The Last Virtually Unaltered Classic Laker Showing Off Some Beauty
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2024
- Saginaw arriving for fuel and iron ore on a gorgeous summer afternoon! This video features not one but two different arrivals, one from the classic Canal vantage point, the other from about 4 miles away, high up on the hillside in Brewer Park, taken about a week earlier. The old White Lady showing off her stuff for the summer crowds! Also featured is the Vista Queen tour boat, Vista Star’s little, rarely seen sister. Seen the Star hundreds of times but have never caught the Queen up close on camera before! Slippery little boat that comes and goes on a fairly random schedule!
With the fire on Cuyahoga (a return to service for her currently appears doubtful) and hull issues on Michipicoten (potentially expected to return but depends on the final results of her inspections and repairs, so not guaranteed) the Saginaw sails as Canada’s oldest lake ship for the time being. Built in 1953, she remains nearly unaltered from when she was first constructed as the John J Boland, aside from engines that were replaced in 2007 and an unloading boom that had to be replaced in 1973 after the original one collapsed and fell apart. While to someone unfamiliar with lakers this work may sound significant, it pales in comparison to what many of these ships have gone through, getting cut apart, lengthened, widened, gutted out to install unloading systems and put back together again and in some cases cut apart yet again. The Saginaw meanwhile, continues to sail with her original configuration.
One of only 3 self unloaders constructed during the 1950s (the other two being John G Munson and the long gone Detroit Edison) what is now known as the Saginaw was constructed in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and sailed for the American Steamship company until 1984 when the company put her into long term layup with no intentions of returning her to service, following a large influx of new vessels into their fleet. She sat in port for 8 years awaiting the scrapyard along with the rest of the company’s older vessels, but made a surprise return to service and a mild modernization in 1992, once again for American Steamship. Six years later she was returned to retirement, her name was scrubbed off and given to a newer fleetmate, and the ship was advertised for scrap.
Instead she was picked up by a startup company from Canada, Lower Lakes Towing which operated a handful of small, extremely old ships as their newest and largest (at the time) vessel. The company used her to great effect, hauling cargo between often overlooked ports and using her relatively small size and versatility to their advantage. She helped build the company into one of the largest and most successful new fleets the Great Lakes has seen in decades, a reputation that has now been severely tarnished in the last few months due to a handful of severe incidents that have made major news headlines across both countries, including one vessel coming incredibly close to ending up in the depths of Lake Superior. In response to these incidents, they cleaned up the Saginaw slightly, she had been starting to look incredibly rough with massive wear and tear on the hull and visible patches. Some paint was added to her bow, and the patches were smoothed out and reinforced to be proper hull plates, but because they never took her out of the water to do it, the work is clearly halfhazard and rushed, with most of the hull still displaying wear and tear. Despite this, she somehow does look a lot better in comparison to the last time I saw her in daylight, so mission accomplished… I guess.
Hopefully she gets some actual attention in the future though! She deserves the best treatment in the Lakes! Another noteworthy aspect of her (not seen in this video sadly) is one of her crew has a dinosaur costume, which sometimes comes out and dances around the deck as they pass by!So if you ever see Saginaw pass by, keep an eye out for the ship’s pet T-Rex!
She's such a treasure. I love the old lake steamers. I pray they will be preserved someday.
Same. May they sail on!
She looks so beautiful coming in off the lake with the North Shore in the background. I'm sorry, all you fans of salties, but you can't beat a laker for looks! Especially one that looks as hard working as the Saginaw! Grace in motion!
She sure drew a crowd, and she is a beautiful lady!!
Yeah she had a big crowd there! Usually I only see crowds like that for thousand footers
She's quite the lady! Beautiful video, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed!
Duluth Harbor and the entire Duluth/Superior area is an underrated tourist gem. So much to do and see there. My 15 year old son and I just spent the weekend seeing the sights and touring the old landmarks and museums. We had the time of our lives!!! Must say, it ranks up there with Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, and Seattle!!!
Glad you had fun here! I love it as well 😃
From an outsider’s perspective, is there anywhere else in town that might be interesting to people here out of curiosity?
@jonathanellsworth21
The Glensheen Mansion was amazing. The tower at Enger Park had great views. The train museum and ride were very interesting. Touring the Irvin. Over in Superior, Wisconsin, the old ship Meteor and the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center was also very interesting.
What a beautiful laker, so majestic. Thank you for sharing all the beautiful scenery, I totally love it. God bless you
Thank you!!
One beautiful lady. What grace.
She reminds me of a Victorian lady sweeping into a ballroom, with dignity and grace.
I like the "crows nest" on top of her unloader mechanism.
Yeah that’s kind of a fun throwback! Surprised they haven’t replaced that with a radar mount, seems like that unloader assembly would block the signal
She is beautiful. The classics have a special charm.
@@FlatlandMountaineer-1 definitely!
Great show, thanks
No problem!
I sailed on it for a short while as a deckhand in 78. We called it the hatch farm. No bow thrusters as I recall. A lot of back breaking work for $5 and change an hour but I wouldn't
trade that experience for anything.
$5? Ouch lol. Sounds like an amazing experience nonetheless though! Where’d her nickname come from?
The angle of the sun really brings out the indentations of the side shell, I hope they give her proper attention soon too!
Thank you very much for sharing the amazing history of this ship. The video is excellent. There’s a grace and beauty to this vessel. It’s experienced much since 1953. Back then Duluth was not so much a tourist town as it was an industrial and somewhat dirty, dusty place. (In the early 60s, my folks brought us ‘kids’ up there often) Duluth has certainly transformed itself into a city with a neat vibe and lots to do. Thanks again!
71 years is a LOT of history. Amazing the things she’s seen
I had the pleasure of watching your video yesterday and got lucky to see her loading up in Marquette today. 😊
Very cool! I saw she was over there. Never been to Marquette, on my to do list though!
@@jonathanellsworth21 it is a nice place to go too. I’m only an hour away so I have just jumped in my car just to go get pictures of the ships lol So far I’ve seen 10 in the last two months lol One ore dock with plenty of activity lol It was great seeing the Lee Tregutha and the Hon James Oberstar side by side last Friday.
I live in the city of Saginaw, in Saginaw County, a mile from the Saginaw river, which flows into Saginaw Bay !!😎
Grew-up on Lake Saint Claire and every day during shipping season I would see multiple lakers on their way north into Lake Huron or south via the Detroit River into Lake Erie. I miss those days very much.
I love your videos!! I hope I didn't miss an update on the Michipicoten??
@@SusanSpeary-zg6oj Nothing concrete yet on what’s happening, doing my best to keep up to date but as far as I’m aware there’s been no official decision. I have heard for sure they’ve been doing minor repairs (bad wiring replaced, some out of date equipment replaced, etc) which all bodes well, but the elephant in the room (her hull) still remains mostly unknown and it sounds like the progress on determining that is slow.
Thank you so much for the update! 🌊🛳⚓
Thanks for posting! Love the Saginaw, wish she would go through the Welland Canal. Interesting how Lower Lake's home port is only an hour drive from here, but I rarely if ever see any of their boats. The Saginaw is a beautiful ship and it's nice that they beautified her at least a bit, but I would love to see some $ invested into long-term repairs. Hopefully they keep her going at least a few more years.
@@greggrauscher34 Same! Her regular route seems to keep her on the middle three lakes full time, so at least it’s fun to see her doing something a bit different for a change!
In doing a little research for the name "Saginaw" I found two explanations. The first being the Ojibwe words O-sag-e-non, or Sag-in-a-wee. Meaning "To flow out".
The second being, "Where the Sauk were". Although no reference is given about that meaning.✌️ Mark
She’s named after the Saginaw River in Michigan, so most likely “Flow Out”
I like the shots from the hill! Very nice touch.
Love her seagul colors
Interesting history. Thanks for the info.
No problem!
Sweet! Thanks for the video!
@@sweynforkbeardtraindude no problem!
Saw this beauty pull into superior wi back in June.
Yeah she’s gone there a couple times too!
She’s got her exhausted face on !😂😂😂😂
Everyone of her ribs are showing! Hard worker!
In the off season, why don't they paint these ships??? Companies use to take great care and great pride in their ships livery. It's sad seeing these beauties treated so crappy.
Anyway, it's just a thought
Her hull doesn't look much better than the Michipicoten's.
Actually Michipicoten’s looks significantly better. But it’s not how it looks paint wise that’s the issue, it’s the integrity of the steel. It can look completely terrible and still be solid, or look great but be very weak. I believe Saginaw was last inspected in 2020 or 2021 and checked out aside from a bow thruster replacement (which left her with a big patch on her bow for awhile)
Why haven't they painted any of their vessels?
No hoot! Huh?
@@josephinebennington7247 there was one! Just a little earlier than usual