An Evening With Philip R. Clarke

So  I decided to head down to Milliken State Park after work tonight.  I was pretty sure that I was going to see one ship and almost certain that I would see another.  Little did I realize, the first ship has proven fairly elusive to me.  The last time I saw her was when she was docked at Zug Island but I didn't get decent shots out of her.  Before that was up at the Soo Locks.

 At any rate, the ship is the Philip R. Clarke and she belongs to the Great Lakes Fleet.  You can read her story here.

 I've seen several ships within the past few days, but I haven't seen too many that qualify as a classic laker.  There was the Mississagi but that was the only one.

 The Philip R. Clarke is definately a classic laker with the pilothouse in the front.  She's got kind of an odd looking self unloader though but that's fine.

 She still has a pretty classic profile.

 Which is even nicer when the sun is hitting her just right.

 I tried to get to the spot where her profile was almost straight on.

 A look at her deckhouse.

 And the rear of her pilothouse.  I think she is on her way to the Rouge River.  I'm going to guess she's going to drop off some stone.

 She is a steamer, which is another plus in my books.  Although with other fleets converting to diesel, I wonder how much longer she'll be a steamer.

 The sun was just about getting to the right angle.

 Because I love the way it hits the hull.

And one more shot before she sails out of view.