The Extremely Versatile Mark W Barker Departs Duluth Early Morn, Learn about the Namesake!
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Pictures @ / duluthshipphotography
About this visit:
The Mark W Barker arrived Duluth for the Second time this season, June 16 2024 at 05:55 in the morning cruising into town at 5.4 kts with holds full of Salt for the Hallett 8 dock. They arrived at the H-8 dock at 06:45 and began discharging the salt for the next 10.3 hours of their day. At 17:04 they fished up and departed the dock, heading across the harbor to the CN dock to load Iron Ore for the Back Haul Trip. They sailed into the CN dock at 17:23 and began loading the ore. June 17, 2024 at 06:07 they finished loading and departed CN. At 07:03 after spending a total of 25.1 hours in Port they departed Duluth, cruising out at 5.8 kts, at 3.5 miles out they topped off at 13 kts .Delivering to Cleveland OH.
Info on Mark W Barker from doorcountypulse.com.
Mark W. Barker and some of his family members dedicated their lives to the maritime business, and he hopes that the new ship bearing his name, built in Sturgeon Bay, will sail the Great Lakes for years after he’s gone.
“My father, when we were designing and contracting to build the ship, decided he wanted to name it after me, and I didn’t tell him no,” he said.
Barker, president of Interlake Steamship Company, was pleased to see the 639-foot-long motor vessel pull out of the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding yard and navigate the waters of Sturgeon Bay for preliminary testing just before the Independence Day weekend. He said he’s still not sure when the ship will complete testing and depart for its home port of Cleveland.
Many Door County visitors and residents saw the Mark W. Barker go through the ship canal during its initial underway tests, but they might have missed the dramatic, James Bond-like splashdown of the vessel’s self-launching lifeboat.
“It’s kind of wild,” Barker said of the orange lifeboat that’s perched diagonally above the stern, not far from the living quarters and bridge. “You get in them and strap in. You push a button; it releases and slides down a slide into the water.”
That lifeboat capable of free-falling into the water stands out as the most visible safety measure on the newest freight carrier on the Great Lakes, but it’s by no means the most important feature on the vessel. Interlake Steamship Company designed the ship not only for versatility to accommodate customers throughout the Great Lakes, but more specifically for a customer on the narrow Cuyahoga River.
“We had a customer come to us and wanted us to carry some cargo for them. It was unique. It had to fit in a certain dock location and size,” Barker said. “For us to do it appropriately for our customer, a new ship was deemed necessary. On top of that, we built a ship that really could service all of our customers well, with options like a forward boom and a modern, efficient design.”
Barker said it’s tough - or impossible - to back into certain docks, with the stern of the ship usually heavier and floating deeper in the water than the front. With a forward boom, the crew should be able to move the ship closer to certain docks as cargo is unloaded from the front of the ship and the bow floats higher.
Interlake Steamship did not build a ship nearly as long as the thousand-footers that ply the open waters of the Great Lakes. This new River Class vessel had to be short enough to fit the Cuyahoga when jobs require it to leave the lake and enter the river.
“We’ve also incorporated better water-flow capabilities through the propeller and optimized the hull design for efficiency,” Barker said. “It has a square cargo hold without slopes. Our traditional self-unloaders have slopes to gravity-feed to the conveyor system. This boat will actually be able to carry more cubic capacity, but we will have to use front loaders to move some of the cargo to the conveyor system. That’s unique for us. There are some over on the Canadian side that use a similar technique.”
In addition to meeting all new safety requirements, Interlake Steamship kept its 17- to 18-member crew in mind.
“It has to work delivering cargo, but we have to ensure that the people are comfortable and have a good place to live. In the old days, comfort wasn’t taken into account as much,” Barker said.
That means better insulation and noise-limiting features for those trying to rest or sleep.
“Everyone will have their own stateroom with their own bathrooms, which is not uncommon on our ships today,” he said. “We’ve tried to update and make the amenities friendly. We’ve put male and female changing rooms on the boat to accommodate the diverse workforce.”
Barker’s father, Interlake chair James R. Barker, took Interlake Steamship Company private in 1986 and named Mark as its president in 2007.
Barker’s family has a lengthy Great Lakes maritime history. Barker said his father’s uncle was the captain of a supply boat in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and “my dad’s grandfather was actually the butcher on the supply boat.”
Beautiful early morning production. Loved it.
So Granddad was the butcher on a supply boat. Very cool indeed.
The Mark W Barker is versatile and mobile...⚓
Great new ship sailing!
Not many people there for a nice day in June.
Wish I was there.
It is really early in the morning, probably 5:30 or 6 am, they said "good morning" on the radio.
Fascinating in depth info .Thanks Paul 😊
Thank you 😊
Hey that text you found is really interesting. Enjoyed it.
Nothing like a good 7 a.m. wake-up call....
Thanks, glad to see it gets read! I feel a large portion of viewers do not.
What an interesting background. Thanks for the video on a beautiful morning
Wish I could have seen the life boat test launch.
Not many folks turned out to see Baby Barkers departure that early morning.
Not too often do crowds develop in the earlier morning.