Picture Of The Day – 4

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Winter in the Northern Mid-West was extreme this year. Record cold temperatures, frozen solid lakes and tons of snow. But what of the freighters that haul and deliver materials around the lakes during the warm months and can’t maneuver the lake ice during winter?

They anchor the 680 foot freighters in the rivers that feed the Great Lakes. For our purposes here, the Huron River in Northern Ohio is host to two of the American Steamship Company’s really big freighters.

The Adam E. Cornelius and the John J. Boland previously docked in port at Toledo but had some kind of tiff and the powers that be decided to dock in the Huron River at Huron, Ohio. In spite of taking the entire day to dock such huge ships, they are very happy at dock in Huron. 

To be certain ice doesn’t trap or damage the colossal vessels, they have state-of-the-art bobber systems that stir the water to prevent the formation of ice around the ships.

26 crew members and contract workers spend the winter repairing the ships before these 42 year old vessels get back into service in June.  During the warmer months, these two behemoths will travel throughout the Great Lakes picking up and delivering materials such as iron ore pellets, coal, limestone and grains from Ohio farms for businesses at various ports, rail yards, marinas and harbors.

The two freighters valued at $10 million to $15 million dollars are considered an asset by the Town of Huron drawing attention to the developing waterfront.  They are quite the site when you are up close and personal!

Freighters-4

5 thoughts on “Picture Of The Day – 4”

  1. I found this very interesting. I was born & raised in Huron,Oh, and the Ore Dock was right in my back yard. I could see and hear those big boats when they were coming in and out of the dock. I was always fascinated by them. In fact my brother-in-law took me on one when he was working at the dock many years ago.

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  2. I found this very interesting. I was born and raised in Huron, Ohio and the boat docks were in our back yard. I could see an hear the Big Boats coming in and out of the docks. In fact I was on one many one, with my brother-in-law who worked the dock. The Crew was very friendly to me. I’ve always been fascinated with the Big Boats.

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  3. I also am enjoying seeing the big boats docked in Huron during the winter months. In the1940’s as pre-teens we would climb the iron ore piles pretending to be “mountain climbers”. On occasion we could convince the winter crew tto allow us to come up on deck where in addition to running around the deck we were treated to snack and a peek at the engine room or Captain’s quarters. Can you imagine 12-13 year -olds doing that now?.

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    • Our world has certainly changed since then. Now they climb mountains with their
      fingers on a keyboard looking at a screen. Whatever happened to “use your
      imagination?”

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