Catching the Houtmangracht

 The next ship is making her first appearance on Michigan Exposures and we welcome her to our pages.

The Houtmangracht is owned by Spliethoff out of the Netherlands.  The company was established in 1921 as a ship broker for forest products from the Baltics.  In 1946, they received their first ship.

She was built in 2008.

She is a little over 500 feet long and can carry about 10,000 tons of cargo.

I switched over to the drone.

I think she was carrying turbine blades on the upbound trip.

She is on her way to Sept. Iles in Quebec.

I think she will pick up a load for a return to Europe from there.

The beam shot.

She continues down the river.

I think she will be at her destination in another day or so.

O Fortunagracht

 And this was my last ship of the day.  I'm hoping that it's not my last ship of the year though.

This is another ship that was on her way out.

As I type this post, she is somewhere east of the Canadian coast.

She is on her way to Ghent.   And that is in Belgium.

I'm pretty sure she is carrying something there.

I think this configuration allows for shipping containers.

At any rate, she can carry 12,000 tons of cargo.

She is 447 feet long and 68 feet wide.

She approaches the bridge.

Is under the bridge.

She continues on her way.

I think it is roughly a two week journey for ships to Europe.

The Carmina Burana...err, Fortunagracht

The next ship wasn't too far behind the Cort, so I decided to stick around for her.  I almost wasn't going to stick around because there were a bunch of people there and almost none of them were wearing a mask.  Fortunately, it is still pretty easy to keep distance.

 Anyway, the next ship is one of many salties that ply the Great Lakes. 

 I think this one may have been carrying windmill blades at one point.  It kind of looks like one of those ships.

 She belongs to a company call Spliethoff which operates out of the Netherlands.  This particular ship calls Amsterdam as her home.  Usually it seems like the Dutch ships come from Delfzul.

 She was built in 2012.  She is 447 feet long and 62 feet wide.

 She can carry 12,178 tons of cargo.  She is registered in the Netherlands.

 Their bows are designed for Class 1 ice which I have no idea what that means but it sounds good.

 The cranes can all handled 80 metric tons of cargo.

 Like I said above, the bows are designed to break ice if necessary.  They have a bulbous bow which helps with fuel efficiency.

 The draft marks are in meters.

 She is registered by Lloyds Registry.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

 Another shot.

I think she was heading up to Duluth.  I'm not sure what cargo she was going to pick up there.  As I type this, she is on her way to Matane, Quebec which is near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.  It is about three days travel from here.

The Fagelgracht Passes Mission Point

Day two brought a little mist to the river.  I kind of liked the effect.

 I ended up missing a couple of ships before this one.  I decided that I wanted to sleep in a little bit longer.

 And I almost missed this one but it seems like it was taking its time going up the river.

 The ship is the Fagelgracht and is one of the many salt water vessels that ply the Great Lakes.

 This particular ship is registered in the Netherlands.

 As I type this, she is currently in Thunder Bay and is loading for St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

I'm not sure what she's going to take there though.