Steamer Sewell Avery, U.S. Steel

[hugh3]

Well there were a couple of deviations that I remember: Captain Joe Burk being Irish had a Shamrock painted on the stair shield going up to the pilot House and also the tip of the steering pole was painted green instead of red.

Then there was the time when the Queen of England and her yacht was visiting for the opening of the Seaway. The coast Guard instructed Captain Kidd to take down the skull and cross bones flag that he was flying from the top of the Pilot House.

[ML]

Some guy's sailing take up hobbies while on board. Could be someone who sailed on the Avery at one time, made the board and donated it to the museum. Or maybe someone just made it and donated it. Like Hugh and Garbear said, and I sailed for USS/GLF and my dad was a Captain, they were black and white. USS didn't deviate from their color scheme and I painted just about everything one them back then, sans the engine room.

[garbear]

Not really relevant to the question about the engines, but since the Sewell Avery has come up again, I'm still curious about the very ornate and varnished name board from the Sewell Avery on display in the Duluth Marine Museum. I wrote a post about it last December and no one posted any info on it back then.

I believe that the name board you are referring to is just a figment of someone's imagination. USS had a color scheme for its boats right down to the hand rails (green) and ladders (petrol) and it was strictly aheared to. Never saw a name board like you described. Always white with black lettering.

In my 9 yrs. with USS I never saw anything but the white with black lettering.

[hugh3]

Not really relevant to the question about the engines, but since the Sewell Avery has come up again, I'm still curious about the very ornate and varnished name board from the Sewell Avery on display in the Duluth Marine Museum. I wrote a post about it last December and no one posted any info on it back then.

I believe that the name board you are referring to is just a figment of someone's imagination. USS had a color scheme for its boats right down to the hand rails (green) and ladders (petrol) and it was strictly aheared to. Never saw a name board like you described. Always white with black lettering.

[A J]

Hi Roger, those engines were actually two, double expansion engines joined together in line. A couple writings about them indicate early on they experienced the pistons scoring the cylinder walls caused by higher steam temperatures and lubrication break down. Also, three or four of the boats later had slight reduction done to the cylinder sizes. What other chronic problems there were, must be answered by someone who knows much more. Unfortunately for the E.G. Grace, engine problems made her tie up for good at the end of 1976. She was the last of her class to come out and the first to be sent to scrap.

Hope this helps,

Alex

[Ray]

Not really relevant to the question about the engines, but since the Sewell Avery has come up again, I'm still curious about the very ornate and varnished name board from the Sewell Avery on display in the Duluth Marine Museum. I wrote a post about it last December and no one posted any info on it back then.

All the photos I've seen of the Avery show a standard white with black lettered name board like all the other USS boats. Just wondering where the very ornate name board on display in Duluth came from or where it was attached to the boat. (If it was.) Thanks.

[BigRiver]

Thanks Jay and Dick.

[Jay Bascom]

Roger: We wrote the GRACE up as Feature No. 351 in the March 2014 issue of The Scanner. Details of the sisters in the class and of the unusual machinery were given there.

[Guest]

The Champlain did have a Lentz-Poppet 4 cylinder 2,500 ihp double compound engine.

[Guest]

Roger, The Champlain was also of this type of Maritimer, but only assume its engine was the same as the others.
Dick Wicklund

[BigRiver]

Seeking info on this vessel, now being used as a dock face at Soo, Ont., for an article I am writing on her history.

How many vessels (categorized as L6-S-A1) were built with the Lentz Poppet 4-cylinder compound engines? Sewell Avery, E.G. Grace, J Burton Ayers (now Cuyahoga), John T. Hutchinson, Thomas Wilson. Any others?

I have heard the Lentz engines were problematic. Anyone have details on what their deficiencies were?

Thanks!