Friday, May 11, 2012

Mail from the Wescott

A lone picture of the Westcott can mean only one thing.  It's the time when I reach into the mailbag and and answer some of the comments from the people who left them in the comments section.

So first let's start with the shoutouts from these posts:  Teaser Post from Belle Isle and Guess the Ship.  The first one was in fact the Lee Tregurtha and I think a shout out goes to my dad who again might have gotten some insider information.  The second one was the Roger Blough, so shout outs go to tugboathunter, my friend Chris and again to my dad I think.  At any rate, check out the two blog links they are both pretty good.  Now to the mailbag.

 A common question has been where do I take my ship pictures.
My favorite spot to take ship pictures is Belle Isle.  Although that might not be as good as the summer starts to heat up.  The end of Belle Isle that faces Lake St. Clair is awesome because you can get pictures of the ships as they come in and you don't get much of a background.  My second favorite place is Riverside Park in Detroit.  This is mainly because of the ability to get pictures of the Westcott.  However, it seems like that place may be out of play as it appears to be closed.  I've also taken pictures from Milliken State Park.  I think I like it a little more because for the most part there aren't many people there and I get a decent view of the ships.  Hart Plaza isn't too bad.  Someone on Facebook pointed out Del Ray park to me and that's not too bad.

Someone else asked if they could use my pictures.
I don't have a problem with people using my pictures as long they properly credit their source.

tugster (another wonderful blog) asked why many of the Great Lakes ships are U.S. Flagged.
I think it has to do with a US law called the Jones Act.  The law basically states that travel between US ports has to be on US owned and crewed ships.  There are people trying to get rid of this law and I'm not sure that's such a good idea though.

And thanks to people that have helped me identify either ships, birds or flowers.  Don't forget to tip your waitstaff and leave comments.

2 comments:

Isaac said...

Jones Act says that a ship carrying cargo between US ports must be US-flagged, US-crewed and US-built. Canada has the same idea except without the building restriction. Therefore, lakers are very old also because the US shipbuilding industry died in the 1980s.

Isaac said...

And also Ken, don't forget Belanger Park. They charge $5 admission, but you get to see boats enter and exit the Rouge, Zug Island and the Windsor docks, as well as the basic Detroit River up-and-down-boudners.