Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Does the Blough have two hoppers? Because on the Cort, we had one hopper on top of the shuttle amidships and the shuttle could only extend 50 feet or so. The Blough must have a couple belts or hoppers above the shuttle.

Blough’s boom can extend a lot further than what was in the news gallery picture. I took this one in Gary.

Blough’s boom can extend a lot further than what was in the news gallery picture. I took this one in Gary.

Bigboat wrote:Great pics in todays photo gallery. Looks to me that with the Blough's short shuttle boom the loading of the other vessel would become uneven. Would the other boat have to turn around to fill the other side? I can see why maybe they scrapped this idea.

If i remember correctly the Blough's shuttle will extend something like 50 feet. For a boat like the Ferbert with a 60 foot beam that is enough.

Great pics in todays photo gallery. Looks to me that with the Blough's short shuttle boom the loading of the other vessel would become uneven. Would the other boat have to turn around to fill the other side? I can see why maybe they scrapped this idea.

The Speer and Gott do transfers. AAA transfers at Lorain and Cleveland. CSL transfers for Hamilton. Last time I remember a Lorain transfer was 1996. The Speer unloaded into the Anderson at Cleveland around 2000.

anyway someone could send a photo to the news page of this?

The test was conducted by U.S. Steel off Cleveland in October 1973. During the test, 14,000 tons of pellets were transferred from the Blough to the Ferbert for delivery to the USS Works on the Black River in Lorain, O. The premise of the test is that a super carrier could carry a cargo from Lake Superior to Lake Erie at a lower cost per ton than a smaller boat and the off shore transfer to a smaller boat would permit the cargo to be transported up relatively restricted waters at the final destination (Lake Carriers' Association Bulletin, Sept-Oct-Nov, 1973, p7). I'm not aware of any follow up to the test. I suspect the cost of having the Blough wait to unload a full cargo into 2 or 3 smaller vessels off set the cost of using a smaller boat on a long haul. The practice of transferring cargo from one vessel to another, sometimes called a "dipsy-doodle" has been used in other occasions: (1) pellets were transferred from the ore dock at Marquette into an ASC self unloader and then into a second ASC boat that could not fit under the chutes, and (2) Canada Steamship has transferred ore from a self unloading laker directly into a larger salt water vessel.

This was, as I recall, an experiment to demonstrate how footers could carry cargoes to harbors incapable of handling their size by transshipment to smaller vessels. The Ferbert took the load to Lorain, I think.

I have that newspaper clipping somewhere. It was done inside the Cleveland breakwall, but I don't remember if it was loaded for Lorain or Cleveland. I believe it was some kind of efficiency test. I never heard of it being repeated.

JIM

I have a picture that shows the Roger Blough unloading into the A.H. Ferbert in October 1973. Photo was taken by a photographer out of Cleveland. The two boats are not in port. Any idea what the circumstances were / was this some kind of trans-shipping experiment for Lorain?