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TELESCOPE April 75 WM The "Lakers" OF WORLD WAR I AND THEIR PREDECESSORS Part One: Early Lake-built Ocean Vessels The Welland Canal, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, was improved in 1884 with enlarged locks which were 270 feet long by 45 feet wide and 14 feet deep. This particular improvement is usually referred to as the Third Welland Canal." Some seventeen years later, in 1901, the canals of the St. Lawrence River, connecting Lake Ontario with tidewater, were improved and enlarged to the same dimensions. Therefore, as of 1901, a vessel whose maximum length and width dimensions were 260 feet and 43'-6" and whose load draft did not exceed 14 feet could sail directly from the Great Lakes to the Ocean without transshipment of cargo. Lightering of cargo was required for vessels drawing more than 14 feet. Vessels built to full canal dimensions (260' x 43') could carry from 3,000 to 4,000 tons on deep water draft and from 1,500 to 2,000 tons on canal draft. As far back as 1890, two steel ships were built in Great Lakes yards for ocean service. As they were too long for the existing St. Lawrence River canals (then about 200 feet in length), they had to be bulkheaded (in simple language, cut in two and boarded up at the cut sections) and towed through the By the Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S.J