• Friday-What'sUP May 18 - 09:10 am

Rod Burdick is back at it again, now that the Great Lakes Shipping season is back in full swing and today he brings us to the small Lake Superior port of Munising. These shots were taken 10 days ago, just before the green started bursting out here UP North. The ship at the dock, is the River Class Motor Vessel, Great Republic and she's there in port, unloading eastern coal from Toledo, Ohio, which is then headed to the Neenah Paper Mill, right there in Munising.

According to Rod, Munising receives three to four coal cargoes during a season, amounting to about 60,000 tons of coal that travels through this Lake Superior port on the way to the consumers.

Sure is nice to see the shipping action building up for the season again.

Nice...may be UP next week, depending on the weather. (fingers crossed)

Good to see the 'boats' on the move once again, and Rod's contribution of photos!
If memory serves me correctly, the former name of this ship was the "American Republic", wonder by the change?

Coal, providing jobs at the coal mine, the ships that deliver it, the Paper Mill. Be a shame to have it banned.

oops, one of those days.:) That's supposed to read 'wonder WHY the change'. I must see an eye dr.

Nice to see there is still some coal freighter action along the shores of Lake Superior as shown in Robs pictures of today. In days gone by there were many U.P, ports and hundreds of ships that sailed into them delivering coal. I suppose with the push for a cleaner fuel ie. natural gas, the remainder of the coal fired electric plants will close, similar to what is happening in Ontario. All season long while I do my walk at Lake Erie (some say I think I can walk on water) near the Detroit River I get to view at least 4 to 6 different types of freighters, some from around the world.

Shirley, the boatnerd.com web site has a profile on the Great Republic. The reason for the name change is that she now sails for the Great Lakes Fleet rather than American Steamship. The writeup says she's "considered to be the most maneuverable ship in the world"; you'll find out why when you read it.

Those big Freighters are a awesome sight!

When I first saw the photos, I thought for sure these were Danielle's, but I sit corrected!!

Thanks, Dunerat. Yeah, I also checked one of my Know Your Ships book and found out that originally when it was built in 1981, it was named American Gulf V. I used to be able to identify the lakers from a distance, but couldn't do that today with all the name changes.

fjl,
a wink and a nod

Yes, this is a good sight to see ~ coal being
delivered!

Hope coal survives all the attacks it is under and
will continue to provide affordable energy, with the
current low environmental impacts. Many
improvements have been made over the years and
that's being ignored for 'some' reason.