The Lake Superior Maritime Museum

Not quite where to start with today's activities, so I'll start at the beginning.  Today found me back at Canal Park because there were three ships entering Duluth in rapid succession.  I didn't want to miss any of them, so I got to the park a little early.  It was kind of a dreary day but still pretty fun.

 The Duluth Canal is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers (like many of the waterways in the United States).   This group is part of the Detroit District (like the Soo Locks).  I think they are headquartered somewhere else in the harbor.

 A memorial to the Navy.

 A monument to the Merchant Marines.  If the Coast Guard are the red headed step children of the US military structure, I'm not sure the Merchant Marine rates that high.  In time of war, they are called upon to deliver the goods needed to fight that war.  Often times, through dangerous conditions.  I don't think they get nearly the amount of recognition they deserve.  Yes, you need warships to fight a war, but before you can build those ships, you need the materials to build them.

 An example of a Fresnel lens.

 Some steam gages.

 The steam engine from a tugboat that the Corps used to use.

 A ship builder's plate from a ship built in River Rouge, Michigan.  Hull #294 was Robert C. Stanley built during World War II for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company.  She was scrapped in Turkey in 1989.

 The Merchant Marine flag.

 An exhibit dedicated to the Edmund Fitzgerald.  This Coast Guard vessel had a submersible tethered to it.  There is a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald underneath.

 The Griffon was one of the earliest ships to sail on the Great Lakes.  She would later become of the first shipwrecks.

 The Wolverine is now the Robert S. Pierson.  I don't know why they would change such a cool name...but they did.

 The William Clay Ford's pilothouse is now at the Dossin Museum in Detroit.  She was famous for going out to search for the Edmund Fitzgerald.

 Another angle of the Wolverine.

 Even an HO scale version of the Gott is massive.

 A tugboat in front of the museum.

 You can see the museum behind the tugboat.  It kind of reminds me of the pilothouse of a classic laker.

 The stack.

The stack and pilothouse.