismantled a number of ships at their steel mill in Hamilton. A great number of those were the trade-ins to the Maritime Administration for the Maritimer ore boats of 1943. Around 1947, after being layed up for a couple of years in Erie, PA, they were towed one-by-one to Hamilton for scrapping.

Scrapping at Stelco began around 1938 and lasted until 1967, by which time Stratherne Terminal / United Steel and Metals (began 1957) did the dismantling for Stelco.
guest

Re: Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by guest »

Acme Scrap, Sam Simon, in Ashtabula, was was a major recycler from the mid 60s thru the end of the 80s.The operation started as the Luria Brothers at the old Great Lakes Engineering Works site at the head of the Ashtabula River. Acme took it over and moved their site to the five and a half slip, opposite where the carferry Ashtabula used to dock. Many veteran lakers were cut up their, including several that arrived under their own power.
R, Mike
Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Scrapyards before Port Colburn

Unread post by Jared »

What other scrap yards were on the lakes before the current one in Port Colburn? The Depression, the end of WW2, and the mid 50s were major eras for scrapping the old steamers of the 1880s-1910s. I'm not familiar with how they recycled the steel on those boats either. There were a few graveyards in the 1930s that had some old steel ships just rotting in the marshes around Detroit and the Soo.
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