Catching Up With the Algosteel

One of the ships that I was hoping to catch a fair amount this year is the Algosteel.  I believe that she is going to meet the same fate as the Algoway and Algorail.  So I have a feeling that I will not be seeing her again after the end of the shipping season.

 In the time that I've been doing this blog, the Algosteel has become kind of a fixture on here.  There was one year that she was both the first and last ship that I caught.  I think there was even one year when I caught her when it wasn't shipping season.  I think it was that year that I realized she wasn't long for this world because she was doing salt runs.

 She still soldiered on for a couple more years though.

 There was one year I even caught her passing through some fireworks.

 I'm not sure how many times she's appeared on this blog, but it's quite a few.

 It will be sad to know that I wont see her on the lakes again but I guess I will always have the memories.

 The sad reality is that she doesn't look that bad.  Nor did it seem like she sounded that bad.

 But the ship she will be replaced with will be more fuel efficient and probably have other newer features.

 A shot of her bow and the Algoma logo.

 A couple crew members on her deck.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  I think after the Algosteel, Algorail and Algoway are scrapped, the Frontenac will be the last Canadian classic laker left on the lakes.

 A shot of her Plimsoll markings.  There is quite a bit of rust but I've seen ships in worse shape.

 Another shot of her name.

 A shot of her stack.

 And her rudder.

 So I headed back to the park near the Calumet.  I figured that I would have better lighting there.  And sure enough I did.

 She makes the turn towards the other part of the river.  She had a narrow passage between the Calumet and the other side of the river.

This is the last shot of this series.  Hopefully it's not the last I get of her.

The Algomarine in the St. Clair River

So like I said in my post from last night, I decided to head up to the Algonac area in order to catch some the ships that were stuck in the ice up there.  Although, I'm not sure if all these ships were stuck in the ice or were waiting for the one at the front that was.

 I started with the Algomarine because she was stuck just outside of a little parking lot by Algonac State Park.  As such, she was the easiest to get decent pictures of.  It actually looks like there is a little open water in front of her, which leads me to believe that maybe she wasn't quite stuck.

 I just moved around the park a little bit to get some different angles of the ship.

 As I was taking pictures of her, I saw a Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter approach.  If only I could have gotten a train in this shot.

 A shot of her pilothouse.  You can see a bunch of ice on the bow.

 A closer shot of her pilothouse.

 A closer shot of the bow area.  You can see all the scrapes that occur during a shipping season.

 A shot of her stern.

There was a spot where I could get a decent shot of her bow.  This is one of my favorite angles for a ship.