Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 36, no. 1 (October 2003), p. 4

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Marine News - cont'd . 4. her over. That vessel, of course, is the motorvessel (dieselized in 1976) RICHARD REISS, (a) ADIRONDACK (43), (b) RICHARD J. REISS (ii)(86), which last operated in December of 2001. The Reiss was idled by the Oglebay Norton acquisition of Erie Sand and, since then, Oglebay Norton vessels have han­ dled Erie Sand's cargo requirements. Prospects of the 620-foot REISS finding an operating future with another lake fleet seem to be dim. Meanwhile, the Oglebay Norton Company has been having its own difficulties, burdened with some $435 million in debt that it accumulated during the late 1990s with a number of acquisitions in the sand and stone areas. It also has lost several key cargo contracts for its lake shipping fleet. The company recently failed to make the interest payment due on some senior subordinated notes, but announced on September 12 that it had entered into agreements with its bankers and secured note holders to revise its credit arrangements. The revisions will allow Oglebay Norton relief on restrictive covenants and res­ tore its ability to draw on its credit facilities to fund operations and make the overdue note interest payment. Apart from the Erie Sand vessels, Oglebay Norton Marine Services Company has twelve vessels in its fleet. Of those, BUCKEYE and COURTNEY BURTON have not operated at all in 2003, ARMCO ran briefly in the spring but then went into lay-up, and WOLVERINE remained idle until going into service in mid-September. Another ship, JOSEPH H. FRANTZ, is on the first year of a five-year charter to Great Lakes Associa­ tes Inc. Last issue, we reported the departure from the lakes of the former Gaelic Tug Boat Company's ROGER STAHL, which had been acquired by new operators in Florida. We now learn that the new owner of the handsome tug is Florida Keys Harbor Services, and that the STAHL arrived at Key West on September 28. There is no word of a rename for the tug, although we expect that one will be forthcoming. A hydrofoil service has been operating to Pelee Island since late July. The vessels acquired for the service are SUNRISE VI and SUNRISE V, which have been renamed, respectively, PELEE FLYER I and PELEE FLYER II, and which are now owned by 2021847 Ontario Limited, of Toronto. Idle for several years at Toronto before heading to Lake Erie earlier this year, the two hydrofoils were built in 1989 at Leningrad, and came to Canada in the mid-1990s. McKeil Marine now has a new dock for shipping brine from the Sarnia area to Amherstburg. Tank barges formerly were loaded at the former CN railferry dock in Sarnia, the brine being trucked there from wells in the Brigden area. Now McKeil has spudded its 290-foot barge ERIE WEST to the St. Clair River shore just south of the Lambton Generating Station, and a disused ammonia storage tank, a quarter of a mile inland, is being used to hold the brine when it arrives for shipment. Presently used on the brine run from Courtright to Amherstburg are the tug/barge combinations of EVANS McKEIL/OCEAN HAULER and JERRY NEWBERRY/SALTY DOG NO. 1. On September 16, the partially restored, 1910-built, former Bob-Lo passenger steamer STE. CLAIRE was towed from Toledo to Lorain, Ohio, by the G-tug IL­ LINOIS, assisted on arrival at Lorain by SUPERIOR. The move was made to bring the famous ship closer to Cleveland, where her owners are located, and from whence most of the volunteers working on her restoration come. As a fundraiser, the "Nautical Nightmare" haunted house show will be presented again this year aboard STE. CLAIRE from October 2 through November 2. Mean­ while, nothing significant seems to be happening in respect of STE. CLAIRE's former Bob-Lo fleetmate, the 1901-built COLUMBIA, which continues to moulder away at Ecorse, Michigan. Launched by the Marinette Marine Corp. on September 20th was the first of three 310' x 70' ferries ordered by the New York City Department of Trans­ portation for the Staten Island service. Named GUY V. MOLINARI, in honour of a former congressman, state assemblyman and Staten Island borough president, the ferry was christened by his daughter Susan, herself a former congress­

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