Lake freighter
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the engine located at the rear of the ship.
Lakers have been used since the late 19th century to haul raw material from docks in the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway regions to the industrial centers of Ontario, Quebec, and the American Midwest. The navigation season typically runs from late March through next mid-January due to the formation of ice on the lakes.
The largest lake freighters can travel up to and can carry as much as of bulk cargo.
, which sank in 1975, became widely known as the largest vessel to be wrecked on the Great Lakes.
History
The lake freighter's recognizable design emerged from many years of innovation in Great Lakes shipping. By the late 1860s, most bulk cargo was still carried by unpowered barges and sailing ships. Often, these ships had accessible deck hatches, useful for loading and unloading cargo. Also around this time, passenger steamboats were gaining popularity for their steam-powered shipping abilities, which were faster and more reliable.In 1869, the wood-hulled was launched. It was designed specifically for the iron ore trade and had an experimental design that would soon set the standard for subsequent bulk carriers on the Great Lakes. R. J. Hackett featured a raised pilothouse at the bow, situated on top of a set of cabins, and a boxy hull to maximize cargo capacity. Between the raised forecastle and engine funnel at the stern was a long, unbroken deck lined with hatches spaced apart. This spacing was to match the chutes of the gravity ore dock in Marquette, Michigan.
The falls of the St. Marys River forced ships to portage their cargo around the falls. In an effort to make shipping more efficient and profitable, Michigan representatives appealed to the federal government for funding to build a canal. In 1855, the Michigan State Locks opened, allowing vessels to keep up with demands for iron ore from further east. This would fuel the development of bulk carriers on the Great Lakes.
Early lakers often had a wooden hull, or a composite hull consisting of an oak frame wrapped in iron plating. With the depletion of high-quality timber near the lakeshore, shipbuilders increasingly opted for metal hulls. In 1881 and 1882, the first entirely iron-hulled freighters, Brunswick and, were launched. Around this time, steel was quickly becoming a standard hull material as a result of the Bessemer process making it more affordable. The first steel-hulled freighter, Spokane, launched in 1886. Soon both iron and composite hulls were phased out. Wood was used for smaller vessels into the early 1900s.
An early variation on the lake freighter was the whaleback, designed by Alexander McDougall. These had cigar-shaped bodies that barely rose out of the water when fully loaded, and carried bulk cargo on the lakes from 1888 through 1970.
The early lake freighters required cargo to be manually unloaded, or with assistance from unloading machinery at the docks. In 1902, Hennepin was the first ship to be retrofitted with self-unloading equipment, allowing its cargo to be landed in a fraction of the time.
Around 1916, vessels more or less became the standard size.
After World War II, several oceangoing freighters and tankers were transported to the Great Lakes and converted to bulk carriers as a way to acquire ships cheaply. The oil tanker became the bulk freighter MV Lee A. Tregurtha In addition, the freighter Outer Island was originally commissioned as LCT-203 for use as a tank landing craft during World War II.
In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the lakes, but by the early 21st century, there were fewer than 140 active. By the 1990s, older and smaller self-unloaders and straight-deck freighters were converted into tug-barges.
Landmark vessels
Types of lake freighters
The many lake freighters operating on the Great Lakes can be differentiated by how they are used. They may be classified according to where they work, their design, their size, or other factors. The ships are not always exclusive to one category. These types include:- Laker – a bulk carrier operating primarily in the upper Great Lakes.
- Longboats – lakers noted for their slender appearance.
- Oreboat/Ironboat – a bulk carrier used primarily to transport iron ore and taconite pellets.
- Saltie – ocean-going, seawaymax vessels that access the Great Lakes through the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
- Self-unloader – a lake freighter equipped with self-unloading gear.
- Stern-ender – a lake freighter with all cabins aft.
- Straight decker – a freighter built without conveyors and cranes to offload cargo, instead using port facilities.
- Tug-barge - a bulk carrier created by pairing barges with a tugboat.
- – a new class of lake freighter, several of which entered service in the 2010s for Seaway Marine Transport, a division of Algoma Central. A class of vessel is created any time a new design is used to build a ship and is notable when multiple ships are built to the same design plans. The ships are used as dry-bulk lake freighters. The first in the series,, was launched in 2013.
- – a new class of lake freighter delivered for Canada Steamship Lines in 2012 and 2013. An additional pair began service on the Great Lakes in 2015.
- – a new class of lake freighter, one of which,, was commissioned by Interlake Steamship Company and entered service on July 1, 2022.
Cargo
The iron ore transported from the upper Great Lakes primarily supplies the steel mills of the Midwest. Iron ore makes up a majority of the cargo shipped annually.
The 1940s saw the rise in the use of taconite pellets, as sources of higher quality ore diminished.
Other destinations include coal-fired power plants, highway department salt domes, and stone docks, where limestone is unloaded for the construction industry. U.S.-flagged freighters carried the largest portion of the trade, accounting for two-thirds of all cargo by weight. U.S. hulls carried most of the iron, limestone and cement, while Canadian boats carried most of the potash, and almost all of the salt and grain moved on the lakes.
Destination harbors, ship sizes, and legal restrictions greatly affect the pattern of haulage. Large U.S. ships hauled most of the iron ore on the lakes from U.S. mines to U.S. mills. This reflects the requirement of the Jones Act, as well as the industry using large volumes of material while being concentrated in a few large harbor locations. Salt and Canadian grain can be hauled to numerous smaller ports of either country on smaller, mostly Canadian, ships, which can also enter the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Canadian ports of Montreal and Quebec City.
Because of their deeper draft and freshwater's lower buoyancy, salties often take on partial loads. Conversely, the Seaway allows smaller lakers to access the Atlantic Ocean. The larger, newer ships are restricted to the upper lakes.
Design
Lakers feature a design distinct from their ocean-going counterparts. Because of the R. J. Hackett, lake freighters typically had the bridge and associated superstructure at the bow. Additionally, a second island would be located over the engine room in the stern. In 1974, was the final vessel designed this way.The more recently built lakers, like CSL Niagara, have a single large superstructure island at the stern.
Lake vessels are designed with the greatest block coefficient to maximize the vessel's size in the locks within the Great Lakes/St Lawrence Seaway system. Therefore, ship designers have favored bluff bows over streamlined bows.
Another distinguishing feature of lake vessels versus ocean vessels is the cargo hatch configuration. On the lake vessels, the hatches are traditionally spaced apart. This configuration was needed to match the chutes at loading facilities.
Since Great Lakes waves do not achieve the great length or period of ocean waves, particularly compared to the waves' height, ships are in less danger of being suspended between two waves and breaking, so the ratio between the ship's length, beam and its depth can be larger than that of an ocean-going ship. The lake vessels generally have a 10:1 length to beam ratio, whereas ocean vessels are typically 7:1.
Size
The size of a lake freighter determines where it may work. The shallow draft imposed by the St. Marys River and Lake St. Clair restrict the cargo capacity of lakers. Poe Lock at the Soo Locks is the largest deep lock at long and wide.Many of the larger American ships are unable to navigate the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which restricts vessel size to in length and in breadth. Seawaymax vessels are able to access the Great Lakes and the ocean. The Canadian fleet needs to travel to and from its major cities along the St. Lawrence Seaway, so the largest length for the Canadian vessels is.
Lake boats in the classes are more common, because of the limitations of the Welland Canal. These vessels vary greatly in configuration and cargo capacity, being capable of hauling between 10,000 and 40,000 tons per trip depending on the individual boat. The smaller boats serve smaller harbors around the lakes which have irregular need for their services.
Another reason for the lack of larger Canadian vessels is legislative in nature. Larger ships on the lakes are generally used to transport American-mined ore bound for American mills. Because of the Jones Act of 1920, only American ships can carry ore from American mines to American mills in American ports; ergo, larger Canadian ships are not needed.