• Tuesday-What'sUP June 28 - 07:48 pm

Rod Burdick, one of the photographers in our ever-growing Guest Gallery, reports there were recently two freighters tied up at the Marquette Harbor Ore Docks, that garnered a bit of attention. Their visits were considered a 'first' and therefore, unusual for a Canadian straight-deck bulker. The Algoisle waiting on the north side of the dock, with the Cedarglen tied up on the other side, must have been quite a sight . Both of these ships were standing by, to be loaded with iron ore for transport to some another port along the Great Lakes route. Freighters and ships on the Great Lakes fascinate me, but my knowledge of them is limited, so I'll have to defer to some of our 'Shipping' experts to chime in with more technical info about this subject.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited for the festivities of Pasty Fest 2005, to begin in Calumet on July 2nd. Only four more days and the Pasty Central crew will be busy handing out free pasties to the first 400 folks who've clipped a coupon from the Gazette or the Finnish American Reporter.

Good morning from the hot and muggy Saginaw Valley! Beautiful pictures from Marquette. Reminder that this is the 150 anniversary of the Soo Locks with special events planned throughout the summer.

Thanks for the info & pics!

Oh the photos of freighters and the light houses of the Great Lakes....I'm in Hog Heaven! :)

A great site for great lakes ships info www.boatnerd.com

Thanks for the great freighter pics. We were allowed aboard as a kid growing up in Hubbell & Mason at the C & H & Quincy docks. They sure were not as large as these 2 Canadian vessels..

ed/mi
did C&H have its own fleet?

Oh, my gosh! My dad punched ore for years in Ashland. That is such a great sight for sore eyes. My granddad was a watchman at the docks when he was "getting on" in years. He punched ore too. My gran's house was just down the street from the coal docks, so we could see superior from the sidewalk. Those were the days. I think all of the docks in Ashland are gone now--I know the ore docks are==that's why we moved to Michigan.

I also highly recommend the boat nerd site, I can get lost there for hours.

Look in the photo pages under the Mesquite (coast gurad boat that sank off the keweenaw) and you'll
find a couple of my photo's. Lake Superior was a sheet of class that day, quite the contrary to the weekned before that sank her.

http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/special/mesquite.htm

MY brother-in-law is on the Herbert C Jackson.

Such nice pics! Esky used to have an old-fashioned ore dock
like that. It really defined the city as you came in from
Gladstone on Hwy 41. Now no dock like that, but the town does
"boast" the rusting hulk of an old ore carrier on its north shore
which is about as attractive as the remains of an old steel mill in
Gary. Too bad.

Looks like the 2 boats need a paint job---Well there most likely cutting back an there paint an labor costs since were all losing our jobs to china--thanks to nafta--now cafta will finish off the rest of our jobs

Bob -

Thanks for the photo's. Do you suppose someone lost their rank/job for loosing the Mesquite?

ts -

You're right about the future of many jobs. Don't understand how people can let politicians get away with this, but that's another thread.

Thad,....the Mesquite had a female in charge and they didnt want to "stir the waters" after the inquiry...

Margaret, Amarillo: I love visiting Ashland!! We have been there both in summer and winter. I love to look out over the bay to Washburn while in Ashland and visa-versa from Washburn at night! Do you go back much? I'm thinking that once in a while a freighter still goes to unload coal there in Ashland at the power plant.

ed/mi
did C&H have its own fleet? NO they didn't.

ts.
Looks like the 2 boats need a paint job.

I saw on BOATNERD last week where it cost about $200,000 to paint one of these ships.

How do they paint the frieghters? sandblast, prime, then paint? BIG job!

Janie and Margaret...I've liked Ashland since my first visit in '79 when daughter *1 visited to see about Northland College. Was very dissapointed when she had a change of plans. Still love to visit that area. Nice campgrounds down by the water. Always wished I had lived there as a kid. If I ever run away that's where I'll be or Calumet. LOL :)

ASHLAND is how I ended up in the copper country!

In the 70's while I was in high school in Indiana, My Favorite Uncle was transfered from Chicago to Ashland to the new durochrome tool forge.

He worked at Ashland Forge, and we spent many many summers coming north.

So when I went looking for College, I ended up at MTU because it was the closest school with what I wanted and to My Uncle for fishing. ;-)

He has long since passed, but I still own the boat he took me fishing in. ;-)

Love the ore dock there.

All of my cousins were Ashland Oredockers! (the high school name)

Boy, if you think these two boats need a paint job; you haven't been watching the current fleet sailing the Great Lakes.

Probably shouldn't tell, but when I was 18, (back in the dark ages) my NMU room mate and I were hanging out at the beach near the hotpond. We were invited by one of the engineers to ride in the caboose on one of the ore trains that was loading ore into the ship. We climbed up to the top of the dock, hopped into the caboose and rode through the woods to the mine and back again. It was a great experience, and perhaps one that only a few have had the opportunity to enjoy. There was no "hanky-panky", just a sense of adventure. It's quite a different view from the top of that dock!!

Bob,
What year did you graduate from Tech? Your photos are awesome. I've used a few on my desktop from time to time.

The ore docks are awesome too - there was a freighter docked there the last time I happened to be in town in 2000 - have a nice photo at dusk. I don't remember the name of the boat though.

Janie: was supposed to go back next week, but the old hubby lost his job and well, that's another story. My Dad was from the reservation at Odanah and my Godparents were from Washburn.

Janie, Ms. Katie: Growing up (only until I was 9 and that was in 1956) in Ashland was cool. I loved riding out to Lakeshore park to learn to swim in Gitchie Gummee at age 4. Try that today and you won't make it home.

We had relatives in Saxon, Iron River and Baraga. We never really vacationed, but often would go out to cabins by a lake to fish.

Those were the days.

The Big Lake in a more serene setting than the night the Fitz went down, indeed.

john/mn -

Spent several hours "googling" the Mesquite. Considering it being a recent loss, there sure isn't much info available on the web about the circumstances surrounding the grounding or the rescue of the ships crew. Guess I'll check for Fred Stonehouse's book. I did find some excellent images of the interior taken by divers. I would have thought that more equipment would have been removed before it was pulled off the reef and sunk.

http://uscgcmesquite.com/ homesite for mesquite

Thank you for featuring my images on this page. Just to clarify, the Cedarglen visited Marquette on May 16 and the Algoisle on June 4.
I will be uploading more images of U.P. shipping from Marquette, Munising, Soo Locks, and Ontonagon in my photo gallery this summer.
https://pasty.com/pcam/rburdick27

Rod,

Your abilities with film are amazing. Patience, perseverence and motivation are what make your photos rise above the rest.

RTB,

Master of the MQT lens. A true nut of boats, pins and film. May the day of steam be ever saved by your clicking adventures.