About the Author
The author of this project worked several seasons in the Great Lakes shipping industry thirty years ago. Though events opened a path to a different career, the awe and wonder of working aboard the Lakers you will learn about below was never lost. The challenge of recreating an environment that inspires that sense of awe was the primary motivation for building this virtual maritime museum.
There are numerous reasons two aircraft carriers were chosen as my initial projects. For practical reasons, aircraft carriers have no camber or sheer to deal with which took a whole level of complexity out of my learning curve. They are called “Flat Tops” for a reason.
I delve into my patriotic reasons for building the USS Saratoga in the virtual environment, which is a snapshot of my personal opinions from four years ago. Those opinions have not changed. However, all the research on the subject matter, and learning more about the character of the people who have served their nation, has also taught me much about service above self. I hope the virtual reconstruction of these vessels is appropriately honoring to those who have exhibited such a supremely honorable trait through their service.
In the future I would like to create a full model of the SS Leviathan, which was a German designed and built ocean liner launched two years after the RMS Titanic, but much more impressive in many ways, in my humble opinion. To do it accurately, I would have to incorporate the camber and sheer of the design, which seems daunting to me at this point. I also want to construct a Laker from the 1950’s era like the SS Wilfred Sykes, as they were in the early 90’s when I worked on them, converted to a Self-Unloader, but still steam-powered. In that case, I would be dealing with camber, sheer, and tumblehome. Quite the challenge to capture the engineering beauty of that classic design.
I hope you enjoy your tour!
The Story begins…
…with childhood memories of family vacations to Sault Ste. Marie, MI and Duluth, MN. Not what most would consider their dream vacation, but as a youth I was fascinated to watch the huge ore carriers going through the locks at the Soo, the smoke stacks displaying the company fleet logos; including Ford Motor Co., U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel, and the big red C on the black stack of the old Cleveland Cliffs Steamship Co. I can still remember the sights, sounds, and smells walking through museums such as the S.S. Valley Camp at the Soo, and the “whaleback” S.S. Meteor in Superior, WI. It was experiences like this that filled me with a sense of awe of these large vessels, which are referred to on the Great Lakes as boats. Several years later, when the time came to choose a career path, it was partly these memories that motivated me to attend the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. Read more about the author’s story in the video below. Pause the video at each display board to read. Make the video full screen by pushing the Fullscreen button in the lower right-hand corner of the video.
The following videos are clips taken from two hours of 8mm video the author filmed while working on the E.M. Ford in 1993. Capturing an era never to return.
All video content is copyright protected. Videos cannot be recorded, reproduced, or redistributed without the author’s express written permission.
Aboard The E.M. Ford
The first segment of this video shows the E.M. Ford passing through the old C&O railroad swing bridge and securing to the terminal dock in St. Joseph, Michigan.
The second video segment records the E.M. Ford going to anchor in Thunder Bay, after we left Alpena one windy afternoon. The E.M. was a bit underpowered for her size, so it wasn’t uncommon for us to find a protected anchorage to drop the hook and wait for the winds to die down on the open lake.
The third video segment captures a view of the bow as we sailed loaded, downbound past South Manitou Island, then as we sail upbound, under the Mackinac Bridge. Next, there is about 30 seconds of video of our stack as we loaded in Alpena at night.
The final four minutes of the video records our passage up the St. Marys River, heading for the Soo Locks and Lake Superior. Several crew work to maintain one of the forward steam winches as we pass through the DeTour Passage and see the Drummond Island Dolomite loading facility. Later, we pass the Round Island Light before making our turn at Johnson Point. The final segment shows us approaching the Sugar Island Ferry as we near the Soo.
The thumbnail photo for this video was taken by Stephen Hause in November, 2008. In this photo, the E.M. Ford is being towed from Saginaw, Michigan. Though she looks ready to return to service, she is destined for the scrapyard at the age of 110.
Locking through the Soo
As this video begins, we pass the Soo Warehouse and the Ojibway, which brings supplies to passing frieghters, on downbound passages. We then blow a salute to a passing tour boat. The steam winches are shown paying out cable as the E.M. Ford approaches the lower approach wall of the Poe Lock. We also pass the S.S. Valley Camp museum, a vessel that is 20 years younger than the E.M. Ford.
Great Lakes freighters are a very self-sufficient operation. When approaching any dock, the deck crew will use the Bosun’s Chair that you see in this video to lower two deckhands onto the dock, who will handle the cables used to secure the boat to the dock. Since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the operations of the Soo Locks, you see their staff assisting while we lock through. Whoever was in charge of swinging the first deckhand out did not get enough pepper on his swing, since you will notice the Corps of Engineers guy has to help swing him out away from the boat. Rookie mistake. The rumbling noise you hear as we slide along the dock wall is the sound or our bow thruster motor.
We then are shown tying up inside the lock as we are raised the twenty feet from the level of Lake Huron to Lake Superior. The captain blows one blast on the ship’s whistle to tell the deck crew to release the lines. As we leave the lock, one of the stewards sees his son waving to him from the park next to the locks.
The thumbnail photo, seen to the right, shows the Presque Isle approaching the locks at the Soo, in the 1930’s. In 1956 this boat was converted to haul bulk cement and her name changed to E.M. Ford. This photo was taken by Ed Wilson, and is part of the Thomas Manse collection, courtesy of Roger LeLievre.
The Engine Room
This video clip shows several areas within the engine room. The video starts by looking down on the top of the main engine, with the cylinder head for the high-pressure piston removed. The camera then pans to the left, showing the two intermediate pistons, and their associated valve box cylinder heads below. Then showing the large, low pressure cylinder head at the aft end of the engine. Yes, those are my boots. Nothing better than putting on a nice warm pair of boots when going on watch.
The video then shows the main control board, the blue boiler control boards behind, and the engine order telegraph. Finally, a look into the Engineer’s parts locker, and the video ends with a view of the Sharples Oily Water Separator. As the Third Assistant Engineer, my primary responsibility was to keep the OWS clean and main engine lubricating oil supply in good condition.
The video then shows the donkey boiler (1:28), the steering gear (1:44), and the main engine running (2:00), viewed from the lower engine room.
The final 35 seconds of this video was taken in the boiler room. The E.M. used two fire tube or Scotch boilers to produce the steam for the main engine, auxiliaries, and house load. At the start of the video segment, the engineer and his oiler are working on the steam heat, and fuel supply lines. These lines heat and feed the fuel oil from the fuel bunker, to the burners for each boiler. Until being converted to oil burning in 1975, this area would have had several firemen shoveling coal from the bunker into the boilers.
The thumbnail image for this video is courtesy of the Great Lakes Steamship Society.
Warming up the Engine
This video gives a brief look at how we warmed up the engine before leaving port. First, it’s important to note that the engine was directly connected to the propeller shaft. No clutch. No reduction gears. No controllable-pitch propeller. Therefore, whatever speed and direction the engine was turning, the boat’s propeller was turning the same. Second, it’s key to understand the three levers on the control stand. The first lever, at the far right is the throttle that controls the amount of steam allowed into the high-pressure cylinder. The middle lever is the reversing lever that changes the valve timing that allowed steam into each cylinder. With the lever in the down position, the valves would allow the steam to enter the cylinders in such a way to propel the engine, and the boat, in the forward direction. Placing the reversing level in the up position, would reverse the valve orientation and allow the steam to propel the engine, and the boat, in the reverse direction.
To warm up the engine, we would slowly work the reversing lever back and forth a few times to get any accumulated water out of the valve cylinders, and then open the throttle just enough to get the engine rolling over very slowly, as shown toward the end of the video.
Taking the Engine’s Temperature
There were no temperature gauges on the main engine. The only way to know for sure if the bearing surfaces of your crankshaft and connecting rod assemblies was getting sufficient oil, was to feel them. In this video, the oiler starts by feeling each crosshead bearing, then goes to the lower engine deck level to feel the connecting rod bearings. For the crosshead bearings, he works in rhythm to place his fingers on the bearing surface each time the piston rod comes up. For the connecting rod bearings, he places his hand so that the crankshaft eccentrics will slap the base of his hand as it rotates. In each case, he’s both feeling the temperature of the bearing surfaces as well as looking for any indication of abnormal foreign material in the oil.
If more oil was needed, he would adjust a needle valve on a drip line for that particular bearing from the gravity tank above the engine that held the reserve supply of lubricating oil. My primary responsibility, as the junior Third Assistant Engineer, was to keep the lubricating oil supply in that gravity tank clean and full. Never got tired of listening to that galloping engine sound.
Answering Bells
This was the best part of my job - at the controls of the main engine! Anytime we were entering or leaving port or running at reduced speed, the watch-standing engineer had to be ready to answer commands given from the pilot house via the engine order telegraph and adjust the throttle and reversing lever to control the engine speed and direction accordingly. I described the throttle and reversing levers previously. The lever closest to the camera controlled the water level in the condenser, which was located on the opposite (port) side of the engine in the lower engine room level. You see me look through the engine to check the sight glass for the condenser and adjust the level during the video. I was advised to avoid letting the high pressure piston come to rest at top dead center as that made it difficult to get the engine turning. A lesson you see I was still learning in this video. It was also crucial while running the engine at various speeds to keep a constant eye on the steam pressure and turn on or off burners for the boilers accordingly. You see me do that periodically as I reach over to the boiler control panel, which is the blue panels on the right side of the video frame. The watch-standing engineer also had to log all the engine speed commands given which you see me write on the clipboard periodically. The mate would also call down from the pilot house whenever we would pass the breakwall entering or leaving port or pass key lighthouses or other landmarks, like the Mackinac Bridge. Toward the end of the video you see the other key duty for the watch engineer; discussing any issues or equipment conditions with your relief at the end of your watch. At the end of the video, the pilot house rings down Finished With Engines. This lets us know we are at the dock and we can open the cylinder drains on the engine.
Run EMD
If answering bells on the main engine was my favorite part of the job, starting the EMD was a close second. There is nothing quite like the sound of an idling EMD. The example installed on the E.M. was the 16-567C model, which produced 1,500 hp and was connected to an 1,100 kW generator. EMD stands for the Electro Motive Division of General Motors. The 16 indicates the number of cylinders, and the 567 is the cubic inch displacement per cylinder. For those of you familiar with railroad locomotives, this would be the prime mover installed in a GP-9. This diesel generator set had been installed in 1956 when the E.M. was converted to haul cement, and was installed athwartship immediately ahead of the coal/oil bunker. Interestingly, this engine was actually as powerful as the main steam engine that propelled the boat.
The primary purpose for this diesel generator was to provide power for the unloading equipment that pumped the cement off the boat. It was also brought online anytime we were maneuvering in port as it provided power for the bow thruster motor.
The sequence of steps you see me take to bring the generator online starts by opening the valves to the starting air cylinders that can be seen on the bulkhead behind the engine. I then make sure all the blowdown ports are open and the fuel supply is shut off before rolling the engine over two times to blow any moisture out of the cylinders. I then work my way around the engine closing all the blowdown ports. Then make sure the fuel and oil pressures are good and start the engine. Let it warm up a few minutes, before dialing up the governor to bring the engine speed up to 800 RPM. As I’m doing that I’m looking at the electrical switchgear panel directly over the top of the camera, to make sure my generator voltage is in sync with the ship’s power before throwing the switch to bring the generator “online”. The “little” diesel engine you hear screaming away before the EMD drowns it out, is a Detroit 8V-71 situated directly above the EMD. In fact, you can see the bottom of the Detroit’s oil pan in the top of the video frame.
Boats Passing
In this first video segment, we have left the Soo Locks behind us about an hour earlier and are heading for Heron Bay. We meet the downbound Motor Vessel Stewart J. Cort. The rumbling you hear in the background is our steering gear. The Cort is 1,000 feet long, 105 feet wide and 49 feet in depth. She is loaded near her capacity of 58,000 tons of iron ore, most likely on her normal route from Superior, WI to the Bethlehem Steel mill in Burns Harbor, IN. The Cort’s bow and stern sections were built in a shipyard in Mississippi in 1970 and sailed to a shipyard in Erie, PA. The bow and stern were cut apart and joined to the large mid-body cargo hold section that had been built at the yard in Erie.
The second, short video segment shows us passing the S.S. Alpena as we transit Whitefish Bay. I would work on the Alpena late in the following season.
The third segment shows us passing the Motor Vessel Edwin H. Gott. I had spent several weeks on the Gott the previous fall, finishing up my cadet time on a diesel powered vessel. This video was shot from the engine room, and you hear the hissing rhythm of our main engine in the background.
The final segment is a video made as we were leaving Alpena after getting our load. There is only room for one boat to load under the silos at a time, so the steamer S.T. Crapo (pronounced Cray-poe) has been waiting its turn in Thunder Bay. As we pass outbound, the Crapo comes about as she turns to head in. She rolls pretty good as she comes around. I would work as the ship-keeper on the Crapo the following winter, as she was being converted from coal-fired to oil-fired boilers at the shipyard in Sturgeon Bay.
Heron Bay
This video begins as we are sailing upbound along the eastern shore of Lake Superior, with the soft, hissing, rhythm of our main engine galloping in the background. After we are tied up in the small harbor in Heron Bay, the deck crew is shown making the connections to pump the cargo off the boat and into the shoreside storage silo, which will be used to transfer the cement to trucks for delivery to customers. I catch a brief glimpse of the cook as he is fishing off the side of the boat. I then take my mountain bike ashore to explore the neighborhood. As I’m leaving the dock, I see the deck crew working to get the port anchor back into its pocket. One thing about the old E.M. Ford was that the crew took a lot of pride in keeping everything ship-shape and clean onboard.
As I am standing next to the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks, hoping to see a big freight train rumble by; I hear something coming down the tracks only to see two small maintenance-of-way cars putt putt past me. Oh well, at least it’s something.
As I come back to the boat later that afternoon, the deck crew has the anchor back in its pocket, all neat and tidy.