• Saturday-What'sUP September 10 - 11:10 pm

Danielle Adams was at the Marquette Upper Harbor when the Kaye E. Barker was busy unloading her cargo, recently. So she zoomed right in to give us a close-up look of that coal as it was moved out of the cargo hold, up the elevator and dumped into the chute across from the dock. Interesting to see it all happening like we're standing right there in person. Looking at this unloading system, makes me wonder if there was ever a day that the cargo had to be unloaded by manpower? Now, that would be a job and a half.

Love those Great Lakes freighters.

That's my cousin (Danielle), Alway's intersting and fine photo's.

That is an impressive operation. I take it that the equipment used to unload the coal (3rd photo) is part of the ship's equipment?

Superior pictures Danielle of my favorite Lake Superior subjects! You are not such a *badkid*! :)

Yes these freighters were unloaded by men using buckets and horses to haul the coal ashore. I have seen these pictures in the past.
The self unloader boom is part of the ship and generally are 250'long. When one views a ship in transit we can tell the length by simply using that measurement to figure the whole length of the ship, i.e.1,000' ship= 4 boom lengths.
On the ships that I sailed on there were 2 conveyor belts that ran underneath the whole lenght of the cargo holds and when running they would unload the coal, stone, taconite etc onto a lift conveyor up to the top deck and then onto shore using the boom shown in the picture of the BARKER unloading in Marquette.

great pics, Eddyfitz, thanks for the explanation.

Exactly what Janie said, Danielle!! Great photos!

As Eddyfitz says, man and horsepower were first used to unload the boats. This was slow, but since labor was cheap, not necessarily costly. Turnaround time was more important so various mechanized systems were invented. The shores of Portage and Torch Lake were once home to several examples of these machines. The ultimate unloaders were the Huletts found at the iron docks on the lower lakes. The self-unloading boats rendered all obsolete, they are faster and require far less manpower. Nice photos!

Very nice photos and thanks for the added info Eddyfitz and Paul

Always neat to see the GL boats, whether under 'sail' or docked! My favorite is the Roger Blough, which has a unique boom.....well hey, that's one unique ship!

Hulett unloaders were mentioned....I think the last operating ones on the Great Lakes were in South Chicago and Cleveland. These marvelous mechanical dinosaurs certainly merit checking out by anybody interested in Great Lakes shipping history.

Here is a good site for great lakes shipping that Rowdy sent me.


http://ais.boatnerd.com/#

Picture one is specticular with that mirror image of the boat with the water. Thanks Daniele & also thanks to EddyFitz for the information.

Hei, Goldwinger, it's not called a 'self-unloader' for nothing. :o) In Dollar Bay years ago they used a small crane with a clamshell bucket to unload. Took days to get it done. Down south they could roll up 3 or 4 of those Huletts alongside the ship and have it done pretty quickly. An operator rode in it down into the cargo hold and back out again.

Good Morning

Good morning everyone. 65 and sunny here in Houghton.

Thought today's Pasty photo would be posted by now, then again, it's a somber day, being 9-11 + 10. Found some ways today is being remembered.

http://gocomics.com/dicktracy
http://gocomics.com/nancy
http://gocomics.com/todays-dogg

At the bottom of this page from Jerry's website is a 9-11 memorial from another person. Don't know how many can watch this without getting even a little emotional.

http://www.trafficsignalmuseum.com/

http://gocomics.com/todays-dogg/2011/09/10
http://gocomics.com/nancy/2011/09/11
http://gocomics.com/dicktracy/2011/09/11
http://gocomics.com/todays-dogg/2011/09/11