Shots from Riverside Park

Before I went up to my mom's yesterday, I saw that there were a handful of ships coming down the Detroit River so I headed over there before heading up to Bay City.   Especially since one of the ships would be new to this blog, another is one that I keep getting shots of her stern and the other is my favorite ship.

I figured I would start at Riverside Park, that is until I saw the cement blocks in front of the parking lot.  I recall reading somewhere that they were planning on closing it because of some soil contamination and this was the clearest indication this was going to happen.  I would have stayed there for my boatwatching but I've made enough unsolicited donations to the City of Detroit recently.

I did however stay long enough to get a couple pictures of the steel mill and a couple ships parked in front of it.  This one would be the Philip Clarke.  She's appeared on this blog before, so I'm not going to go into details on her.  Although it was shame I couldn't stay on the River longer than I did because I could have gotten pictures of her in motion.

If I had gotten to the River about a half hour or so earlier, I could have seen the John Munson coming downbound.  I mistimed her on the ais site.

Here is an overall shot of the steel mill.

Wallpaper - The Great Lakes Fleet

It has been a while since I've done a wallpaper and I've been wanting to do one for a while.  Given that I don't have anything else to post tonight, here's a wallpaper.

If there was one group of ships that I would have to say that I like over any other, it would probably be the ships of the Great Lakes Fleet.  Many of the ships wrote much of the history of shipping on the Great Lakes.

Many of the ships that are now in the Great Lakes Fleet were owned by the United States Steel company back in the day.  For many years they sailed under the auspices of the Pittsburgh Steamship Fleet.  In 2001, the steel company divested itself of the transportation division and the ships were owned by a company called USS Great Lakes Fleet.  It later shortened its name to Great Lakes Fleet and in 2004 was bought by the Canadian National Railroad.  The ships however remain United States flagged.

Probably my favorite of the bunch is the Roger Blough but she is followed pretty closely by the Arthur Anderson.

The nine ships in the wallpaper represent all of the ships of the Great Lakes Fleet.  At one time, the Pittsburgh Fleet had 64 ships sailing for it but times have changed.

Philip Clarke Panoramic Shot

I figured I would do one more attempt at a panoramic shot.  This time one of the Philip Clarke.

I think this one turned out the best.

The Philip Clarke in the Locks

There were a couple more ships that passed through the Locks but it was dark and I couldn't get good pictures of them.  As I woke up I saw that the Philip Clarke was coming through the Locks.  This is a ship I have seen before but it was too far way to get a decent picture.  It seems to be another one of the ships that I keep missing.

 We arrived at the Locks just in time to see her as she was finishing the process of raising up to the level of the Lake Superior.  So I took a couple pictures and headed to the end of the Locks to catch her as she was leaving.

 So I headed to a spot near the end of the Locks to catch her as she was coming out.  I have to admit that they look more impressive this way.

 The discoloration to the right is because the fence doesn't allow for some angles of the camera.  However, this picture gives a good idea of the size of the ship.

 It's a little worse here.

 Fortunately, I could take a picture as she was straight off.

One more shot before she leaves.

It was pretty cool to actually stay in Sault Ste Marie.  Usually when I go up there, I only have a couple hours, so I will see one or two ships if I am lucky.  This time I got to see a bunch of ships.  I hope that this level of traffic holds up.

The Philip R. Clarke

So I decided to head down to Detroit to do some boatwatching tonight.  Sadly, with the days getting shorter I didn't have much time and the light was almost fairly inadquate when I got there.  I had to bump up the film speed a bit in order to get enough shutter speed so the pictures are a little on the grainy side.  I didn't see any ships in motion but I did see three ships and a barge docked.

The first of the night was the Philip R. Clarke which was docked at the Steelworks.  I don't think she's ever appeared on this blog before do so I will do a detailed post about her.

The Clarke was the first of three AAA ships built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company in 1951.  She was named after a banker who was a member of the board for US Steel.  She was originally built as non-self unloader.

Originally she was 647 feet long and could carry 20,300 tons of cargo.  She was powered by a 7000 horsepower engine and could travel at 16 mph.  At the time she was one of the most modern ships afloat on the lakes.

In 1974, she was lengthened to her current length of 767 feet.  Earlier she had bow thrusters added.  In 1981, the self-unloader was added.

She was the first ship to use the modernized Poe Lock.  She's also been the first ship down the locks for the season a number of times.  One time her anchor found a boat that had been missing for 5 years.

I kind of wish she were closer because she seems like a nice ship.