Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 26, no. 7 (April 1994), p. 4

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M a r i n e N e w s - c o n t 'd. 4. One of the fleets that was able to begin operations relatively early in 1994 was the Inland Steel Company, which had its WILFRED SYKES and JOSEPH L. BLOCK running from Escanaba to Indiana Harbor in late March. The bad news is that Inland's straight-decker EDWARD L. RYERSON will not operate this year and will remain in lay-up at Sturgeon Bay. It is our understanding that she will be replaced by chartered tonnage, but full details were not available at our press time. Readers will recall that it had been intended that the Inland Lakes Trans portation coal-fired steamer S. T. CRAPO would be repowered with diesel machinery during the summer of 1993, the work supposedly to be done by Bay Shipbuilding at Sturgeon Bay. In fact, the repowering was postponed indefinitely as Inland Lakes required the CRAPO's services in the thriving cement trade through 1993, and the company even ran the venerable E. M. FORD through the autumn, as well as ALPENA, J. A. W. IGLEHART and PAUL H. TOWN SEND. Observers will have a chance to see the CRAPO in steam again at the start of the 1994 season, as her owner has more than enough business to re quire her operation. We now understand that the repowering of the steamer may take place late this season, and that if it does, E. M. FORD will be activated to replace the CRAPO while the work proceeds. As we go to press with this issue, it is evident that major changes have occurred within one of the largest U . S. lake fleets. The Oglebay Norton Company is reported to have discontinued operation of its Columbia Transpor tation Division, and will operate the former Columbia fleet under the name of the Oglebay Norton Shipping Company. That name already had been painted on the bows of a number of the ships,and painters were busy removing famous Columbia "star" and letter 'C ' from the vessels' smokestacks. Readers will have to wait until they see the Oglebay Norton ships in service, however, to know the full extent of the livery changes. It is not as yet clear whether there will be any changes in vessel names as a result of the corporate reorganization. * * * * * WINTER LAY-UP LISTINGS As we commented last issue, some of our lay-up listings were slow in coming to us this year, and some of them never arrived at all. It seems evident that the "Let Someone Else Do It" syndrome was at work again, and in consequence, we must crib from listings published in "The N o r 'Easter" (Lake Superior Marine Museum Association) and "The Wheelhouse" (Welland Canal Ship Society) to round out our lay-up report, as follows: N an t i c o k e : CANADIAN OLYMPIC. Toledo: To previous listing, (m useum), SAMUEL MATHER. Add AMERICAN MARINER, WILLIS B. BOYER D e t r o i t : To previous listing, Add - J. A. W. IGLEHART. South C h i c a g o : To previous listing, Add - MEDUSA CONQUEST (barge). L. CLYMER (being Duluth: To previous listing, Add - ROGER BLOUGH, IRVIN scrapped), WILLIAM A. IRVIN (museum), GEORGE A. STINSON. Su pe r i o r : To previous listing, Add - REISS MARINE, JOHN SHERWIN. From previous listing, Delete - GEORGE A. STINSON (to Duluth list). Our apologies to our sister organizations for this "borrowing" of informa tion, but it was necessary in order to complete our listing. We do thank all of our members who did contribute, but we are going to have to receive stronger support in this project next year, or else we will be forced to abandon this annual report which does form an important part of the his tori cal record.

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