A Tale of Two Lees

After watching the eagles, I looked at Marine Traffic and saw that the Lee A. Tregurtha was in the neighborhood.

 She was heading up from Toledo after delivering stone.  This is the first time that I've seen her this season but I don't think this was her first load.

 She is heading upbound towards Calcite, MI where she will pick up another load of stone.  From this point, I think Calcite is roughly a 15 hour trip.  I'm not sure how long it took her to load.

 As of now, she is just west of Mackinaw City and is heading to Chicago to deliver her load of stone.  That trip is roughly 24 hours from Calcite.  That just gives you an idea of just how large the Great Lakes are.

 I was trying to use the boardwalk of St. Clair as an element to feed into the Tregurtha.

 With the conversion of the St. Marys Challenger to a tug/barge, the JAW Iglehart likely not coming out and the American Victory also not likely coming out, the Lee A. Tregurtha is now the second oldest self powered freighter on the Lakes.

 With the addition of scrubbers and other improvements to her, she's likely to remain in service for a long time.  So I don't think I have any worries about her getting the scrapper's torch anytime soon.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  She has a unique bow because originally she served as a tanker on the oceans.

 The white coming out of her stack is steam and is a result of her scrubbers.  That reduces the amount of particulate matter she spits into the atmosphere.

 And a shot as she leaves St. Clair.

 I decided to catch her at Marysville next.  If you stand at the right spot on the dock, you can get a fairly decent headshot, although she's still a ways out.

 A three quarters shot.

 I decided to leave the big lens on, so that I could get some detail shots.  A shot of her anchors.  You can see the curvature of her bow.

 And her pilothouse.

 These are her depth to keel markings.  That shows how far under water she is.  With the lake levels higher, she can load a little heavier which means she will ride lower in the water.  Since she's in ballast in this picture, she's not quite as heavy.

 A closer shot of her anchors.

 In case you forgot what ship we were talking about.

 The ribbons are from her service in World War II.  During the war, she was known as the Chiwawa and served in the Atlantic during most of World War II.  In August of 1945, she was transferred to the Pacific but didn't see any action there.

 After the war, she was sold to a shipping company and used to transfer gas and other liquid supplies up and down the coast.  In 1960, she was sold to the Cleveland Cliffs company and converted to a lake freighter.

 Recently, she had scrubbers added to her exhaust.

 The Stars and Stripes flying proudly.

 And she moves on to Port Huron.

I love the angles that I can get on ships there.  I think Port Huron may be one of the best boatwatching spots on the Lakes.  With the exception of a handful of ships that travel exclusively to and from Lake Michigan ports, you will catch most of the Lakers on the Great Lakes and all of the salties that pass through.

 With the addition of her scrubber, she almost looks like a steamship again.

 And the headshot.

 She really pours the power on as she makes the turn to enter Lake Huron.

 Framed by the Blue Water Bridges.

 One more angle.

She continues on into Lake Huron.  I'm sure that I will see her again sometime this season.  I'm hoping that I can catch her as she enters the Rouge River.