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SCRAPPING THE SURPLUS WORLD WAR I LAKERS--PART 2 by Wayne Garrett ROUTE TO THE ROUGE None of these vessels were in operating Condition, so they all had to be towed to the Rouge Plant. However, a certain amount of work had to be performed on each ship to operate steam winches, bilge pumps and steering machinery. One of the two boilers was reconditioned to supply steam to this equipment as well as heat for the crews’ cabins and pilot house. A crew of nine men sailed on each scrapper. Rather than the New York State Barge Canal, the preferred route was to tow the scrappers up the East Coast into the St. Lawrence River, through the St. Lawrence canal system (which then comprised 22 locks) and then to the Welland Canal which had 25 locks at that time and, finally, across Lake Erie and into the Rouge. To accomplish this monumental task of moving 149 ships within two years to the Rouge during the ice-free navigation seasons, Ford bought seven seagoing steel tugs from the Shipping Board for $42,500 each (after, Ford's unsuccessful bid of $40,000). The tugs purchased were the BALLCAMP, BARLOW, BAYMEAD, BARRALLTON, BATHALUM, BUTTERCUP and HUMERICK; all built under government contract in 19168 and 1919. They were 142 feet long, 27.7 feet wide with a maximum draft of 14.8 feet. All were equipped with triple expansion steam engines with cylinders 17 x 25 x 43 inches in diameter and 30 inches stroke. Each tug required an average of $12,300 to be refurbished. A crew of 21 men was on board these tugs for around the clock towing operation. In addition, Ford decided to recondition three lakers to help with the towing schedule. They were the LAKE BENBOW, LAKE ORMOC and LAKE GORIN which were laid up at Orange, Texas and New Orleans. These vessels were drydocked and fitted out in New Orleans in 1925, thereby saving a deadheaded trip by . towing up some of the Gulf port scrappers. A | = LAKE GROGAN inbound in the old St. Lawrence canal lock system. Photo courtesy of Henry Ford Museum, the “ Edison Institute. 43-4-2