And Then There Was the Speer

 After trying to see if I could get pictures of Saginaw docking (I couldn't).  I headed up to Port Huron to catch the next ship.

The Speer was coming down from one of the ports on Lake Superior.  I'll say that it was Two Harbors because AIS lists Sault Ste Marie as her origin.  I know that's not true.

She was heading to Conneaut, Ohio where she would be delivering taconite.

Conneaut doesn't have a steel mill itself.  The taconite is transferred from Conneaut to Pittsburgh by train.

I guess that is better than hauling that much taconite from the iron mines in Minnesota.

It was still a pretty nice day.  It was a little cooler in Port Huron but mainly because the breeze.

The Speer has an unloader similar to the Blough and Cort.   Because of that it limits her usefulness.

There are only a couple of ports that use this system.

One of them is Conneaut.  Another is one of the ports near Gary (or in Gary).  And the third is Nanticoke.

A bow shot.

She turns for the channel.

The lighting was great.

One more shot with my regular camera.

And then I switched to my drone.

These things look massive from the ground, they look even more impressive from the air.

Sadly, they probably aren't going to build any more thousand footers on the Great Lakes.  With the coal plants closing and the steel mills going to a different process, there just isn't the need.

The other ones with normal self unloaders will adapt.

I have a feeling the Blough, Cort and Speer will face the breakers sooner than the other thousand footers.