Frozen Ore Cargoes

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
Guest

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by Guest »

I can remember in the 60's being on deck at one of the old Graet Northern chute docks and watching what they were doing at the next dock over. They had frozen ore in the pockets so they ran an old steam engine (kept for just this purpose) over each pocket. It would send a cloud of steam shooting into each pocket from piping on the underside until the ore ran.
StatmkToo

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by StatmkToo »

We had a frozen pellet cargo that we had to go down and knock lose by hand--well picks, pikes, and shovels. It was at Indiana Harbor from Two Harbors very late in the 1980 season on the St. Clair. We hooked onto chains and kind of swung like Tarzan. Ran the belts with us in the hold. Stood on the frozen pellets, knocked it loose, and swung over on the chain while it collapsed under us. Would not be done today. Good thing. The OT pay was great, but it was hard work--blood money.
Guest

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by Guest »

In the early days of my career red ore was still shipped and yes it would , could, and did freeze in the holds on occasion. Also froze on the dock loading cars and the chutes. Often it was the layup load in late dec. early Jan.that had issues. This happened on both straight deckers and the older style self unloaders. In 38 years only had one taconite load that was frozen solid. Some got sticky and had to be coaxed but were unloaded. Coal was indeed a problem. Especially power plant “ bug dust”.
guest

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by guest »

I've never had frozen ore as a problem before. Stone and especially coal might get frozen due to moisture in the cargo. Taconite is generally pretty dry, though it will steam mightily when it is fresh out of the plant on a cold day. I also think that the mass of it keeps it flowing pretty well. Just my opinion based on my observations. Coal can be a real pain to load in the winter. One particular load in a cold winter in sandusky they had to defrost every single rail car of about a 120 car load at 30 minutes a car in the defroster building. We were there so long we had to call an icebreaker to get us out because the lake had frozen around us.
Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by Jared »

I did a cursory glance at numerous newspaper articles dealing with frozen cargoes. For the most part, no I have not seen a incident where a cargo has become frozen or shifted and frozen in the hold. Unloading is a bit simpler. The hullets and brute force by stevedors could break the cargo for unloading.
Guest

Re: Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by Guest »

Often times frozen on both ends of the voyage.
Guest

Frozen Ore Cargoes

Unread post by Guest »

I have seen it often stated that in the days of natural iron ore being shipped, it would often freeze in the loading pockets and complicate loading ships in cold weather. This was a large reason why shipping only ran about 8 months out of the year, but with the advent of taconite this became less of a problem and opened the way to longer seasons. My question is, did any ships ever experience problems with cargoes of iron ore freezing in their holds? Or were unloading rigs strong enough to overcome any ore that had become frozen?
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