Fun facts about freighters
Seven new freighters have entered the Great Lakes trade since 2012. Another ship has been launched and is fitting out; four more are being built; and two more are on order.
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Here are some fun facts about freighters:
•The St. Mary's Challenger, which was built in 1906, was still active on the Great Lakes as a freighter through 2013. It was converted to an articulated barge and is still on the lakes hauling cement in its 109th year. The ship's pilothouse was donated to the Great Lakes Historical Society in Toledo.
•The newest freighters on the Great Lakes are the Algoma Harvester, CWB Marquis, CSL Welland and CSL St.-Laurent, which began service in 2014. The CWB Strongfield is fitting out in China.
•A gearless bulk carrier, or bulker, is a freighter built without conveyors and cranes and uses port facilities to offload its cargo.
•A self-unloader has its own freighters and cranes to offload its cargo.
•A laker is a freighter that works the Great Lakes. It is traditionally called a boat.
•A saltie is an ocean-going vessel that enters the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway.
•Seawaymax refers to vessels that are the maximum size that can fit through the Seaway locks. Seawaymax vessels are 740 feet long, 78 feet wide, and have a draft of 26.51 feet and a height above the waterline of 116 feet.
•The Paul R. Tregurtha is the largest freighter on the Great Lakes at 1,013 feet, 6 inches.
•There are 13 thousand-footers on the lakes, including one tug/barge combination. They are restricted to lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie.
•The famous Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 feet long.
•The U.S. flagged feet shipped an average of 45,416,421 tons of iron ore during the five years from 2008 to 2012. The five-year average for coal was 21,082,691 tons. The five-year averages for other commodities are limestone, 21,817,892 tons; cement, 3,019,391 tons; salt, 1,272,075 tons; sand, 313,318 tons; and grain, 302,269 tons.
Bob Gross is a reporter for the Lansing State Journal.
The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.