Wednesday, July 21, 2010

More Shipwatching

So I decided to do some more shipwatching after work. I started at the State Harbor in Detroit but I wasn't seeing any ships there so I decided to move over to Belle Isle.

This is the CCGS Kelso which is a Canadian Fisheries Research vessel for the Great Lakes. It does a multitude of things to support research including measuring water quality. I saw this one as I was still at the State Harbor.

This is a Detroit Police Boat.

My first ship was the McKee sons which is now a barge. She started life as the Marine Angel and was built in 1945 as a fast troop transport. In 1954, she was taken over by another company and the middle pilothouse was replaced with a front pilothouse. She was also converted to a self unloader.

She sailed as a steamer until 1979 when she was laid up in Toledo (like many ships). In 1990, she was converted to a barge/tow combination.

She has an overall length of 579 feet. She has a carrying capacity of 19,000 tons.

I'm glad that this is giving ships a new lease on life but they are still ugly. This one isn't quite so bad as it still has the classic lake freighter look on the front.

My next ship was the Alpena. She originally started life as the Leon Fraser in 1942. I really like the lines of this ship.

She has an overall length of 519 feet and can carry 13,000 tons.

This is the ship as she leaves the Belle Isle area.

My last boat was the tug Demolen which is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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