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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 »

Source: Hamilton Spectator

What came in and out of the Port of Hamilton the week of Aug. 24 to 30, 2008

• Estimated total tonnage: 368,258
• Total ships in and out: 17
• Domestic: 15
• International: 2
• Percentage of imports: 80.9
• Percentage of exports: 19.1

Incoming: A total of 11 vessels arrived with bulk raw materials (coal and ore) used in production at steel mills ArcelorMittal Dofasco and U.S. Steel Canada and one overseas vessel arrived with steel.

Outgoing: Two vessels exported petroleum products and one exported grain.

Highlights for the week: The Federal Power arrived with a cargo of steel from Bremen, Germany. Following the Hamilton discharge, the vessel was destined for Cleveland, Ohio, to discharge the remaining cargo.

The M/V Whistler loaded steel coil to be exported to Spain and the UK.

by Tom Breckenridge | Source: The Plain Dealer

The import of foreign steel has hit a 15-year low at Cleveland’s port.

At the same time, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is handling unprecedented levels of steel barged from Canada.

And ArcelorMittal is about to double the modest amount of steel it sends to foreign markets through the Cleveland port.

… ArcelorMittal will send 64,000 tons of steel coil through the port to Brazil and Europe, by year’s end.

… Steel and iron traffic on the St. Lawrence Seaway was down 48 percent through May, officials said.

Offsetting Cleveland’s loss in foreign-steel tonnage is new business by barge. An Ontario steel mill has sent 48,000 tons so far by water, rather than rail and truck.

Activity is also up at the Cleveland Bulk Terminal, which handles iron ore for the busy ArcelorMittal plant. Shipments are at 960,000 tons after six months, an increase of 11 percent.

Read the full story at The Plain Dealer >>

Frank Bentayou | Source: Plain Dealer

The first Cleveland-built tugboat ever to be sold abroad will head to Honduras before fall.

Great Lakes Towing Co. sold the tugboat, built from steel keel to wheelhouse at the company’s West Side Cleveland lakeshore shipyard, to a customer in Central America. It will go into operation in September.

… While building the two tugboats, Great Lakes Towing also has constructed and sold 27 metal barges that buyers have put to use in hauling cargo, as floating docks and, linked together, as temporary bridges.

Ronald Rasmus, the tug company’s president, and his team designed the barges so they can be hauled on trucks and any number of them can be connected as platforms or much larger hauling surfaces. “We’re shipping them all over the country and expect to be exporting the barges, too,” he said.

Details about the new tug, more about Great Lakes Towing and more at the Plain Dealer >>

Source: USCG

WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard has published a proposed rule for dry cargo residue discharges on the Great Lakes and is seeking public comment. Public meetings will be held next week in Duluth and Cleveland.

The proposed rule would require Great Lakes bulk dry-cargo carriers to keep records of and report loading, unloading, and sweepings of dry cargo residues and would encourage carriers to use control measures to reduce the amount of dry cargo residue entering the waters of the Great Lakes. The rule would continue to allow the discharge of non-toxic and non-hazardous bulk dry cargo residues in certain areas of the Great Lakes.

Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Duluth, MN
Holiday Inn
200 West First Street

Duluth, MN 55802
218-727-7492

Thursday July 17, 2008 in Cleveland, OH
The Forum Conference Center
One Cleveland Center
1375 East Ninth Street
Cleveland, OH 44114
216-241-6338

For those who are unable to attend but would like their voices heard, the notice of proposed rule making can be viewed online at http://www.regulations.gov/. Once in the site, under “search” enter docket number “USCG-2004-19621.” Comments can be submitted online at http://www.regulations.gov/, by mail to Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, D.C., 20590-0001, by fax at 202-493-2251 or in person at Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday except holidays. Public comment must be received via one of these methods above means not later than July 22.

by Jay Miller | Source: Crain’s Cleveland Business

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is preparing to adopt a policy that will reduce the scope of its development financing efforts as it focuses on rebuilding the Port of Cleveland as a shipping and logistics center.

The new strategy is a result of the Port Authority’s plan to move its docks east of the Cuyahoga River to new docks it would like to build on Lake Erie at East 55th Street.

…If approved by the full board at its July 22 meeting, the primary focus of Port Authority financing will be for companies in maritime, logistics or distribution businesses, or for manufacturers that will move to a proposed international trade district adjacent to the future port.

Full story, details at Crain’s Cleveland Business >>

Source: Joint Task Force Canada

HALIFAX, N.S. – Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Glace Bay, Summerside and Shawinigan will visit Cleveland, Ohio, from July 3 to 6, 2008. The Canadian Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDVs) will stop in Cleveland as part of a training deployment in the Great Lakes.

The primary role of the MCDVs is coastal surveillance and patrol. Their tasks also include general naval operations, training and exercises, search and rescue, support to law enforcement, natural resource protection and fisheries patrols. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Source: WKYC

Video, detailed photos at WKYC

CLEVELAND - A Great Lakes freighter carrying a load of gravel sliced and sunk a 36-foot boat docked along the west bank of the Flats Sunday night.

Elvin Jones, of Shaker Heights, had just tied up his boat, the Beverly II, along the Cuyahoga River. He and a friend were eating dinner at Shooters on the Water when the collision happened.

“We saw the crowd running and we decided to come out and see what was happening,” Jones said. “Then I found out we were part of the action, the main course.”

No one was injured. A second boat at the dock belonging to the owner of Shooter’s Restaurant was also damaged. Jones’ boat was no match for the freighter, the Cuyahoga. The fiberglass powerboat sank in just a few minutes.

According to Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Linda Sturgis, the freighter regularly travels the Cuyahoga River.

“Standard protocol would require a drug test (of freighter pilot),” Lt. Commander Sturgis said. “We’ll get witness statements, check charts, recheck the track line and the weather, interview the master and interview who was on watch.”

John Granzier saw the collision slowly unfold. “(The Cuyahoga) just barreled into the middle of the boat and crushed it,” Granzier said. “Before that we saw a guy running back and forth (on the freighter). We didn’t realize something was going on. So they must have noticed that they were getting real close.”

Read the rest of the story, view video and photo gallery at WKYC >>

Fate hangs on pending court-ordered agreements

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Preservationists, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers are supposed to be drafting agreements that would detail who owns the machinery, who will pay for re-assembly and relocation and who will pay for maintaining any potential exhibit.

A federal judge has told them to try to reach an agreement on how the history of the Huletts can be preserved.

One proposal from Councilman Matt Zone would keep significant parts of one Hulett, like an enormous leg, the operator’s cab and a bucket, for display at an undetermined location.

Read the rest of the newly modified story at the Cleveland Plain Dealer >>

Posted by V. David Sartin | Cleveland Metro News

Q. Will the giant Hulett ore unloaders — seen by some as the symbol of Cleveland’s 20th century industrial might — ever be rebuilt and on display?

The Huletts have been sitting in pieces amid scrub brush at the west end of Whiskey Island since 2000 with little hope of being rebuilt soon.

Preservationists want to display two of the old Huletts near the lake freighter William Mather next to the Great Lakes Science Museum. Some estimates say that could cost as much as $6 million.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority probably wants the Huletts to go away. Permanently. But, port authority officials are not talking publicly about their proposals. They did not respond to repeated requests for an update of their proposal.

Invented by George H. Hulett in 1898, the shovel contraptions could scrape up 17 tons of ore or other material in one gulp while offloading freighters at Great Lakes ports.

Read about the history, demise and future plans of the Huletts at the Cleveland Metro News >>

Source: USCG

CLEVELAND - Rear Adm. Peter V. Neffenger will relieve Rear Adm. John E. Crowley, Jr., of command of the Ninth Coast Guard District in a change-of-command ceremony, here, Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 1 p.m.

The ceremony will be held at the Port of Cleveland’s Dock #32.

Crowley assumed command of the Ninth Coast Guard District in April 2006, and will retire after more than 33 years of service.  As District Commander, Crowley was in charge of more than 6,000 active duty, reserve duty, civilian and Auxiliary men and women; whom conducted more than 8,700 search-and-rescue missions, executed more than 25,400 law enforcement boardings, and inspected more than 6,650 vessels. Read the rest of this entry »

by Bradley Campbell | Source: Cleveland Scene

…one piece floats on: the relocation of Cleveland’s port. This 130-acre site, nestled between Browns Stadium and the confluence of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, is the industrial space where behemoth ships pull into docks, toting steel, ore, and other cargo — remnants of a long-forgotten boom.

But with the help of glossy promises from a glossy businessman — and with almost none of the public input about which leaders once boasted — moving the port 60 blocks east has quietly become the Amended Plan to Save Cleveland. If they can just get the port to East 55th Street, port and city leaders say, it will suddenly generate 50,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in investments, and transform the port into a shipping powerhouse.

The plan, in typical Cleveland fashion, is long on talk and short on . . well, everything else. The only sure things: It will take a long time, cost a lot of money, and do a lot of good for local developers — especially, of course, the former chairman of the port’s board.

An excellent piece examining the issue from many sides, many quotes and details at the Cleveland Scene >>

Source: USCG

CLEVELAND - U.S. Coast Guard Station Cleveland Harbor is scheduled to host the Eastern Great Lakes Water Safety Expo May 17, 2008, at the Cleveland Moorings with free admission to the public.

Scheduled to attend are:

• Coast Guard Station Fairport
• Coast Guard Station Lorain
• USCG Marine Safety Unit Cleveland
• Coast Guard Recruiters
• Ohio Department of Natural Resources
• Rocky River Police Department
• Cleveland Fire Department’s Fireboat Celebrezze
• Coast Guard Auxiliary are doing recreational vessel safety inspections.

Scheduled events for children are:

• Lake Erie Safe Boating Council are scheduled to bring Lake Erie Marine Trades Association’s Pirate Pete the Safety Parrot.
• Coast Guard Auxiliary are scheduled to bring Coastie the Robotic Tug Boat.
• United Service Organization are scheduled to set up a miniature golf course and a small basketball court.

Several marine retailers are scheduled to be there to advertise their safety products.

Tom Breckenridge | Source: Plain Dealer

Plans for a $300 million port at Melford, Nova Scotia - a port big enough to receive and send megaships filled with container cargo - could mean more water-borne commerce for Northeast Ohio in the years to come, officials hope.

Officials with Melford International Terminal Inc. met Gov. Ted Strickland, port President Adam Wasserman, a top St. Lawrence Seaway official and others last week to pitch their project and its potential for Northeast Ohio.

Read the full story at the Plain Dealer >>