See 20 monster boats of the Great Lakes in gorgeous photos (2024)

The Great Lakes: A boat-watcher's playground

They're called boatnerds, people who relish the commercial ships that navigate the Great Lakes, delivering iron ore, coal and other aggregates from one port, or one lake, to another.

All of us have a little bit of boatnerd in us. The site of a floating, steel-hulled monster nudging its way up the Cuyahoga River is especially captivating.

Now that the ice (what little we had this year) has melted away and the shipping season has begun with the opening of the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, we offer up a colorful look at several of the boats that call the Great Lakes home.

These lakers are long, multi-hold vessels with storied histories. Many were designed to bring taconite (iron ore) pellets from the iron ranges of Michigan and Minnesota to the steel millsthat dot the lakes, including those at the southern tip of Lake Michigan and the North Coast of Northeast Ohio.

Most of the following information used to describe the boats comes from boatnerd.com, a website for those who relish the commercial ships that navigate the inland seas of the United States. Authors of the information on boatnerd.com are noted when applicable.

By Peter Krouse, cleveland.com

Graphic by Phizzy(talk) under Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Interlake Steamship

Herbert C. Jackson

The Herbert C. Jackson is 690 feet long and was the last steamer in the Interlake Steamship fleet to be converted to diesel power in 2016.

It began service in 1959 and was named for Herbert Cooper Jackson, then managing partner of Pickands Mather, which owned Interlake Steamship. It was the penultimate boat built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Mich.

It's the shortest laker in the fleet and has occasionally been called on for other duties. In 1970,it helped deliver50 Christmas trees to the White House, transporting them from a port on Lake Superior to Cleveland.

And in 1986, it rescued two boaters who had been adrift in Lake Michigan for 80 hours.

Interlake Steamship

James L. Oberstar

The 806-foot Hon. James L. Oberstar is an Interlake Steamship vessel named for a former Congressman from Minnesota. It also was the first U.S. flagship to be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers.

The ship was built by American Ship Building Co. in Toledo for the Shenango Furnace Co. of Pittsburgh and was christened the Shenango II in Cleveland in 1959, according to George Wharton at boatnerd.com. It was sold to Interlake in 1967 and renamed the Charles M. Beeghly, for the then-chairman and CEO of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.

The ship was converted to a self-unloading vessel in 1981 and in 2007 it was renamed for Oberstar, considered a great friend to the Great Lakes shipping industry.

Interlake Steamship

Paul R. Tregurtha

This monster is the longest ship on the Great Lakes, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com. The Paul R. Tregurtha, also known as "Queen of the Lakes" can carry 68,000 gross tons.

The Tregurtha is so long it was built in two places. The bow and part of the cargo hold were put together by American Ship Building Co. in Toledo and the stern was fashioned in Lorain. The vessel was christened in 1981 and originally named the William J. De Lancey after the then-chairman of Interlake customer Republic Steel.

The relatively new ship came with elevators and finely appointed decor for crew and passengers. It was nicknamed the "Fancy De Lancey," according to Wharton.

The ship was the last Great Lakes vessel built in Lorain and was renamed in 1990 for then-Interlake vice chairman Paul R. Tregurtha in 1990, who was also chairman of the firm's parent company.

Paul Scinocca

H. Lee White, movie star

The H. Lee White, owned by American Steamship, made its maiden voyage in 1974 and over the years has been a favorite of boat-watchers, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com.

Two things are noteworthy about the ship. It has had a few accidents, including taking out a section of the toll bridge at Grosse Ile, Mich. It's also in the movies.

During the open credits of the movie Major League, you can see the H. Lee White on the Cuyahoga River, according to "The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, folksingers, Long-haired Ojibway Painters and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes," by Ted McClelland.

Interlake Steamship

Mesabi Miner

The Mesabi Miner is one of the 13 super carriers of 1,000 feet or more that sail the Great Lakes, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com. It's maiden voyage in 1977 was from Lorain, to Superior, Wisconsin, to pick up a load of iron ore. It still hauls iron ore and coal for Interlake Steamship.

The ship was christened the Mesabi Miner in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1977 by Muriel Humphrey, wife of Hubert H. Humphrey, former senator from Minnesota and vice president of the United States.

Stewart J. Cort

The Stewart J. Cort was the first boat of at least 1,000 feet in length on the Great Lakes. It holds 58,000 gross tons.

The Cort was named after a former vice president of Bethlehem Steel. Its first trip was in 1972, according to Jody L. Aho on boatnerd.com.

Construction on the Cort began in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was completed in Erie, Pennsylvania, after being brought into Lake Erie through the Welland Canal, according Aho.

The boat is distinctive because of all the super-long ore boats on the lake, it's the only one with the pilot house at the front of the ship.

Interlake Steamship

Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder

The Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder is well known to Clevelanders as it is short enough to navigate the narrow and winding Cuyahoga River. The Dorothy Ann is a tug and the the Pathfinder is a barge.

The Pathfinder went into service in 1953 as the J.L. Mauthe, according to Jody L. Aho on boatnerd.com. It hauled ore and then mostly grain until it became outdated. Instead of mothballing the ship, it was converted into a barge and connected to the tug Dorothy Ann to become a useful vessel.

Marc Dease

Defiance-Ashtabula

The tug Defiance and barge Ashtabula operate as one ship. They began their career shuttling phosphate and coal between Tampa Bay, Florida, and the lower Mississippi River for Beker Industries of Greenwich, Connecticut At that time they were known as the barge Mary Turner and tug Beverly Anderson, according to Tom Hynes on boatnerd.com.

Rand Logistics Inc. bought the barge and tug in 2011 and brought them back to the Great Lakes in 2012 where they began hauling sand.

Marc Dease

Manitowoc

The Manitowoc was originally christened the Paul Thayer in 1973. It later became the Earl W. Oglebay before being sold to the Wisconsin and Michigan Steamship Co. of Lakewood in 2006 and then to Rand Logistics of New York in 2008, after which it was renamed the Manitowoc, according to Brian Ferguson on boatnerd.com.

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Paul Scinooca

Arthur M. Anderson

The Arthur M. Anderson will be forever linked to one of the great maritime tragedies in U.S. history. The Anderson was the last vessel to have contact with the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald on Nov. 10, 1975, shortly before it sank to the bottom of stormy Lake Superior, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com.

It was built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Division of U.S. Steel Corp. and commissioned in 1952. Three other identical boats, the Philip R. Clarke, John G. Munson and since-scrapped William Clay Ford, were commissioned about the same time.

In 1981, the Anderson was converted into a self-unloading vessel.

Paul Scinooca

Cason J. Callaway

When the Calloway first sailed in 1952, it was believed to be the largest vessel capable of turning around in the Conneaut harbor, according to Jody L. Aho on boatnerd.com. Conneaut was a major unloading port for iron ore destined for U.S. Steel.

The Calloway was built in River Rouge, Michigan, at the Great Lakes Engineering Works. Like many of the ships on the Great Lakes, it has had its share of collisions with other boats. When the Calloway struck the B.F. Jones in the St. Mary's River in 1955, the Jones was a total loss.

The ship was named for a Georgian textile magnate who founded Callaway Gardens and was a member of the U.S. Steel board of directors.

Paul Scinocca

Edgar B. Speer

The Edgar B. Speer is a unique ship in that its unloading system can only handle iron ore pellets and only at the ports of Gary, Indiana, and Conneaut, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com.

The ship was built in two sections, one in Toledo and the other in Lorain, by the American Ship Building. It was commissioned in 1980 and named for a former head of U.S. Steel.

Photo, Paul Scinocca

Great Republic

The Great Republic, formerly known as the American Republic, was built to navigate the narrow and winding Cuyahoga River. It's pilot house was placed at the extreme back end of the boat to give its officers the best view of the twisting river, according to Todd Davidson on boatnerd.com.

The ship was used to deliver the Olympic flame Detroit to Cleveland in 1996.

Paul Scinocca

Roger Blough

The Roger Blough is another biggie. It was launched in 1972 after a delay of nearly a year caused by an engine fired that resulted in the death of four workers who asphyxiated.

The ship is named for a former U.S. Steel chairman. It was built with more flexibility to withstand rough going, as George Wharton explains in boatnerd.com.

"The hull of the Roger Blough was built so that it actually undulates as the vessel works in heavy seas," according to Wharton. "This hull will heave and bend thus arching her back as she negotiates the waves. This form of construction contrasts with older, smaller vessels whose rigid hulls were constructed with two arch supports stretching nearly the full length of the vessel resulting in a 'springing' action while working heavy seas."

Paul Scinocca

Indiana Harbor

The ninth 1,000-foot freighter to be built for operation on the Great Lakes, the Indiana Harbor began service in 1979. It carried a record 69,528 net tons of iron ore through the Soo Locks in 1998, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com.

The ship also has the distinction of being the first U.S. flagged vessel to have a satellite communication system.

Paul Scinocca

American Mariner

The American Mariner was built by Bay Shipbuilding Co. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisc. Her first voyage in 1979 was from Sturgeon Bay to Escanaba, Michigan, where it picked up iron ore for shipment to Ashtabula, according to George Wharton on boatnerd.com.

Paul Scinocca

John J. Boland

This boat was built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., in 1973 by the Bay Shipbuilding Co. It was originally named for Charles E. Wilson, a former CEO of General Electric and U.S. Secretary of Defense. Owner American Steamship renamed the boat after Boland, one of the company's founders, in 2000.

Paul Scinocca

American Courage

If this ship looks familiar because it is the Fred R. White Jr., a frequent traveler up and down the Cuyahoga River. In 2006, Oglebay Norton sold the White and several other ships to American Steamship Co. and its name was changed to American Courage, according to Brian Ferguson on boatnerd.com.

JuanPDP, Creative Commons

William G. Mather

The Mather was built in 1925 and has long been out of service. It's now a museum on the Cleveland waterfront.

Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer

William G. Mather, the Lego version

If the real version of the William G. Mather doesn't catch your fancy, check out this Lego version of the real thing by Todd Wolfe on display at the Great Lakes Science Center.

Dan Morgan, for Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority

Fortunagracht

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority began a regular container service between Cleveland and Antwerp, Belgium, in 2014. One of the ships that makes the run is the Dutch-owned Fortunagracht. Unlike the lakers, the Fortunagracht carries containers and other general cargo.

Ships like the Fortunagracht that ply the oceans and also enter the Great Lakes are called "salties."

Travel up the Cuyahoga River on an ore boat (video)

Travel along with the Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder as it makes its way up the Cuyahoga River with a loan of iron ore destined for the Arcelor-Mittal steel plant.