Denny wrote:In adding to all of this talk, I also seem to recall as well that at the DTE Dock in St. Clair or the St. Clair Power Plant/Recors Edison I heard once where sometimes an average 10-12 hour unload can be as much as 24 hours or longer! There are many reasons for this but I seem to recall once that the conveyor system at St. Clair can only handle so much coal and tons at a time. I just wonder if it is that way at other power plants that receive coal? I know way up in Taconite Harbor, Minnesota at the Power Plant there it takes a very long time to unload coal more than a day in fact. So, they must have a very slow conveyor system or something as well that does not handle and move coal very fast for some reason?
Normally the delay is within the conveyor system. You can show up to one of the docks expecting to see your boat at the dock, only to see it anchored because the boat before it is waiting on the dock to fix an issue at the conveyor system. Also, the conveyor systems are much longer runs on the docks than in the ships, which is a good reason to scale them back slightly
In adding to all of this talk, I also seem to recall as well that at the DTE Dock in St. Clair or the St. Clair Power Plant/Recors Edison I heard once where sometimes an average 10-12 hour unload can be as much as 24 hours or longer! There are many reasons for this but I seem to recall once that the conveyor system at St. Clair can only handle so much coal and tons at a time. I just wonder if it is that way at other power plants that receive coal? I know way up in Taconite Harbor, Minnesota at the Power Plant there it takes a very long time to unload coal more than a day in fact. So, they must have a very slow conveyor system or something as well that does not handle and move coal very fast for some reason?
I don't know if it's the case anymore, but when I sailed the Presque Isle would unload into the ore, for lack of a better word, trough that extended the length of the dock at the Gary Works. I'm sure with the huletts long gone now it's strictly at the hopper, but on occasion they'd be unloading behind us when we were under the huletts. And I know they would go into the North Dock, South Works and do the same. There was at least one trip we had to lay inside the Calumet Harbor breakwall and wait for them to unload. I think at the North Dock it was sometimes a slower process because the bridge rigs would try to keep the trough clean, but if they couldn't keep up the PI would have to shift down the dock to where the trough was empty. There was no hopper at S. Chicago.
Thanks Guest for clearing that information up as that is what I was going to put in my earlier post and forgot to mention that part as far as the Cort unloading in Burns Harbor. The same can be said and told for Gary, Indiana with the footers Gott, Speer along with the Presque Isle. They all unload into the hopper at Gary Works in Gary, Indiana. It depends and varies there as well as far as just how long of an unload they can do. Like Burns Harbor, Gary also has a hopper system that can only do so much at a time and per hour as well. I believe Conneaut is the same way when they unload there and I thought I heard that USS/GL Works in Ecorse is that way as well?
To answer your first question. Yes, the Cort does unload iron ore pellets in Burns Harbor, Indiana at the former Bethlehem Steel Plant and Dock. It is now known as the Arcelor Mittal Plant still in Burns Harbor, Indiana but Arcelor Mittal took over Bethlehem a few years ago. In answer to your second question of how long it takes to unload the Cort? It varies because her unloading system is very different from the traditional self-unloading laker. She has a short shuttle boom that extends out to a hopper at Burns Harbor where she unloads her Taconite Ore Pellets into. I have kept track of most of her unloads this year and at times, it takes close to 24 hours but not all of the time. So, again it varies on the unload time as far as how long it takes. I hope that this information has helped you out.
When it comes to boat watching one of the basics you learn is the Cort always loads in Superior, Wisconsin and always unloads in Burns Harbor, Indiana. Burns Harbor is a steelmaking facility. Except for some ore that comes from the Seaway, Almost all the ore that goes to Burns Harbor is loaded on Lake Superior.