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Did the ships operating for Fednav Lakes Services carry only military cargoes or did they also carry commercial loads?

Any ship can be brought under the U.S. flag provided the proper duties are paid; however, as they were not built in a U.S. yard they could not trade between two U.S. ports; they had to load in the U.S. and discharge in a foreign country or vice versa. Companies do this to capture U.S. military cargo that is required to be on U.S. flagged and crewed ships.

For example, right now both Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk operate ships on U.S. flag container trades that were built overseas. See Philadelphia Express and Maersk Pittsburgh for examples.

During the mid-1980s, the Federal Lakes and Federal Seaway operated in the Seaway for a U.S. subsidiary of the Fednav group. Did these ships operate under the U.S. flag and if they did, how were they allowed to do so after being constructed in a Canadian shipyard (Port Weller)?