An Unexpected Visitor

As I was waiting for the appearance of the Block, I saw another ship approaching the channel.  I wasn't sure what ship it was but it looked vaguely familiar.

 The ship in question was the Stephen B. Roman.  I used to see her fairly often but contracts changed, so she didn't go much further than Detroit.

 It's kind of a shame because I think she is a pretty cool looking ship.

 She backs into her dock near Wendy Park.  The water was pretty smoothe and it made for some pretty cool reflections.

 She gets closer to her dock.

 A shot of the skyline in the background.

 Since I didn't really get a front shot when she came in, I had to get one here.

 Another angle.

And one more angle.  If you look behind her, you can see the railroad bridge.  Based on the proximity to the airport, this is probably my best spot to get my picture trifecta.

Random Randomness on the River

Tuesday night found me down at the Detroit River once again.  I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain freighter that was going to be leaving there as I would get there.  It was actually a pretty busy night.

 Of course many of the ships were unloading.  The Mississagi was unloading stone at the dock across the river in Windsor.

 A little further down the River was the behemoth American Century which was unloading at Zug Island.  The freighter I was hoping to see isn't quite the same size as her.

 Another shot of the Mississagi.  The Mississagi kind of provides a hint to what I was hoping to see, but even she is a bit newer.

 Back to the American Century.  Even though I've seen plenty of 1000 footers, I'm still amazed that something this big can float.  I'm even more amazed that it is seen on the Lakes but then again, the Lakes are pretty big in their own right.

 Dock up closer to the Ambassador Bridge is the Stephen Roman.  I haven't seen her in ages, so it was of cool to see her.  She also provides a hint to the freighter I was hoping to see as she carries similar cargo.

 Another ship that I saw was the John Carrick.  She's not to be confused with Paul Carrick who is a singer.

 And we come back to the Mississagi.  And with this, I kind of moved on to another spot.

 My prey kind of eluded me at Del-Ray but she ended up stopping for fuel, so I headed up to Belle Isle in the hopes of catching her there.  I didn't catch her right away but I did catch the Ovation.

 It's kind of a cool looking boat.  Almost reminds me of one of those painting from the early 80's of what the future would look like.

 And then we have the Macasa Bay.  She operates out of Windsor.

My last shot of the night would be the Buffalo.

More Ships

I figured I would just lump these ships together as they are all single shots.

I'm not sure which ship this is but I think she may be the Pacific Huron.

This is the Stephen B. Roman which has appeared several times on this blog.

And the St. Clair which is also a repeat visitor.  If I had stayed at the park a little longer, I might have gotten more shots of her but she seemed to be moving pretty slow.

The Stephen B. Roman on the Detroit River

So the ship I ended up seeing coming down the river was the Stephen B. Roman.  She has appeared on this blog repeatedly because she often calls on the cement plant in Essexville.  I thought it would be cool to catch it from a different angle and underway.

Here is a shot as she passes by the Ren Cen.

After she's passed the Ren Cen and heads towards the channel.

As she approaches the Ambassador Bridge.

The Wescott pulling up to her.

The Westcott staring to pull away.

As she passes by the Ambassador Bridge.

A shot of the pilothouse.

As she passed the park, she started to turn around because she was docking in Windsor.

I rarely get a direct shot of a ships stern.

As she is almost turned around.

Pulling into the dock.

And docked.  This is the second time that I've gotten to see a ship turn around on the river.  I'll have to admit it was pretty cool watch.

The Stephen B. Roman Again...

As I was heading out, I noticed that this ship was docked at the cement plant. It is the same ship that I have covered before, so I'm not going to go into much detail.Heck, I think the only difference between these shots and my other shots is that the weather is nicer.

This shot may be a little different.

I don't think I tried a shot from this angle.

The Stephen B. Roman Again

Then I stopped by to see a ship that was docked at the cement plant again. It is the same ship that I saw the last time I was up in Bay City and docked at the same place.
Apparently, she came up a couple of days ago but the river is almost cresting past the flood stage so she can't leave safely. Just as well, I suppose.

There is a little spot just by the cement plant where I could get pictures of her.

Not a bad looking ship.

I didn't think I would see her but I guess I'm lucky.

The Stephen B. Roman

The ship that I went down to see was the Stephen B. Roman. It was docked in front of the Cement Plant that my grandpa used to work at. The Stephen B. Roman started life as the Fort William and was built for the package freight business on the Great Lakes in 1965. Her original owner was the Canadian Steamship Lines and she was built by Davie Shipbuilding and Repair in Lauzon Quebec.

She could carry packaged or palletized freight and did so until she was laid up in 1981.

In 1982, she was bought by the Lake Ontario Cement Company (now Essroc) and converted to a self unloading cement hauler.

She primarily sails on Lake Ontario but makes calls on the other lakes on occasion.