Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Denny wrote:Another incident involving an ASC 1,000 footer if some remember and recall, involved the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. back during the late 2000s when she laid up in Duluth. At that time, they laid up at Hallet Docks. They struck an object thus resulting in flooding in the engine room and this caused the vessel I think to sink a little bit due to the flooding in the engine room area? The point is, because of this incident the Mac did not return to service until early May! It seems that I recall this incident back in around the 2008 shipping season possibly? Surely somebody will have and know more on this. I do know and remember it created a major mess for both ASC, the McCarthy and Hallet Docks. Since that time and incident, “No ASC ship has laid up at the Hallet Docks in Duluth since!” Needless to say the cost and repairs to fix the Wally Mac if you will was very extensive and costly well into the millions. I’m sure that ASC really felt the pinch and sting if you will since the McCarthy was out of service until May of that season. Again I’m sure someone will have more here.

Guest wrote:

hausen wrote:In the long run there might prove to be a significant disparity between the lifespans of the thousand footers. It is often noted that some of the footers are "built like tanks" and those comments typically seem to insinuate ships like the Gott, Speer, and Cort. Those ships might prove to last a long, long time depending on the state of demand for iron ore products in the Great Lakes region.

On the other hand there is a thousand footer that even almost twenty years ago was rumored to have surprisingly significant structural deficiencies and wear in her cargo holds. Sure enough a number of years later she suffered a bulkhead collapse and was laid up in Superior for something like a year before demand for cargo led to her repair and reactivation. Ships like that would likely be among the first footers to meet the end of their lifespans.

Which one suffered the bulkhead collapse?

Guest wrote:
Which one suffered the bulkhead collapse?

hausen wrote:In the long run there might prove to be a significant disparity between the lifespans of the thousand footers. It is often noted that some of the footers are "built like tanks" and those comments typically seem to insinuate ships like the Gott, Speer, and Cort. Those ships might prove to last a long, long time depending on the state of demand for iron ore products in the Great Lakes region.

On the other hand there is a thousand footer that even almost twenty years ago was rumored to have surprisingly significant structural deficiencies and wear in her cargo holds. Sure enough a number of years later she suffered a bulkhead collapse and was laid up in Superior for something like a year before demand for cargo led to her repair and reactivation. Ships like that would likely be among the first footers to meet the end of their lifespans.

Guest wrote:The footers will survive with no need to replace as there in fresh water so unlike the Canadian ships there steel is excellent, usually when there was a building boom on the Lakes new more modern ships were replacing older less efficient ones i.e. 20 thousand ton ships being replaced with 26 thousand ton ships quite a bit when one ship has 50 trips now a new footer considering cost to build really no difference in size or tonnage maybe again 5+ thou tons you can repower existing footers with same power plants you'd put in new builds , so long story short I don't think you'd get enough bang for your buck building new footers to replace existing ones, only way new ones are built would be need for much more tonnage 10's of millions and or a government program subsidizing shipbuilding

Guest010 wrote:All of the Seaway size vessels can fit through the Mac...its the same size as all the locks below...it's just the USACE policy that they have to go through the Poe???