The Quebecois

My last ship of the evening and another ship making her first appearance on this blog is the Quebecois.
She was built by Canadian Vickers Ltd. in Montreal for the Papachristidis Company of Montreal in 1963. She is equipped with a bow thruster and is powered by a steam turbine.

She is 730 feet long and 75 feet wide. Her cargo capacity is a little under 28,000 tons.

In 1972, she was sold to the Upper Lakes Shipping Company of Toronto but she managed to keep her name. She mostly carries grain but occasionally carries iron ore.

Earlier this year, the Upper Lakes Company was sold to Algoma. She will be renamed the Algoma Quebecois.

I actually kind of like her lines. She has the classic lines of a lake freighter.

You can especially see that in this shot.

A sort of stern shot.

Here she is heading towards the Ambassador Bridge and Lake Eire.

The Cason J. Callaway

My next ship was the Cason J. Callaway which is owned by the Great Lakes Fleet.
The Cason J. Callaway was one of 8 "AAA" class ships developed by the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. She was the last of the trio of this class that was built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company (the other two were the Philip R. Clarke and Arthur M. Anderson). She was the only one of this trio that was built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan.

She was completed 1952 and began her maiden voyage in that year. In 1955, she was involved in accident with the B.F. Jones. She was able to be repaired, the B.F. Jones was totalled. So I wonder if the Captains get out and exchange insurance information in this case?

Originally she was 647 feet long but in 1974, she was lengthened to 767 feet long. Not only did this increase her carrying capacity, but it also lengthened her career.

She mostly carries iron ore but on accasion will carry grain.

She is one of the extended season vessels. Often the first to fit out in the spring and the last to lay up before the winter.

She serves her fleet well.

This was one of the shots I pretty happy with.

Until I got to this shot.

And I kind of like this one too with the pinks in the sky and the lone ship set against the bridge. You can almost make out the faint lines of the Sam Laud.

The Sam Laud Again...

So I was waffling about whether I wanted to go to Detroit tonight for boatwatching or not. There were a couple of things I needed to do before I went on my trip on Saturday. I was still waffling as I was leaving work, until I looked up at the sky and the grays of the sky convinced me that I could do my laundry after and get my haircut tomorrow. Plus the fact that I would be seeing two ships that I haven't seen before tilted the scales.
The first ship of the evening was the Sam Laud. I didn't think I would get to Belle Isle in time to catch it but I did manage to catch her as her was slipping by. She's not a bad looking ship, but she doesn't quite have the classic lake freighter lines.She was constructed in 1974 by the Bay Shipbuilding Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. She was built as a self-unloading bulk carrier. She was christened the Sam Laud by Mrs. Edna Laud. Sam was the the former President and Chairman of the Board of GATX Corp which owned the company that ran the ship.

She has had several groundings in her career. She's also had a fire.

The shot of the ship compared to the Detroit Skyline.

The ship as she is about to slip out of view.

Michigan Exposures' Rules of the Road

I usually don't get preachy on here unless I accompany it with some pictures of what I'm getting preachy about. I didn't really feel like taking pictures of these examples as it tends to be a little dangerous on my end of things. But it seems like drivers are getting ruder and less patient these days. We have rules to help us behave as a society, so here are some of mine.

1. Use your turn signal. Turn signals have been around for a long time and are there for a reason. This reason is so that you can let the other cars know what you are up to. It doesn't really take all that much effort to flip a little lever. It's not like you have to stick your arm out the window.

2. Michigan (or even Ohio) is not your personal garbage can. So please don't treat it as such. You don't have to toss cups or bottles out the window. Just keep them in your cup holder until you get to a place where you can throw them out.

3. Nor is Michigan your personal ashtray. This one is a little tougher as many car companies have decided that it costs too much money to put ashtrays in cars. Well it seems that you can buy an ashtray that you can put in a cupholder. What you don't like the smell of cigarette smoke in your car? Too bad. Maybe you should try to quit smoking.

4. Keep one car length per 10 miles per hour of speed between you and the car in front of you. I know you are trying to be friendly and feel that we should be closer but I really don't want to smell your aftershave. Nor do I really want to hear what songs you have chosen. I have my own music, thank you very much. And keep in mind that the car in front may have cars in front of it and can't go any faster, crowding that car's bumpers will not make the cars in front of it go any faster.

5. When you do a lane change, make sure there is enough room between your rear and my front. There is no reason for you to attempt to take a quarter panel off.

6. It is not your god given right to turn right on red. Why do people always seem to do this when there is only one car on the road and nothing behind that car? Is the 2 seconds you may save really worth the risk of someone not being able to stop in time?

7. Know your exits. If you know your exits, you do not need to swerve in front of four lanes of traffic right before said exit. It is much easier and causes less stress if you plan ahead.

Thank you.

More Flowers....

I don't know what it is but I feel like I've been in a bit of a rut with my photography for the past couple of weeks. There was my monthly projects which I kind of liked and the eagles but other than that, I don't know. It's not for a lack of subjects, I guess.

As I was heading out of the office today, I decided to take some pictures of the tree flowers in front of the building. I like the colors of these.

Another group of flowers.

And another group.

What the Heck?

Most of the times I go up to the office in Troy, I will get off at the I-75 and Fourteen Mile Exit. Occasionally I am stopped by the light. A couple times I looked over to the side and saw a nice sized hill of liquor bottles. So I decided this needed a picture.

Why do people get the impression that the State of Michigan is their personal trashcan? This is a pretty substantial pile of trash (although this seems cleaner than I've seend it in the past). There's the Henessey bottle and I'm not sure what the other bottle is. Then there is my personal favorite of watching cigarette butts swirl out of car windows. It's bad enough that people have to pollute their lungs with that crap....why do they have to pollute the state too? I guess Smokers' rights is a code phrase for "I can be an asshole".

And More Eagles...

As I said in my last post, I stopped by the eagle's nest before heading back home. It was still pretty windy today and that made getting some of the shots pretty difficult (especially a decent shot of the nest).
The dad was still standing watch over the mom and the eaglets. So he was still pretty close to the road. In fact, he may have been closer to the road than yesterday.

As I said, it was pretty windy.

In fact it was so windy, that this eagle was having a pretty difficult time landing. It's amazing that a creature adapted to the air can still have trouble.

But he still looked pretty cool.

I almost wasn't going to include this shot because of the tree in the middle but it's not often that I am almost eye level with an eagle.

That eagle landed near the other giving me a shot with two eagles in it.

And sort of a shot of one of the eaglets and mom.