Shipbucket

Last June I had a rare opportunity to take a 5 day voyage as a guest on a true classic freighter, the St. Marys Challenger. It can be very difficult to obtain a trip as a passenger on a Great Lakes freighter these days unless you win a raffle or know someone of authority within a shipping company. Drawing this ship in 2006 put me in touch with the right person at Port City Steamship Company which led to the opportunity to take this trip.

The St. Marys Challenger was originally built in 1906 by Great Lakes Engineering Works in Detroit, Michigan as the William P. Snyder for the Shenango Furnace Steel Company. The ship has had several name changes and owners over the years. Originally she was built to haul bulk cargo such as iron ore, stone and coal. Her engine was replaced in 1950 by removing her original triple expansion steam engine and installing a 4 cylinder Skinner Uniflow steam engine. A Skinner Uniflow engine is an enclosed steam engine that has an automated oiling system so the oilers do not have to climb inside the engine to oil its components while under operation. By 1967 the ship was outdated to haul bulk cargos but was saved from being scrapped by the Medusa Cement Company to convert her to haul powdered cement. Her smaller size by 1960’s Great Lakes standards at the time of 551 feet (168 meters) in length made her the perfect size for navigating the long winding rivers where the cement terminal docks are located in many of the Great Lakes ports. This conversion meant a reconfiguring of her holds and an addition of unloading equipment to handle the powdered cement cargo. The superstructure had some updates and changes as well over the years. (See image below for a comparison of how the ship looked in 1906 and how she looks today.) Still steaming at 105 years old the St. Marys Challenger is the oldest ship in the world still active in hauling commercial cargo. There are older operating vessels, but they are excursion passenger ships, I believe these exist on inland lakes in Europe and on the Mississippi River in the United States. There also may be some older tugboats still in operation out there as well.

The St Marys Challenger has 2 guest staterooms (2 beds and each with their own bathroom and shower) and a guest lounge; 4 passengers can travel very comfortably. The guest quarters are located in the after superstructure just forward of and below the stack. The ship carries a crew of 25 who work three watches of 4 hours on duty, 8 hours off with the exception of the captain who is required to be present in the pilot house will navigating any rivers or making/departing docks and the ordinary seamen/deck hands who work a regular shift plus overtime hours when needed for docking, loading, and unloading. As passengers, we were allowed explore anywhere on the ship during our trip which included the engine room, boiler room, and pilot house. Our trip started in at the St. Marys Cement Plant in Charlevoix, Michigan, her loading port at the north end of Lake Michigan, where they loaded just under 11,000 tons of powdered cement into the holds. It took about 5 hours to load and we departed that night. The next day we sailed south the length of Lake Michigan, the whole day was sailing. For those who have not seen the Great Lakes in person, when out in the middle, you can’t see land. The next morning we arrived at Chicago, Illinois to unload 3,000 tons of cement at the South Chicago Terminal. To get to the storage silos we traveled 7 miles up the industrial Calumet River. That afternoon we departed and headed north on Lake Michigan bound for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Early the following morning we arrived at Milwaukee to unload the remaining 7,000 plus tons cement. After departure that afternoon from Milwaukee we sailed, holds empty, in-ballast, back to the loading silos at Charlevoix, Michigan which we arrived at the next day.

This experience is one that I will always remember. When we were out on the open lake they let us take a turn at the wheel and steer the ship. We also rang change commands to the Engine Room from the engine room telegraph, blow a salute on the steam whistles as we left the Milwaukee break walls and even engage a speed change on the main engine controls down in the engine room. Ships can be such “odd worlds”, some things are so over scale such as the 100 lb. chain links, 4” thick rope, the 25 foot (7.6 meter) tall engine yet other things are under scale such as the galley where all the food is prepared to feed the crew, the sinks and toilets; in the pilot house you see all the latest technological flat screen monitors with AIS and GPS tracking and right below that is a 1906 vintage telephone they hand crank to call various parts of the ship. A brass speaking tube still exists to the captain’s quarters one deck below, (although the Capt., would usually just shout up the stairs if he needed something when he was below hahaha), the forward anchor winches are still operated by a 2 cylinder steam engine that stands about 7 feet tall, I never seen one of these even on a museum ship. The food was wonderful and plentiful; we all invented our own variation of midnight snack sandwiches.

I took my 2 teenage nephews (my own sons are still too young to travel on a working freighter) and a friend with me on the trip. I told my nephews to “soak this experience in because you will never see a ship again the way you are seeing this one. You may take pleasure cruises in your future which will have more "amenities" to entertain you, but as for the "seeing and feeling" how a ship really operates on cruise ships they won’t let you explore the engine room and boiler room at will, let you kick back in the pilot house and chat with the mate and wheelsman on watch, steer the ship or blow the whistles…”

In my time I’ve taken several vacations on passenger ships but all my life I’ve wanted to experience sailing on a true Great Lakes freighter and am so happy to have had this wonderful opportunity.

For a short video movie filmed by my friend during this trip on the S.S. St. Marys Challenger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7khAUOVJCTg

Enjoy an image slide show at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqbo7aGjZIw

~John

Well colour me envious. I would love to play around with a proper steam engine. In a way it's a shame diesels came to dominate the European market before the war and in some cases even before.
Anyway it true how people who haven't seen it first hand fail to understand the scale of a freighters engine room. I have a hard time convincing people that I need an overhead crane to remove the valve covers, let alone the piston heads.
The only merchant ship that I know is older is the Danish paddle steamer Hjejlen. It's 150 years old and it still plies its original route on the Silkeborg Lakes. What's even more surprising is that her engine is the original one from 1861. The only major replacements that have been made in the engine is the crank shaft that cracked in 1947 and the boiler that have been replaced three times.

_________________
“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

It was really cool to see all of it operation, even though the engine was not original a lot of the other mechanical components were like the steering geer, winches, pumps, etc. are 1906 vintage The engine rooms on the freighters are bigger than one would think. I attached a couple of cool pictures one when I poked my head and camera throught the skylight looking down and one of the crank shaft spinning, they could turn lights on inside the engine to watch the operation.

I did not know about the Hjejlen, that is very cool that her engine is original from 1861. We have retired freighter here, the E.M. Ford, built in 1898 with her original quadruple expansion engine still in her, but sadly they retired her in 1996, - 2 years before making it 100 years of operation on her original engine. The ship still exists, but is probably destined for the torch...

Do work on a ship Thiel?

Yes, or rather I'm studying to become a ships engineer and that involves a fair bit of sailing.
I spent nine months on two different ships last year.

_________________
“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Thanks for this Dital Shipyard, Ienjoyed your artical nice to see some one who enjoys ships I suspect that 99.9% of people have no idea how importance shipping is but they would be bitching if they didn't get their cement on time but give no throught where or how its gets to them.

Graham

Your very welcome Graham, glad you enjoyed it.

~John

I'm deeply jealous. Having taken several frustratingly-short tours of William A. Irvin, I have considerable appreciation for these freighters.