BoatNerd.Com Discussion Boards

I just saw this thread (Its now March). I was told several months ago (on a Facebook page) that the assets of Bearco Marine are still around. The current owner had to retire (which lead to closure) and is trying to sell the company. Ideally to someone who would take it over and continue the product ...

The answer to your question is in the PVSA FAQs you cite. They are not breaking the law. The act specifically says cannot transport passengers between US ports. If a voyage begins and ends in the same port then they have not transported passengers from one US port to another. Yes, if a passenger di...

Both vessels were built by Atlantic Marine Corporation at Jacksonville and are now part of the merger of American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines. They were renamed last December. Both are eligible for reflagging to American registry under the Jones Act, so that is another possibil...

American Queen Voyages is advertising two 16 day round-trip cruises this June out of Chicago. The scheduled vessel is the Ocean Navigator (former Victory II). https://www.victorycruiselines.com/cruises/lakeside-treasures/ Considering that the vessel is foreign flagged (Bahamas), I'm curious as to ho...

Strictly a guess on my part: perhaps it is moving steel coils. Per archived AIS observations, it shifted docks in Windsor (ADM to Morterm) on March 4th, then left for Nanticoke in March 6th. Spent several days in Nanticoke then arrived at Monroe on March 10th or 11th. Now apparently headed to the So...

A footer could not deliver to Dofasco in Hamilton, but they do currently deliver to Stelco in Nanticoke and there's no reason a Canadian-flag ship couldn't do that same route. As far as Algoma Steel in the Soo, the Indiana Harbor made a delivery there last year and I believe carried only a partial ...

Good question. The best I can tell from online sources is that everything is still idled. The US Steel/Kobe partnership ended in 1999 and the mill was split into two entities, with US Steel retaining the pipe mill and Republic Steel gaining the blast furnaces and bar mill. In 2013 Republic put a new...

Cliffs also announced Friday that it was shutting down one of its coke producing plants. (all 4 batteries at Mountain State Carbon in Follansbee WV on the Ohio River.) Which to me signals that Cliffs sees a softening demand for blast furnace feed stock (iron ore, coke and limestone) and a bigger dem...

George Hilton's book "Great Lakes Car Ferries" details numerous collisions. One of the more famous is the sinking of the car ferry Ashtabula after a collisioon with the steamer Ben Moreell in 1958. There were also lots of incidents on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers.

Every ice breaker is unique and ice conditions constantly change, so its hard to compare one icebreaker to another. But here are capacities I have seen in various publications over the years. Many were taken from brochures that the ships handed out for public tours. Minimum depth of solid plate ice ...

Each company has multiple "assumed names" that they can legally do business under. "Soo Maritime Services Inc." (Interlake's Delaware-based company incorporated last May) has 11 assumed names, so they can do business under 12 names total. Most (if not all) of these were recently ...

I don't know the answer, but here is some information I was able to find: The government of Ontario website for business entities lists both as currently active corporations. No details are provided publicly as to owners, agents or even addresses. IMS dates to 1989 (other sources say 1983) and MRC t...

The old Mackinaw was built with a stern notch, allowing them to winch a following vessel right up tight for close escort work. Did they do this often? Did the trailing vessel use her engines to assist or were they just towed through the ice? I wonder why this wasn't used more - too time-consuming t...

The Grand Haven was re-flagged in Honduras when it started ferrying rail cars to Cuba in 1946 for the West Indian Fruit and Steamship Company. The Bowling Green database shows that it maintained a Honduran registry when it came back to the lakes, including its short- lived service ferrying trucks ac...

At one point, about 10 years ago, Google was developing their own service to track ships via AIS signals received via satellite. They actually started sharing some data with certain nations to track rogue fishing vessels (provided they were transmitting AIS of course). Rumors were that Google would ...

To my knowledge most, if not all, of the vessels loading at Brevort have been loading sand at the Sand Products facility. You can tell these are sand loads because they typically go to the same docks in Hamilton (Algoma) and Buffalo (Grand River). I assume then that Graymont and Sand Products are u...

Does anyone have any information about how much limestone is being shipped out of Brevort and what vessels are involved? A few years ago Graymont built a limestone loader there. This March 2021 aerial photo shows the new loader. Trucks unload at the top of the hill on a loop just off US-2. From ther...

Isn't this the newbuild from Fraser? Anyone know what it is doing at Bay Ship?

Back in September CN announced that (in response to investor concerns) it was adopting a goal of lowering its operating ratio to 57% from the 65.4% it achieved in 2020. And it noted that its non-rail assets, which include the fleet, a trucking company and a freight forwarding company) are responsibl...

wasnt there going to be built something to do with the steel industry in the ashtabula area, i recall reading or hearing about it. or did it all fall through?? Petmin USA (a subsidiary of the South African Petmin Ltd.) is planning a 500,000 ton per year capacity nodular pig iron plant in Ashtabula....