Farewell to an Old Lady

I thought this ship was done at the end of last season.  I thought she was all but on her way to the scrap heap but then I found out that she would be making a few more trips this season.  Apparently, the grain trade is booming and there weren't enough hulls to carry it.  So she was brought out of retirement for the rest of the season.

 I thought her last trip was going to be her last and I was kind of bummed about that because the timing wasn't going to work out for me.  Then I found out she was going to make one more trip and as I was mapping it out, I figured out that I would have a good chance to catch her on the St. Clair River, so I headed up there today.

 The Algoma Montrealais is part of a dying breed, the steam ship.  Steam powered is not nearly as efficient as diesel engines and it may cause more pollution but I'm not sure on that. 

 She is not the last steamship on the Lakes, as there are still several American Steamships but she may be the last Canadian steamship still sailing.

 At anyrate, she' a lovely boat and it is sad to see her go.

 Fortunately, I may have one more chance to see her as she heads back from Thunder Bay with a load of grain.  But with ships, I can't be too certain if she wont be passing at night.

 So I'll take pictures of her while I can.

 But as I said, she is a lovely boat and has very beautiful lines.  While I am starting to like the newer boats, they don't quite compare to these.

 They just don't have the curves and lines.

 And the water was almost smoothe enough today.  I liked the way she reflected in it.

 A close up of her pilothouse.

 A shot of pilothouse from the side.

 If I catch her again, I'd imagine she'll be running a little deeper.

 A shot of her aft section.

 And her stack.

 I decided to head up to the Blue Water Bridge to get one more set of pictures of her.

 She makes her turn to head towards Lake Huron.

 The headshot.

 The slightly quarter shot.

 A shot of the Blue Water Bridge in the background.

 One more shot of her from the front.

And she heads up Lake Huron towards the Soo Locks.  She will end up in Thunder Bay on Monday.  With any luck, she may pass back this way on Wednesday and I might be able to catch her coming downbound.