Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

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Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Pat » November 6, 2017, 1:53 pm

I don't think the Blough ever had a bubbler system. The holes you see in the bow area are slots for "plug welds". They are used to weld the T-1 outer steel plate to the inner steel plate. I know they tried bubblers on a couple of the former Super boats in the mid-Seventies as an experiment.

Duluth Guest wrote:All of these years and the countless times I have seen the Clarke, Callaway and Anderson, I have never noticed that addition to the boat deck. All three of them received the same modification. So it begs the question, why was it added?

In regards to the Blough being a "good ice boat" I recall that in addition to the heavier plating, she also had a pneumatic "bubbler system" that pumps air through holes in the skin of her bow from the stem to the shoulders. Does this system still function or has it been de-commissioned and/or removed? If you zoom in on the photo below, you can see the holes quite clearly.

Image

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Jim1000 » November 5, 2017, 8:25 pm

Thanks, Garbear! I can see the Donner parked ahead of the Munson, right up in the harbor corner where she sat for so many years.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by garbear » November 5, 2017, 6:57 pm

Found one more from Jones Island. I know there are a few more. Have to keep digging.
Attachments
Munson still with telescoping hatches.
Munson still with telescoping hatches.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by garbear » November 4, 2017, 11:59 am

Like I've posted a couple times the addition was made on the Clarke after we collided with the McCurdy on Lake St. Clair. The tanks for the fire suppression system were located in the starboard tunnel aft. The collision knocked most of the tanks over. I'll assume the Callaway and Anderson had the same configuration. Better be safe than sorry.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Duluth Guest » November 3, 2017, 2:19 pm

All of these years and the countless times I have seen the Clarke, Callaway and Anderson, I have never noticed that addition to the boat deck. All three of them received the same modification. So it begs the question, why was it added?

In regards to the Blough being a "good ice boat" I recall that in addition to the heavier plating, she also had a pneumatic "bubbler system" that pumps air through holes in the skin of her bow from the stem to the shoulders. Does this system still function or has it been de-commissioned and/or removed? If you zoom in on the photo below, you can see the holes quite clearly.

Image

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Jim1000 » November 3, 2017, 11:17 am

I look forward to seeing your other photos, Garbear, and appreciate the digging you're doing.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by garbear » November 3, 2017, 10:00 am

Jim1000 wrote:I always go with the testimony of the man who was there when it happened! 1975 it is!
Jim, don't ever do that. At 65 the memory isn't good, but I know that room on the boat deck was added after we had our collision with the McCurdy in 1974. Still have to dig and find the rest of my Jones Island photos. Try to have them by Monday.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Jim1000 » November 2, 2017, 7:38 pm

I always go with the testimony of the man who was there when it happened! 1975 it is!

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Guest » November 2, 2017, 7:17 pm

The Roger Blough is considered to be a good ice boat, but it depends on how old the ice is. The older the ice, the harder it is because it had all winter to solidify. That's the reason why the Blough was damaged in the spring ice of 2014. Heavy rafting, especially ice packed to the lake bottom can give any freighter a problem. That's what happened to the Roger Blough in February 1979, when she became trapped in ice outside Conneaut harbour for a few days.

US. Steel added additional strengthening and higher-strength steel (T-1A) to the older vessels participating in the Winter Navigation Demonstration program of the '70s along the ice belt from the stem of the bow to aft of the shoulders.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Guest » November 1, 2017, 8:41 pm

Jim1000 wrote:Garbear, I'm pretty sure this must be the fit-out in spring, 1974, as the McCollough laid-up at the grain elevator over the winter.
\

The addition to the boat deck was done after we had our collision with the McCurdy. That was 1974. Like I've said before the memory isn't good anymore, but I stick with 1975.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Guest » November 1, 2017, 8:04 pm

Nice pictures of a nearly new, Roger Blough. So is the Blough a good boat for operating during the winter ice season?

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Jim1000 » November 1, 2017, 7:13 pm

Garbear, I'm pretty sure this must be the fit-out in spring, 1974, as the McCollough laid-up at the grain elevator over the winter.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Jim1000 » November 1, 2017, 7:00 pm

Those are great shots, Garbear! I wonder if that plating going on the Fraser was another layer for reinforcement on the year-round sailing attempts of the time?

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by garbear » November 1, 2017, 12:09 pm

First time I've looked at the photos enlarged. Probably was fit-out 1975. Looking at the boat deck on the Clarke you can see part of the cabins with red lead on them. That was an addition after the Clarke and Merle M. McCurdy came together on Lake St. Clair in Dec. 1974. The CO2 fire system was in the aft end of the starboard tunnel and the collision knocked over most of the tanks. The system was then moved to the new room on the boat deck.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by garbear » November 1, 2017, 10:39 am

Jim-Know this really isn't what you were looking for, but here are some photos from Jones Island, either 1973 or '74 fitout. The boat with the steam up at the Continental elevator is the C.H. McCullough Jr. Early days I had a Kodak Instamatic camera. I do have other photos from Jones Island. Might take a few days to find them.
Attachments
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Replacing plating on the Fraser.
Replacing plating on the Fraser.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.
Jones Island.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Guest II » October 30, 2017, 4:47 pm

I am in agreement with Mr. Lafferty. It is definitely the Donner and she was bought to serve as a floating scrap storage and transfer vessel for Miller Compressing. My dad brought her up from Toledo for that purpose. Miller also bought the Cambria intended for similar purposes but resold her to somebody in Baltimore the year after they bought her.

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by William Lafferty » October 30, 2017, 4:07 pm

The C&O slip in the west side of the river had been out of service for over 10 years according th Hilton's Great Lakes Car Ferries.
To handle increased auto traffic the C & O built an auto ramp at slip 3 at Ludington in early summer 1960 and another at Jones Island completed that fall to load cars on the spar decks of the Badger and Spartan. This had been done at slip 2 at Ludington and at the Manitowoc C&NW slip in 1955 to service the City of Midland 41. The Maple Street slip was abandoned in 1960.

It was very difficult to enter or leave the slip, especially if a boat was unloading at the Milwaukee Solvay Coke & Gas Company dock just north of the slip. It's been awhile, but as I recall in arriving a line was dropped at the end of the slip's south pilings and the vessel pivoted astern into the apron. Leaving the biggest challenge was straightening up to pass the C&NW swing bridge (built in 1898 and still with us). The bridge caused delays because the tracks served the railroad's mainline out of its Milwaukee depot, so the C & O was more than willing to consolidate at Jones Island.

Here is an Erhardt Peters photographic that graphically shows the congestion at that point in the Kinnickinnic River, taken from the Pere Marquette 21 in the 1930s as it approached Maple Street. Milwaukee Solvay is to the right, and the GT slip to the left. The congestion there wasn't any better in the late 1950s as I recall.
Attachments
KK  CNW.jpeg

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by jim1000 » October 30, 2017, 2:01 pm

Thank you very much for that attached photo and the lead to search for more aerials. I have several aerials of the harbor from that time period but none from the first half of 1976, which is very useful as I am trying to date peripheral subjects through the presence of certain boats, such as the Blough, the Presque Isle, the Robert C. Stanley, which I believe is the outboard boat in the middle rafting. This has helped immeasurably, sir.

Jim

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Mr Link » October 30, 2017, 1:07 pm

William Lafferty wrote:
Interesting to see the C & O's old Maple Street slip used for barge mooring.
I don't mean to hijack this thread about the Blough, but those railroad slips look like they took a lot of skill to back into. Here is another photo from May 3, 1971 with a boat backing into the GTW slips. The C&O slip in the west side of the river had been out of service for over 10 years according th Hilton's Great Lakes Car Ferries.
Attachments
MilwaukeeMay3-1971.jpg

Re: Roger Blough Fit-Out dates

by Russ » October 30, 2017, 11:30 am

I took the photo of the William H. Donner in Milwaukee with the four tin stackers in the background. The date of that photo was 1972.

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