A Final Farewell to an Old Lady

The Algoma Montrealais was on her downbound leg from Thunder Bay.  She is heading to Baie Comeau with a load of grain she picked up there.  This will be her final delivery and then she will be headed for the scrap heap.

I was hoping to catch her as she passed Belle Isle.  I like the angles there better but I couldn't get there soon enough.  I was able to catch her from Milliken though.

 Milliken is not bad for boatwatching but I think I like the Rocky Beach of Belle Isle better.

 She passes by the distillery and grain elevator.

 And then a spot where the background is relatively clear.

 This spot is a little better.

 A full beam shot.

Then I decided to head to one more spot to catch her but it didn't quite work out and she heads off into the sun.  I thought maybe I could catch her as she passed Bishop Park in Wyandotte but with all three bridges over the Rouge River out, that wasn't going to happen.

So once again, farewell to the Algoma Montrealais.  But the grain industry being what it is, she may have one more life in her but I doubt it.

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.

And the Algoma Montrealais

So next up is the Algoma Montrealais.

 I think she is currently sailing on borrowed time right now.  She was scheduled to have a date with the scrappers but I think her replacements are behind schedule, so she lives on for now.  It's a shame because she's a pretty boat.

Sadly, I didn't quite get the angle of her that I wanted but hopefully I have a couple more times to catch her.

The Sun Sets on the Algoma Motrealais

So it was back to Marine City to catch my last ship of the evening.

 I think the Algoma Montrealais was due to head to the scrap heap after last season.  Algoma Central was supposed to have more of their Chinese ships but that wasn't the case, so she was pressed into service.  Because of that, I wanted to catch her at least one more time.

 She's a beautiful ship in my eyes and it will be a shame to see her go under the scrapper's torch but that is the nature of things, I guess.  It would be nice to see her get saved, but I don't think that will happen.

She heads down the River.

Algoma Montrealais Makes Four

When I started on my journey on Saturday, I was only expecting to see two ships (The Saginaw and Kaministiqua).  I was hoping that I would also see another ship possibly.  But as the day went on, the Marine Traffic app became a flurry of activity.  When I saw this and the next ship were going to passing Belanger soon, I decided to head there (that's where I got my last shots of the Saginaw).

 Even rarer than the self-unloading classic laker is the straight-decker classic laker.  These are the lake ships without the cranes.  The Algoma Montrealais falls into that category.

 Because of this, I have to believe that her days are more numbered than the Frontenac.  I think the American lakers have more years in them because of certain unintended consequences of the Jones Act.

 I will have to say that the end of the day was pretty much perfect.  The water was nice and smooth and that gave me some pretty nice reflections.  The sun was at the perfect angle for me.

 She slowly works her way up the River.

 One more shot.

 And she approaches the Saginaw.  It's not often that you see two classic lakers passing each other.

 And she works her way towards the Ambassador Bridge.

 Then I saw that I had a chance for one more ship, so I headed up to Belle Isle for these last two shots.

Sadly, daylight was leaving faster than the last ship I hoped to catch.  So would I catch it?

The Algoma Montrealais on Lake Huron

My next stop was the Point Aux Barques Lighthouse but first I noticed a bit of a distraction out on the horizon.

Based on AIS at the time, my mystery ship is the Algoma Montrealais.  She has appeared on this blog a couple times in the past.  But the post with her bio is here.  I think it is kind of cool to see a ship out on the horizon like this because it gives a pretty good idea of the scale of the Lakes.

One Last Surprise....

Another ship that I saw on AIS but didn't think I'd catch up with was the Algoma Montrealais.  After not seeing her, it seems like I am running into her quite frequently.

 She is definately a classic looking ship.

 With very nice lines.

 And a pretty cool looking bow.

 Here she is passing the Buffalo as well.

 And the sun was at just about the right level.

 I love the pinks in the deckhouse.

 I love the way the sun is hitting her in this picture.

But I like this one even more.