Superships of the Great Lakes: Thousand-foot Ships on the Great LakesSince the beginning of commerce on the Great Lakes there has been a desire to build larger and more efficient ships. Beginning in the nineteenth century shipbuilders began to increase the size of their creations as new materials and construction techniques became available. This process of innovation would continue throughout the twentieth century as improvements to the shipping channels on the Great Lakes opened up new possibilities in ship design. These efforts culminated in 1972 with the commissioning of the first thousand-foot vessel to sail on the inland seas, the STEWART J. CORT. This ship set a new benchmark in the hauling of raw materials and would be followed by twelve more ships of her class which collectively revolutionized the US flagged shipping industry on the Great Lakes. These ships represent such a significant step forward in the evolution of the Great Lakes freighter that even today, nearly forty years after they began to enter service, they remain unsurpassed in size and carrying capacity. The story of this class of ships includes the earliest of the thousand-footers, the STEWART J. CORT and the PRESQUE ISLE, two unique vessels built incorporating highly innovative features many of which were not carried on in subsequent designs. This tale also includes vessels such as the JAMES R. BARKER and the BELLE RIVER which became patterns for the ships that followed them. In this volume, each of the thirteen thousand-foot ships is described to relate each of their unique operational histories along with the purposes for which they were built. Included are numerous never before published photographs, portraying these ships in both their previous and current operations. |
Common terms and phrases
2010 shipping season American Ship Building American Steamship Company arrived barge BARKER Bay Shipbuilding Corporation BELLE RIVER Bethlehem Steel Corporation brake horsepower BURNS HARBOR cabins cargo hold carrying capacity Clair River coal COLUMBIA STAR Columbia Transportation CORT damage delivery Detroit Edison downbound Duluth EDGAR EDWIN H entered service Erie Marine flagged fleet flagged shipping GOTT gross tons hauling hull INDIANA HARBOR Interlake Steamship Company JAMES Lake Erie lake freighter Lake Superior Lakes Fleet LANCEY later length lengthening LEWIS WILSON FOY loaded located Lock at Sault Lorain lower lakes Marys River MCCARTHY MESABI MINER National Steel Oglebay Norton Ohio Poe Lock PRESQUE ISLE repairs ROGER BLOUGH Sault Ste self-unloading Ship Building Company ship was built shipping operations single trip capacity Soo Locks SPEER STEWART STINSON Sturgeon Bay superships Taconite Harbor thousand-foot class thousand-foot ships thousand-foot vessel tons of taconite trade route TREGURTHA tug-barge United States Steel unloading boom upbound Wisconsin