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Press Release

After one of the busiest summers in its 34-year history, the Michigan Maritime Museum has announced new hours and staffing adjustments for the coming winter season.

As of October 1 the museum will be open to the public from 10 AM – 5 PM Friday, Saturday and Sunday and by appointment.  The Maryalyce Canonie Great Lakes Research Library located at the Keepers House will be open Thursdays from 10 AM – 5 PM and by appointment.

All of the facilities on the museum campus will be open including the main gallery, the VanOort Coast Guard boat house, the US Lifesaving Service crew quarters, the fish tug Evelyn S. and the Padnos boat building shed.  Dockside tours of the tall ship Friends Good Will will be available until the weather prohibits boarding. Read the rest of this entry »

by Richard Palmer | Source: The Crooked Lake Review Blog

During the mid-19th century, Oswego was a major port on the Great Lakes. More than 100 schooners were owned here and the harbor was a beehive of activity. There were also several shipyards.

Such stirring scenes as a half-dozen ships sailing into the harbor have long since vanished. But this heritage is being reborn in the form of the Oswego Maritime Foundation’s pride and joy, the “OMF Ontario,” which is to proudly sails out of the harbor into Lake Ontario as in days of old.

Excellent detailed article on the history of this great port at Crooked Lake Review Blog >>

Source: Sault Boat Watching

The Valley Camp Museum Ship is one of our favorite spots to bring visitors to our cabin in the summer. Young and old love the chance to see a Great Lakes freighter. Plus, the Valley Camp has great exhibits including the lifeboat from the Edmund Fitzgerald and an aquarium of Great Lakes fish.

Other museum ships, vessels available and great photos at the Sault Boat Watcher >>

Peter Passi | Source: Duluth News Tribune

If you’re in the market for a retired Coast Guard buoytender, this could be your lucky hour.

The Coast Guard Cutter Sundew soon could go up for auction.

The vessel’s current owner, the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, has quietly been shopping the Sundew around in recent weeks.

… the Sundew has proven less of a tourist draw than he hoped. The DECC initially tried charging visitors individual admission to the Sundew but decided to package it with the more popular William A. Irvin, a retired laker, because of sparse ticket sales.

Even though people who pay for admission to the Irvin now can tour the Sundew for no additional fee, Hom said only about 5 percent of visitors have set foot aboard the retired cutter in recent years.

Read the full story, options at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: USCG

CLEVELAND - HMCS Charlottetown, a 442-foot Canadian frigate, will arrive at Dock 32 behind the museum ship William G. Mather at 10 a.m., Sept. 10.

HMCS Charlottetown recently completed a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea as part of Canada’s continuing contributions to the campaign against terrorism known as Operation Enduring Freedom. The frigate helped to deter threats to maritime security - illegal migration, smuggling, and piracy - that harm legitimate commerce in the Gulf region. While deployed, she boarded three vessels with known ties to terrorists, intercepting 2000 cases of alcohol and six metric tons of narcotics. The ship also rendered assistance to three vessels in distress, saving the lives of 23 mariners.

The Coast Guard Cutter Alder, a 225-foot buoytender homeported in Duluth, Minn., will escort the Charlottetown into port. Both ships will be open to the public from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 11. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jennifer Sattler | Source: The Voice News

“Freighter Frank” Fisk will share his insights on life aboard a freighter when he kicks off the Friends’ First Thursday series at 7 p.m. Thursday at the St. Clair Library.

… Fisk … is a plethora of knowledge when it comes to the vessels that ply the St. Clair River and Lake Huron.

He will present a PowerPoint presentation about the year he spent working and living aboard the freighter, the Paul R. Tregurtha.

At 1,013 feet, six inches long, the Tregurtha is the largest ship plying the Great Lakes and is known as the “Queen of the Great Lakes.” It is owned and managed by the Interlake Steamship Co. Fisk spent a year on the freighter as a cook, and his presentation is full of interior ship shots.

“I spent a year traveling around the Great Lakes, with all of the security measures nowadays, being on a ship is exclusive,” he said. “I will also present menus of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other holiday fare.”

The St. Clair Library is located at 310 S. Second St. in St. Clair.

The program is free and all are welcome.

Web: Great Lakes Cruise Co. website

Susan Glaser | Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Two small, high-end cruise ships - one new, the other newly refurbished - will make their debut next summer on the fresh-water waves of lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior.

“It’ll be a great summer,” said Chris Conlin, owner of the Great Lakes Cruise Co., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based travel agency that specializes in Great Lakes cruises. “We have lots of choices that we haven’t had before.”

The Clelia II, an all-suite ship with room for 100 passengers, will sail seven-day itineraries between Toronto and Duluth, Minn., starting in late June. Ports of call include Niagara Falls, Ontario (via the Welland Canal); Mackinac Island, Mich.; Houghton, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; and Thunder Bay, Ontario. All sailings will offer educational themes,

Read the rest of this entry »

Source: The Bay City Times

There are still a few days left to see the exhibit ”Great Lakes Titanics: Shipwrecks on the Inland Seas” at the Herbert D. Doan Midland County History Center.

Artifacts, photographs and information about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes will be featured, including that of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in which 29 men perished during a storm on Lake Superior in November of 1975. In addition, visitors can learn about diving and recent shipwreck dives and about the U.S. Life Saving Service, the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard.

The exhibit may be viewed through Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The History Center is at 3417 W. Main St. in Midland. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. For more information, call (800) 523-7649, (989) 631-8250, or log on to www.mcfta.org.

by Jordan Press | Source: Kingston Whig-Standard

Kenn Feigelman and his team of underwater filmmakers planned to spend the summer documenting on film all the known wrecks in the waters around Kingston.

They also hoped to find a new wreck.

They didn’t expect to find four old ships, including one that likely hasn’t been seen for nearly 200 years, along with a debris field of other ships near the city.

One wreck was previously found then lost. The wreck, a large hulk sitting on the bottom of the lake, is believed to be HMS Montreal, a Kingston-built ship that was scuttled after the War of 1812, said Feigelman, who runs DeepQuest2 Expeditions.

“This isn’t just Kingston history, this is North American history,” Feigelman said, referring to the warships his crew stumbled upon.

… The location of the find is being kept a secret. Parks Canada will be made aware of the location of the wrecks, but finds of this nature are kept secret to ensure nobody steals from or damages the remains, Feigelman said.

“We don’t want people to do souvenir hunting,” Feigelman said.

… Among these ships are several from the War of 1812, some of which researchers have been seeking for years. Feigelman said the large ship found this month is believed to be HMS Montreal.

During the war, the British ordered ships built in Kingston to counter the American fleet being built at Sackets Harbor, N. Y., on the south side of Lake Ontario. The Montreal was built in Kingston and launched in 1813.

Originally, she was named after Sir George Provost, the British governor-general who ordered her built. After launching, she was renamed HMS Wolfe and later HMS Montreal in January 1814.

HMS Montreal took part in several battles, including the raid and capture of the fort at Oswego, N. Y.

Read the full story, background of area and hopes of team at the Kingston Whig-Standard >>

Related:

• Coast Guard Days: Port Huron says thank you - Times Herald
• Port Huron celebrates the Coast Guard - Times Herald

By BOB GROSS | Source: Times Herald

On Saturday, residents and visitors watched the U.S. Coast Guard demonstrate a helicopter rescue — not once, but twice — in the St. Clair River near the Great Lakes Maritime Center at Vantage Point.

They also toured the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bramble Museum at the Seaway Terminal as well as the Bramble’s replacement, the USCGC Hollyhock; the U.S. Navy Sea Cadets vessel, the Gray Fox; and the Huron Lightship at Pine Grove Park.

The U.S. Coast Guard Station at Omar Street also was open for tours.

Awesome pictures of Dolphin Helicopter rescue demonstration with this story at the Times Herald >>

by Shelley Nelson | Source: Superior Daily Telegram

Gordy Gebhardt, 80, made the journey to see the Meteor one more time. He has fond memories of the ship and had once imagined himself walking into the crew’s galley for a cup of coffee. That became a reality Friday.

“I grew up on the water, love the water, and I have been a huge boat nerd all my life,” said David Frew, a professor emeritus with Gannon University in Erie.

His current venture is a book about Lake Erie’s historic black Friday storm, when four ships including the James B. Colgate, a sister ship to the SS Meteor, sunk on Oct. 20, 1916.

“One of the things people in Duluth have no concept of is just how rough the water on Lake Erie gets, said Roger Pellett, a member of the Meteor Advisory Committee, which is working to research the ship’s history. “We have vast periods of time where Lake Superior looks like it does today, where it’s like a mill pond. Then there six or eight times a year there are big rollers coming in.”

Lake Erie, which is not as deep as the other Great Lakes, is choppier, particularly on its western end, and is fraught with navigational hazards.

The night of Oct. 20, 1916, created one of those “perfect storm explosions,” Frew said. A storm was rising from the Ohio Valley and clashed with an Alberta Clipper coming from the north.

Capt. Walter Grashaw “went out when others didn’t go, and he was met by this horrific storm,” Frew said. “The captain reported 40- to 50-foot waves and 100 mph winds. It lasted a long time and the direction never shifted.”

The Colgate, a 302-foot steel whaleback, was steaming west from Buffalo with a load of coal when it went down off Long Point, Ontario. Of the 26 men on board, Grashaw was the lone survivor. After 36 hours clinging to rope edges on a raft, he was nearly described as half-dead when he was recovered, according to the New York Times archives.

The black Friday storms also claimed the D.L. Filer, a wooden bulk freight schooner-barge, Marshall Butters, a wooden lumber hooker, and the Merida, a steel freighter with wooden deckhouses, claiming the lives of 58 sailors.

“The Colgate is a famous Lake Erie shipwreck, but it’s a whaleback built here in Superior,” Frew said.

Read the full story about this visit, past & current books at the Superior Daily Telegram >>

by Chuck Frederick | Source: Duluth News Tribune

“What is that building without a roof that can be seen in Lake Superior from the Lakewalk? We are puzzled!”

… the structure [is known] as “the cribs,” because that’s how it’s referred to on federal lake charts, [or] more intriguingly, as “Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum.”

… “It is the ruins of an energetic but short-lived commercial enterprise by [the] Whitney Brothers of Superior,” the marker reads. “It was Harvey Whitney’s brainchild.

“The structure was a sand [and] gravel hopper, built in the winter of 1919 and abandoned in 1922. It was a frantic era of Duluth construction in 1919, and Harvey was looking for efficiencies for his sand and gravel operation. He didn’t like the canal congestion, especially in the heavy summer months. He took a chance that the city would revive efforts to rebuild the Outer Harbor Breakwater, which had been abandoned in 1872.

“Sand from the lake around the Apostle Islands and gravel from Grand Marais were hauled to Duluth on the scow, Limit, using the steam tug, William A. Whitney,” the marker continues. “The Limit was tied to the concrete foundation structure and unloaded to the steel hopper with two steam-powered clam shells. A large conveyor belt on a trestle carried the materials to shore where they were dropped on top of a tunnel into which trucks would maneuver for loading.”

… While their sand and gravel hopper idea was ingenious … it could only have worked when Lake Superior was calm. Which was practically never.

Read the full story, see photo at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: Chicago Tribune

Researchers want to know if the bottom of Lake Erie is littered with cannonballs and other ammunition from a pivotal naval battle that was part of the War of 1812.

With the help of an $18,000 federal grant, the Great Lakes Historical Society will survey the lake floor this summer using sonar and magnetic wave technology.

The U.S. victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie, fought in September 1813, helped the Americans secure control of the lake and made a hero of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.

The lake’s bottom may have powder kegs and other debris from ships on both sides…

Read more on the technology, goals for this neat project >>

Source: Plain Dealer

Vermilion- Ohio marine archaeologists believe they have finally found the right combination for the record books - a Lake Erie shipwreck worthy of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a diver able to commit the time to make it happen.

The 1850 wreck of the Anthony Wayne, a side-wheel steamer, was discovered off Vermilion last summer by diver Tom Kowalczk.

…If the application is accepted, the Anthony Wayne will be the first Lake Erie shipwreck listed on the National Register.

“It’s so unique. You don’t see many side-wheel steamers. This is fresh, this is new,” said Texas A&M grad student Brad Krueger, who is spending five weeks at the Peachman Center, part of the Great Lakes Historical Society.

Read about the painstaking work these grad students are undertaking to measure and diagram the entire wreck at the Plain Dealer >>

Source: Hudson Hub Times

Discover what life aboard a working Great Lakes freighter was like as you tour this restored 618-foot histories flagship. Explore the 1925-built Mather from stern to stern and see its huge cargo holds, brass and oak pilot house, elegant guest quarters, and four-story engine room. Walk the decks and marvel at the “engineering firsts” that helped transform Northeast Ohio into a great industrial center.

Several special events are planned at the William G. Mather, a Great Lakes freighter turned into a museum, including the following:

• Rock and Boom, July 4, 7 p.m.
  Enjoy fireworks from the deck of the Mather and tour the ship before the show. Food and drinks sold onboard. Fireworks at dark. Cost is $10.
• Great Lakes, Great Wine, Great Fun, July 25, 6:30 p.m.
  Board the William G. Mather and join a wine specialist for a wine-tasting event. Sample Great Lakes wines and other treats, while enjoying a view from the deck of the Mather. This event is for adults 21 and older. Cost is $30 for nonmembers, $28 for members. To make a reservation, call 216-621-2400.
• Air show deck party, Aug. 30 through Sept. 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  Experience the excitement of the Cleveland National Air Show first-hand as jets roar overhead. Food and drinks will be sold onboard. Cost is $15 for nonmembers and $12 for members.

The Steamship William G. Mather is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June, July and August, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday in May, September and October.

Tickets are available on site and at the Great Lakes Science Center box office.

Due to its historic nature, the Mather has limited handicapped accessibility.

The story of the St. Lawrence Seaway is one of progress and commerce — but look deeper, and you’ll also find a story that’s as much about war, diplomacy and politics as engineering.

Tony Atherton | Source: The Ottawa Citizen

The U.S. War of Independence made North America’s greatest river an uneasy border between hostile neighbours. The War of 1812 deepened the distrust, giving rise to two canal systems, neither on the St. Lawrence.

The British built a canal from the Ottawa River to Kingston, designed to move troops from Montreal to Lake Ontario without having to use the narrowest part of the St. Lawrence, where they could be vulnerable to attack.

The U.S., meanwhile, built the Erie Canal between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, providing an all-American route from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Its commercial success convinced Canadians to begin lobbying for an all-Canadian shipping route, and the St. Lawrence was the most practical route. Work began on the Cornwall Canal, a system of locks to circumvent the Long Sault Rapids, in 1834. More canals were constructed just upstream and others built closer to Montreal, so that by the middle of the 19th century, small ocean-going vessels could travel all the way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario.

The canals were rebuilt and enlarged in the late 19th century and, with tensions between Canada and the U.S. much reduced, the St. Lawrence began to take traffic away from the Erie Canal. An international Seaway Commission was appointed to see whether the two countries might co-operate on further development of the river.

This should be a must-read piece for every North American; read it at the Ottawa Citizen >>

by Erica Blake | Source: The Toledo Blade

Loaded with passengers and a cargo of liquor and wine, the Anthony Wayne had not traveled far on its voyage from the docks of Toledo to a port in Buffalo, when an inexplicable explosion occurred - one that sent it to the depths of Lake Erie.

Now, more than 150 years later and two years after it was first discovered deep beneath the Lake Erie waves, underwater archaeologists are studying the sidewheel steamboat in its final resting place.

Believed to be the oldest steamboat shipwreck in the lake, the Anthony Wayne is broken up and buried in the lake’s muck.

…archaeologists are working to preserve Great Lakes history by measuring and recording every detail of the vessel to re-create how it was built.

“This is part of the heritage of the lakes,” said Texas A&M University graduate student Brad Krueger, who initiated the project. “You can learn a lot from these wrecks. They shouldn’t be salvaged. … By showing the actual value of underwater archaeology, it gives us a better understanding of our Great Lakes history.”

With hopes of “bridging the gap in maritime history,” Mr. Krueger said his project will result in the re-creation of “architectural elements that we just don’t have.”

Full story with underwater photos, images at the Toledo Blade >>

Source: Soo Evening News

Edison Sault Electric Company will host self-guided tours at its hydroelectric plant on Friday, June 27. The tours will begin at the east end of the hydro plant near Alford Park and will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The tours are in conjunction with Engineer’s Day at the Soo Locks.

More on the displays, areas open to tour at the Soo Evening News >>

Source: Small Business Times

A partnership between the Lake Express High Speed Ferry and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) is allowing researchers to study the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide fluctuations between Lake Michigan and the atmosphere — the first such study of its kind conducted on a large body of water.

Read more at the Small Business Times >>

by Sue Schroder, Booth Michigan Travel Editor | Source: mlive.com Travel

If life in the slow lane appeals … how about a stint as a lighthouse keeper at the Tawas Point Lighthouse in East Tawas for one- or two-week stays? The lighthouse keeper(s) will be responsible for a variety of duties, including greeting guests, providing information about the history of the lighthouse, helping in the gift shop and taking care of artifacts in the lighthouse museum.

The keeper’s quarters have a kitchen and bath and two bedrooms that will sleep three people. The program costs $275 per person per week and those 18 or older may apply.

The quarters also are heated, which means a lot of you may choose to apply for one of the sessions in the freezin’ season. The program runs through Dec. 31 and usually begins the first of March.

For more information or to receive an application for the Tawas Point Lighthouse Keeper Program, contact Peggy Allen at the Tawas Point Lighthouse Museum Store at (989) 362-5658 or the Tawas Point State Park at (989) 362-5041.

For general information on the lighthouse, park and campgrounds, go to Michigan.gov/dnr, click on “Recreation, camping and boating,” then “Map of parks, forests and trails,” then Iosco County; then the red button at the point.

Hopefully by mid-summer, you will be able to download an application, said Chuck Allen, park and recreation supervisor.

Find some more great vacation getaways at mlive.com >>