Boatnerd Discussion Forum

I thought so too. I swear I remember the head cook Louis kish down in the hold firing her as a coal passer and 2 firemen missed the boat in Green Bay. Got drunk at kropsies just up the street from the terminal but🤷could be wrong. Maybe it had stokers but someone still had to manage the boilers. I’m trying to get accurate info to put a know it all on Tik tok in his place😂

I understood that the Boardman/Harriman was hand-stoked while she burned coal, until 1978 when she was converted to burn oil. I may be wrong.

The Harriman was not hand shoveled but I can't remember if it was coal or oil. I was a wheelsman on there in 1978. Wow was that hard to get any cement out of the cargo holds. Always seemed to take a day or two to unload. From underneath we banged away on the sides. Also we climbed into the cargo holds and used hoes to pull down the cement toward the gates. The accommodations would have made a good museum display. Somewhere I still have a picture of my roommate Art with his morning coffee cup full of vodka.
When you sailed in 1974 there were not many hand shoveled ships left. The Kinsman Independent lost it's steering in the Rock Cut and was a total loss in 1973 (I got off the wheel 15 minutes before that happened). The Joe Morrow may have still been going in 1974. Both hand-shoveled and both topped out about 9 miles per hour.

Was she hand shoveled or did it have stokers? Sailed it in ‘74 but can’t remember.