The James L Kuber

I decided to go shipwatching tonight because I saw that there would be 1 ship going through the Detroit River. As I've learned in the past, there probably would be more and if there weren't, I'd be happy with just one.

My first ship of the evening was the James L Kuber and tug Victory which is one of those converted ships that I don't really like but they are starting to grow on me.

The James L. Kuber started life as the Reserve which was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, MI in 1953. She was one of 8 similar classed ships which were designated as the "AAA" class. One of them is the Arthur M. Anderson which has appeared on this blog before. She was originally 647' long and could carry 21,000 tons. She was owned by Armco and Republic Steel.

In 1975, she was lengthened to 767' and could then carry 26,900 tons of cargo. In 1982, she was converted to a self unloader. In 2004, she experienced a boiler fire. In 2007, after another failure with the engine, she was converted to a barge and tug.

The tug portion was built in 1981.