• Tuesday-What'sUP September 7 - 07:53 pm

Rod Burdick was at it again... boat watching and once again he has come up with some interesting shots as a result. His first shot shows the new blue LS&I locomotives pushing ore cars onto the dock in Marquette's Upper Harbor. That's the Charles M. Beesley at the dock, waiting patiently for loading to begin. In the next photo, Rod captured the moment when the taconite dust fills the surrounding air as the Kaye C. Barker begins with an ore load, again at the Marquette Upper Harbor.
You might think a freighter photo is a freighter photo, but like I mentioned already, Rod sure seems to be one of the lucky ones that can capture them doing more than just sailing the Lake Superior waters.

The last picture is an added bonus shot of the Herbert C. Jackson out in the gale force winds from a few weeks back. You can see the waves crashing over the bow of the boat. I'm not sure what size they were at this point, but they reached heights of around 14 feet during that storm. While taking this photo from Esrey Park, the winds were so strong that my hubby had to help hold me steady so the gusts didn't knock me right over. I can't imagine what it must have been like out there in the midst of the wind and waves. Thus concludes today’s Pasty Cam "boat nerd" report!

Mary says: Rod just informed me that the freighter in the third photo is not the Herbert C. Jackson, but is the Charles M. Beeghly instead. These two ships look quite alike, but a true "boat nerd" like Rod, can tell them apart from miles away! Thanks Rod!

My brother in law Ray Du Temple from Hubbell was the Chief Stewart on the Jackson.

Holy smokes!! Those waves in that last picture are something else. I would not want to be out there on any size boat. Great shots, as always, though

At one time C & H Copper company had their own small fleet. The steamers would be the “G. A. Flagg” and the “Randolph S. Warren,” and the consorts (no engines just towed behind one of the steamers)“A. W. Thompson” and “S. D. Warriner.
Brother Don and I will have our 6th great lakes article published in October by the INLAND SEAS MAGAZINE in Ohio.

Thanks for the head's up Eddyfitz!

Will be looking for your article in our next issue of Inland Seas!

The third picture is awesome! I really enjoy the collection of tales by everyone who has experienced their life with these freighters. Anyone else please share your story/stories. Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who has been voting for the Coopper Harbor ambulance barn! Please keep up the good work - we really need this thing, and it will benefit everyone who visits us.


http://www.refresheverything.com/copperharborambulancebarn?utm_source=em

I believe it was the Pasty Network that finally made the Copper Country Humane Society the winners in the last voting situation. We can do it again! Vote daily and let's show the country one more the power of the Pasty!!!

http://www.refresheverything.com/copperharborambulancebarn?utm_source=em

Like those Great Lakes freighters.

Go back to the 2007 pic of Sept. 2, '10, Thurs. of the What's UP for a reference for height. In the spring of 1963 I sailed aboard the E.L. Ryerson as a deckhand. We were going west on lake Superior to Two Harbors and the big lake was rough. As the bow went down into the waves, the wave went OVER the radar antenna on top of the pilothouse! That wall of water was SO impressive and a little frightening. I was up on deck next to the pilothouse until the mate saw me and told me over the PA system "To get the h*** off the deck." But what an experience it was to watch that water. Holy Wah!!! Too bad I didn't have a camera with me at the time.

My father spoke of leaving Escanaba with a load of ore into the teeth of gale force winds and having to throttle the engine down because the prop kept coming out of the water and they didn't want to overspeed the engine while it was in the air. They spent over 24 hours within sight of the breakwall they'd left the safety of without making any headway on their journey south to Chicago. My worst trip on the Cason J. Callaway was with three foot waves coming down the deck hitting the after cabins. On the Ranger III there was a trip rough enough to pull one of the lifeboats out of its clamps and start it swinging out on the ends of its lowering cables from the davits and part of the crew had to wrestle it back into place.

I've been on a trip or two that was rough enough for me! But wooo-eeeee you guys had some experiences. Don't know if I would have had the guts to go on another one after those times!!!!!! Never got seasick at least. Saw a lot of it on a ride to Wisconsin from Ludington once tho.

I asked my Dad when I was a little girl if he ever had any close calls when he was sailing on the ore freighters. He told me "yes Cotton" & I then asked what he'd do if the boat was sinking. He said "Go down with it, I can't even dog paddle." And that's exactly what happened many years later. He also always walked with his legs slightly apart & he called them his "sea legs." He was balancing himself while walking when the boat rocked from one side to the other.

Cheryl, I think your dad had what is known as a "6th sense" besides the traditional 5. My dad always knew he would pass on long before his mother would, and he did.

After the S.S.NORTH AMERICAN laid up in '59 the union sent me to Chicago to get hired on to the S.S. HENRY R. PLATT Jr. It was one of the last hand-fired coal burners at the time. We would haul whatever they could find. Even a shipload of bat guano. (Bat poop, makes excellent fertilizer. Came from some cave in Kentucky.) We loaded coal, iron ore, and grain (to the brewerys in Milwaukee.) On several of those trips the waves were coming right over the stern rail and washing down the deck. We had to time our trips into the galley so we wouldn't get washed overboard. At times like that the engineer would have to stand by the throttle to slow the engine 'cause the whole stern would shake, like someone said above. I was a coalpasser on that one.

As a railfan & boatnerd, I've seen dozens of shots of trains & boats at the Marquette ore dock but never one with the nice red plume of ore dust. Great!