One of Duluth’s Rarest Lakers Makes a Surprise Arrival
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- This is a ship I honestly never expected to see in the Canal! Although Algoma Compass has been to Duluth before, most recently in 2021, and before that in 2018, she hadn’t even sailed in Lake Super since then, and spent most of this season in drydock and then layup in Sarnia until September. And although she came in 2021, it would have been a month before I started getting back into closely following the ships and their movements, rekindling a childhood interest. So I’ve never seen her outside of some older videos and videos from the lower lakes until now. So this was a bucket list arrival! When I saw her listed on the schedule for Superior, I was cautiously excited since I’d never seen her come to this region, but Indiana Harbor was just a few hours ahead of her and would enter the harbor first, meaning the Compass would anchor and leave an extremely narrow and unpredictable window to see her. So as she sailed into the Superior anchor area, I went down to the beach to take pictures as she arrived, figuring it might end up being the only chance to see her on the move. When I got there however, the ship was not where I expected. Rather than anchoring off Superior, she unexpectedly turned north and followed the beach, headed towards the Canal. Rushed down and parked just as the arms started lowering on the bridge! She arrived quietly at 12:15am with spotlights ablaze, and sailed to the refueling dock, refueled in about 4 hours then sailed the front channel to the Superior Entry to wait at anchor for the ore dock.
As for her story, the Algoma Compass was built in 1973 as the Roger M Kyes for the American Steamship Company. One of the first US ships to built with a stern pilothouse, she features the sharp prow and low freeboard of the classic lakers, and was built as an enlarged version of the “River Class” vessels just as Robert S Pierson, measuring roughly 50ft longer and 10ft wider at 679ft by 77ft. Her construction caused issues for American Steamship Company, as she increased their fleet capacity above the limit set by anti-trust laws in the US, ultimately leading to the US government forcing the company to sell off 7 vessels to rival fleets. In the 70s and 80s she grounded several times, including one particularly severe incident in the Detroit River in 1984 that required 10 tugs and another laker to free her and required months of repairs in drydock. Following the retirement of ASC’s Adam E Cornelius in 1989, the Kyes was renamed to keep the traditional name in the company. For 4 years between 1994 and 1998, the ship was chartered to Inland Steel/ Cleveland Cliffs and featured the striped paint job seen on Joseph L Block before she was returned to ASC and repainted black. Her unusual size caused issues for her throughout the 2000s and 2010s, being too large to navigate the tighter ports in the lakes but too small to effectively haul for the heavier cargo runs done by larger vessels, and she spent much of her time at the dock with little to do. In 2018 the Cornelius, Buffalo and the long out of commission American Valor were sold to Algoma Central, and reflagged to Canada. The Valor was quickly resold again to Rand Logistics, while the other two vessels were renamed Algoma Compass and Algoma Buffalo respectively. The Compass was drydocked, repainted and reinforced for salt cargoes, which have kept her busy since until this season when she was laid up due to lack of salt demand following a very mild winter. In September she returned to action and is now doing an iron ore run, which she likely has not carried since her transfer to Algoma in 2018.
Hope everyone enjoys a highly unusual ship!
Thank you for this Jonathan! Due to her great history this is the only Algoma boat I care to watch. Hope she beats the old age Algoma curse and sails for seasons to come. Thank you - thank you!!
She has a great story! I wouldn’t say she’s alone though! A lot of the Algoma ships have interesting histories! They still have a few other older ships, Leitch, Dool, Latimer, all with great stories as well. Even some of the newer ones, the 2012 built Algoma Mariner for example probably has one of the most interesting backstories of any laker! They’re just not told as often because a lot of people focus on the US ships I think. But yeah I really hope she sails a long time, and she just got fixed up really nice this year so they seem to have no intentions of letting her go!
And I hope she visits more often lol
She looks well maintained as she silently glides on by. What a beauty indeed.
Thank you for the video ☺
She’s super good looking! She was drydocked over winter then laid up until September so she’s essentially fresh out of refit
Jonathan thanks for sharing such an amazing ship and story. Thank you for all that you do to show us such wonderful videos. Again thank you and God bless
beautiful footage. I so enjoy your vids and stories about the ships. Thank you!
Wow! Thanks for sharing, wish we could have been there - beautiful ship. I love Algoma's bear logo.
Nice get Jonathan, well done
@@jimr3422 thanks!
interesting ship and history on this rear wheel drive. good camera work.
Great catch considering it was 1AM (Why were you up then lol), Such a different looking laker!!! Thanks Jonathan!!!
Wasn’t quite that bad lol (although pretty close admittedly lol) Was up anyway so decided to watch her anchor and ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for lol. Definitely a unique ship! No problem!
I love the way you said ".she sailed"to the Superior entrance. Visions of an ancient galleon😊 .
What a lovely surprise and she looks great.
Sometimes it's just meant to be. Perfect catch.
Very nice thanks..:)
Glad you enjoyed!
Just look at the opening shot of the lift bridge. This video couldn't get much better and that ship is beautiful.
Never would've guessed the speed limit on the bridge is 15 mph. Lol people don't fudge it much, do they?
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it that much! Gorgeous ship on a gorgeous night
Lol yeah that particular speed limit is not super strictly enforced, many people follow it but even the cops don’t necessarily follow that and will happily go over and follow along at reasonable speeds lol. As long as you’re under 30mph nobody really cares, above that cars can be difficult to control on the metal surface though.
Algol & Mirfak, Capella & Menkalinan. The Stag of the Sky is guiding Jupiter northward this fall. Your camera sees more than others do.
Thanks! I’ve always had a passing interest in astronomy, never really have gotten into actually digging into it and stargazing though, being able to name the stars on sight. Maybe it’s time I dug into that a bit more… 🤔
worked on her in 1988 roger kyes