The Bradshaw McKee/St. Marys Conquest Makes an Appearance

I was going to head over to the western side of the state today but for grins, I decided to check Marine Traffic.  I was checking to see if there were any icebreakers stirring about.  Surprisingly, there were but they were all breaking ice around Algonac.  As I looked, I saw that there was actually a ship stirring.  Well not a ship but a tug/barge but still....it was floating and sort of qualifies as a ship.  Since I haven't seen anything in about a month, I decided to head up to the St. Clair River to catch her.

 After lunch at a place called Murphy Inn in St. Clair, I headed down to my usual spot in St. Clair to catch ships.  It was actually a bit icy getting down to the river but there were spots where I could walk.

 The barge portion is known as the St. Marys Conquest and started life as the Red Crown in 1937 and was built in Manitowoc, WI.  She was a tanker.

 In 1962, she was renamed the Amoco Indiana.

 In 1987, she was converted to the barge Medusa Conquest by Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, WI.

 She would get her current name in 2004 after a stint as the Southdown Conquest.

 Her tug is known as the Bradshaw McKee and started life in 1977 as the Lady Elda.  She was built by Toche Enterprises in Mississippi.  She would many names between then until she got her current name in 2011.

 Both vessels look like they could have been nice looking in their respective days.

 She continues up past St. Clair.

 I caught up to her again in Marysville.  Since this was the first time seeing her, I wanted to follow her up as far as possible.

 She spends most of her time on Lake Michigan and rarely makes her way over here.  Apparently, she needed to deliver cement to Cleveland and was returning to Charlevoix.

 Detail of her pilothouse and cement unloader.

 Another shot of the tug.

 Sometimes you can see the old names ships.

 I caught up to her again at my favorite place in Port Huron.

 Framed by the Blue Water Bridge.  As you can see, there were a few other people here.  I guess there were others going through ship withdrawl.

 Probably one of my favorite angles here.

 A shot of the tug's pilothouse.

 From 1986 to 2011, she was known as the Susan W. Hannah.

And she continues on to Lake Huron.