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Kinsman Independent loads Buffalo-bound grain at the Harvest States Elevator No. 2 in Superior in May 1999. (Glenn Blaszkiewicz) KINSMAN INDEPENDENT *s:." Vessel W invite reborn eee! 6, 2002, for probably the last - time, an era ended. Of Che The vessel was the last straight-decker (non-self-unloader) in service on under the U.S. flag on the Great Lakes and the last engaged in the grain trade to Buffalo, which, before the opening of the present St. Lawrence Seaway, was once a thriving grain trans-shipment center to points east. Future cargos to the General Mills elevator in that port will be carried on self-unloaders. The KI’s passing also means the end of the Buffalo “grain- vases longshoremen employed to help unload the once-huge grain-carrying fleet Her name is particularly ‘iting Many of the largest Great Lakes fleets of the 20th cen- tury were formed to serve the specific needs of a single company, such as U.S. Steel, National Steel and Bethlehem Steel. But there were also outside fleets whose interests almost always involved landing contracts with a variety of steel companies. > 4 KYS 2003