Hey, remember back in January when the big boat got stuck in the canal? And a bunch of other boats had to wait for a long time? And the sheer scale of everything made a huge digger look comically tiny? Yes, for one brief moment, the world was united in awe at the Kafkaesque absurdity of the situation, as the realization dawned that 2021 was apparently not going to signal a return to slow news days. Well, the Ever Given finally arrived in Rotterdam two weeks ago, so in honor of the occasion (...I guess?), we're going to talk a little bit about Great Lakes shipping.
I found the Suez Canal obstruction ordeal particularly interesting because it touched on two things for which I have an outsize love: large-scale infrastructure, and giant f**king boats. Fortunately for me, these subjects tend to go hand-in-hand, because it doesn't do to have a massive boat if you have nowhere to dock it and no way to unload it. I've sadly never had the opportunity to see a boat as big as the Ever Given in person, and despite my best efforts, I've also never managed to see the Suez Canal. (I fell asleep on the drive through the Sinai. Both times.) But luckily, there's no shortage of big boats and their attendant infrastructure right here on the Great Lakes.
I didn't consciously set out to tour the industrial shipping highlights of the Midwest, but I can't deny that a theme has emerged in my travels over the years. When I was in college, my team took regular trips to South Bend for the Midwest Fencing Championships, and I always made sure to watch out of the car windows when we passed by Gary Harbor and the Port of Indiana. So it makes sense that when I decided to visit Duluth for a week, I spent most of my time sitting by the canal as the massive lakers came and went.
The Port of Duluth is the furthest inland that oceangoing ships can reach, so it stays busy, and it sees some truly impressive vessels. The city knows this, and has made ship-watching a comfortable pastime, with a visitor's center-slash-museum that announces the vital details of arriving and departing ships, and a pretty little lawn out front for sitting. Spanning the canal nearby is Duluth's aerial lift bridge, which elevates to allow ships underneath, and lowers for motor traffic out to the peninsula. Ships often greet the bridge attendant, who responds in kind, with a horn salute: most commonly, long-short-short, or the Captain's Salute.
During my visit, I had the good luck to see the arrival of the Paul R. Tregurtha, which at 1,013ft 6in is the current "Queen of the Lakes":
Paul R. Tregurtha transits the Duluth Ship Canal.
Paul R. Tregurtha with the aerial lift bridge in raised position.
If you're curious how Paul R. Tregurtha compares to the Ever Given, you're not the only one. Here are the numbers:
Paul R. Tregurtha:
Length: 1,013.5 ft (308.9 m)
Beam: 105 ft (32 m)
Depth: 56 ft (17 m)
Ever Given:
Length: 1,312 ft 2 in (399.94 m)
Beam: 192 ft 11 in (58.8 m)
Depth: 107 ft 11 in (32.9 m)
So the Ever Given is about one-third again longer, but roughly twice as wide and twice as tall. Bigger boat, indeed.
Ships like Paul R. Tregurtha call at ports all over the Great Lakes. If they're coming to or from Duluth, or any other port on Lake Superior, that usually means transiting the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Since 1855, locks at the Soo have given ships a way around the 21-ft elevation change in the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.
By 2019, Great Lakes maritime infrastructure had explicitly made its way into my travel plans. On a driving trip that looped around Lake Michigan and made stops at not one, but two Great Lakes shipwreck museums, I also made a pilgrimage to the Soo Locks. Sault Ste. Marie is a pretty town that I wish I'd had the chance to spend more time in, and it clearly caters to boat nerds; across from the Locks complex, I spotted a souvenir shop selling t-shirts of the biggest lakers, Paul R. Tregurtha included. Reader, I was tempted.
But no, I had plans to get up to Whitefish Point before the end of the day, so I passed through security (because it's federal property, the Army Corps of Engineers keeps a close watch on the place) and into the visitors' center. A small museum onsite has information about the locks, their history, and their construction, and of course there's a viewing tower outside:
The Soo Locks.
I got to see a small personal craft transit the locks, but the next big boat wasn't due for almost two hours. I decided, with no small amount of internal conflict, that I'd have to push on for the day, but I still plan to go back and spend several quiet days watching giant boats come and go. In the meantime, I content myself with live webcams from Duluth Harbor and the Soo Locks, and dream about more Rust Belt road trips.
All photos by Megan Wells.