Bloughs Final Salute

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
Guest

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Guest »

I don't wish to speculate on the Roger Blough's future, but as one who has admired her since 1975 when seeing photos of her in James P. Barry's book, "Fate of the Lakes" in the local library I hope that she will sail again. She is certainly one-of-kind in her looks, and that 41'-6" depth combined with the 105 foot beam gives her the appearance of a tough Bulldog! And she has a lot of power for her length, too! Though not as much as the Edwin H. Gott and Edgar B. Speer.

In the 1970s, the Roger Blough was instrumented in regards to the revision of the Great Lakes Strength Standard that were being studied by the USCG, Transport Canada, ABS and the SNAME. One area they were looking at was the phenomena of "Springing", especially in ships that had been recently lengthened and the entry into service of the Roger Blough and Stewart J. Cort. The Springing became more of a concern as vessels became longer as it was thought it would increase the stress on the hull girder. Studies done onboard the Edward L. Ryerson had shown that sometimes Springing stresses could exceed those arising from wave action.

Both the Roger Blough and Stewart J. Cort were built to the revised Great Lakes Strength Standard of 1968 and the vast majority of their construction used mild steel. The Blough used high strength steel in her deck, while the Cort was built with high strength steel both in her deck and parts of her hull bottom.

In regards to lengthening the Roger Blough, yes it can be done and she was designed for increased length, but, she would require strapping to increase her section modulus as increased length is governed by the former. The Classification Societies only allow a maximum length to depth ratio of 21 to 1, and some vessels lengthened in the 1970s are very close to that figure. And those are the very vessels where Springing became an increasing concern.

Again, I hope that the Roger Blough will sail again.

- Brian
Darryl

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Darryl »

The Alpena was one that was shorten - From being the SS Leon Fraser. Cement Ports are up a lot of rivers.
Bulldog

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Bulldog »

Ore!
Ohio Bob
Posts: 236
Joined: March 15, 2010, 2:14 pm
Location: Rossford, Ohio

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Ohio Bob »

Great discussion on possible work to the Blough (hopefully!)
This brought up a similar question: Has a vessel ever been shortened to allow it to service more ports? I would assume the Blough's beam and self-unloader arrangement are probably higher limiting factors.
hausen
Posts: 803
Joined: July 2, 2010, 1:36 pm

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by hausen »

guest wrote:jared you have a very good point. what would her cargo be?
It's a distinct possibility that one or two (or more) thousand footers will probably be retired in the next decade or so. Perhaps it's less of a question of what Roger Blough's cargo would be and more of a question of whether the Blough ends up in the hands of ownership who decides she should outlive some of the other footers for one reason or another. Perhaps, in very-much-conjecture scenario, the Blough's future owners try to get their hands on some other ships but cannot because the owner of those other footers would rather sell ships for scrap than sell them to a competitor. Or perhaps, again - a theoretical scenario now, the Blough's theoretical future owners see something in her that they don't see in some of the other footers (overall condition, capability in ice, etc.) and decide she's worth investing in when other footers are not.

Alternately, maybe it is interesting to think (read: speculate) outside the box when it comes to the Blough's potential to carry cargo not typically handled by current large lakers. If she were to be rebuilt with cargo holds & a main deck hatch system configured more like the new Mark W. Barker , that would open up a theoretically-refurbished Blough for the transport of extra-long wind turbine tower sections or blades, containerized cargo, or steel products, all things that no other current large lakes freighter on the U.S. side (except maybe the new Mark W. Barker is capable of handling.
hausen
Posts: 803
Joined: July 2, 2010, 1:36 pm

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by hausen »

Bulldog wrote:How would they go about raising the deck on the blough? I’ve never heard of that before but sounds interesting.
A more commonly-used term in the industry than "raising the deck" might be "deepening" or "hull deepening." I'd imagine that if deepening the Blough were a necessary part of lengthening her to a thousand-foot ship, such a deepening process might be similar to that which was carried out on William A. Reiss in 1963, on Saguenay in 1971-'72, or Frankcliffe Hall (later Halifax) in 1979-'80.
Jon Paul
Posts: 888
Joined: December 14, 2017, 8:37 pm

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Jon Paul »

The Blough is too valuable of an asset to let sit idle or scrap. If as I noted in a different thread that someone purchases the Blough with a plan to maximize its versatility it would be vastly cheaper then a new build.
It would serve no purpose to lengthen it. What would make sense is to clean out all of the old space eating and heavy unloading system. That would most likely increase its carrying capacity and even a modest increase of say 500 tons over a season adds up. With a stern deck mounted unloading boom, a whole new compliant fuel efficient power plant and generators, the Blough could carry 45k+ of pellets and also be able to haul limestone competitively. Only the footers can haul more and aren't as versatile as a rebuilt Blough would be.
VTB does very well for themselves in the pellet and limestone trade and though the Blough is 105' beam versus the VTB ATB'S 80', other than Ironville, the Blough could deliver to any dock that VTB serves with an extra 6k tons in its holds.
When you compare the cost of rebuilding the Blough versus what it cost to build the Michigan Trader and the cost of the Dirk added in, I think that the value of the Blough will be apparent at some point in the near future to one company in particular.
Guest_SB

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Guest_SB »

Bulldog wrote:How would they go about raising the deck on the blough? I’ve never heard of that before but sounds interesting.
Something like this (just a sketch, no idea what the hold arrangement of the Roger Blough is):
Attachments
Blough_Sketch_Deep.JPG
Blough_Sketch_Orig.JPG
Darryl

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Darryl »

@Bulldog: There are pictures online somewhere of raising the deck of the SS William A Reiss.
guest

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by guest »

jared you have a very good point. what would her cargo be?
Jared
Posts: 798
Joined: December 6, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Jared »

What's the point of her being converted into a footer when the footers themselves are now in trouble as their future is in doubt.
Bulldog

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Bulldog »

How would they go about raising the deck on the blough? I’ve never heard of that before but sounds interesting.
Guest_SB

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Guest_SB »

Lengthening to 1000' would only need 2 things - time and money.

The hull depth is the important dimension (bottom of keel to main deck) to determine strength of the hull girder. The draft is the measure from keel to waterline...sounds similar, but not the same.

As far as I can tell, the Blough has a depth of 41'-6" with a 105' breadth. The 1000 footers are 50' or 56', depending on the design, with 105' beam. (Presque Isle = 46' but not a 1000' hull, the Stewart Cort 49' but lower capacity than the other 1000 footers...less bending stress on the hull)

Without a detailed study, that would suggest that lengthening to 1000' would require raising the main deck by 8' or 9'.

I understand the Blough is "heavily built", which suggests thicker hull plating than minimum requirements. If this is true then the main deck raise might be able to be less but would still depend on the desired deadweight capacity.

So...can the Blough be lengthened to 1000'? Sure...but it is going to involve more than just splitting it in the middle and adding a section.
Bulldog

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Bulldog »

I thought that the blough had too shallow of a draft to lengthen her into a 1000 footer. I had commented on doing that several years ago on this post and I thought all the responses said she had too shallow of a draft.
Andrew

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Andrew »

I'm willing to bet she is more well-built than a lot of the footers that came out of BayShip back in the early 80s. I think now that CN is exiting the shipping scene, we'll see her placed in the hands of a more competent owner that will actually care about long term profit. She's an awfully big piece of steel, and replacement value would be upward of 100 million. I think the future looks better than some are saying. Same goes for the Callaway. I get these ships are old and need work, but few companies are going to drop millions on a new build until they have to. It's like my SUV. It's an 07, has to get upgrades and maintenance from time to time, but it's a better deal for me than buying a new one at 80k. And she gets the job done.
Guest

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Guest »

On her last 5 year the ship yard took a long look at the costs and possible options. Making her a footer, changing the unloading to a more conventional unloading system. The cost and the payoffs were looked at. So there is a lot of info in the hands of the decision makers. Now the damage repairs from the fire.
Guest

Re: Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Guest »

The question now is if she'll come back from the fire last winter.
Scott

Bloughs Final Salute

Unread post by Scott »

For more than a few years, through a few economic downturns, I have wondered...what about the Roger Blough? What kept this freighter alive when traditional boom self unloaders were the order of the day? How long would GLF customers continue to assist with shoreside hoppers for the Blough to unload? I get the fact that GLF has other footers that can carry big tonnage, but what about the Blough? How many more economic downturns will she survive? The Blough is one of my favorite ships to watch, but that will not save her unfortunately.
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