Cleveland Activity

[beecher]

Hi Shirl,
Have lots of fun taking them. No word on the Yacht owner.

The Naval Academy search for T. McPhee is tough. I searched this whole section and found nothing:
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000500848
It does not add up.

My Honey's cat could care less about the sword or the boats out on the river. The American Courage is sailing past the window right now and she just lays there right under the window revealing this view.

She has three legs (1-torn off in a radiator fan when a kitten), Hence her name being Fanny, she is 13y/o, always hoppy to see us, and guess what her middle name is; wait for it, Eileen. lol.

Anyway, it is the tug Duluth that is part of the jacks/breakwall project. The gold coast is on the horizon:

Towing here:

The Buffalo was on the shuttle earlier this week. The ridge on the horizon is in Parma. It is part of the leading edge of the secondary snow belt of lake effect snows. Many times we get an inch or two downtown and the snow belts get buried a short distance away.

The crib at sunset here. Usually lots of fishing boats out there. Not so much so far this summer. I have not heard much on the fishing reports in the lake or the real important topic of how the garden tomatoes are coming along!

Cheers!

[shirlohio]

Another neat bunch of pix!
Have you found the owner of that pricey yacht$$ She's a beauty!S

[beecher]

The Jacks are still being shipped in steady. I guessing the Hurricane Sandy Fed recovery money is covering much of this.

There was a nice Yacht that came in last week. Who owns thi$ ?

The pipe is running constantly.

The river traffic crossed paths with me last week.

Cheers!

[beecher]

Shuttles are steady.
The lake level is matching old high marks of the 90's.
I was listening to the radio the other day and it was reported that Cleveland Thermal was sold and they were to convert to natural gas from coal/coke. Gas is dirt cheap now.
The McPhee search has been very difficult. The "T" does not add up.
Cheers!

[beecher]

Hi Dave,
The show was fun. One of the items I took was a relative's dress sword handed down through my Dad's side of the family to me. It was from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Md. It is a Hortsmann Model#1852 dress sword manufactured after 1893.

The appraiser I got was a good one that I have seen on the show. He stated he thought it to be dated right about 1900. He also looked me straight in the eye and told me to get the relative's military information. I Looked around and I am not really sure the best way to track him down. Anyone know where to ask?

From what I know, and what I assume, he was a graduate and taught math there later on. We just don't know that much about that line in the family. Many of these folks were buried at sea and there is no grave info to dig up just for starters.
Here is the inscription on the Sword:

My search has started!

We were not selected to go on a TV interview but we were in the backgrounds of some. The Keno twins were very animated over at the furniture section. There was all sorts of stuff people were bringing in.

We capped the day by chowing down at Sokolowski's University Inn.

Thanks for asking & cheers!

[Big Wave Dave]

That's too bad about Antique roadshow not having many maritime antiques relevant to Cleveland/Lake Erie. I tried to get tickets to take a Bronze C Lyle Gun supposedly from Fairport Lifesaving Service, but the tickets were going for $200 each!!
What did you take? Will you make it on the show?

[Paul A]

Thanks for the updates and lookabout beecher, it's always appreciated!
Paul

[beecher]

The Sam Laud is on the shuttle now.

There was a fire in a packaging manufacturing plant last week. It started at 3:30 am. We all woke up to it on the news. Total loss. 12 different fire departments responded. You could see the smoke for many miles.

Manistee at dusk:

The old CPD boat, Delaney, sits. They found someone wanting to make it home and chased them off.

We also attended the Cleveland Antiques Roadshow yesterday. Took a couple of items. There was very little maritime memorabilia other than war military items.

[beecher]

The world renowned Cleveland Orchestra performed a free concert from The southern edge of Mall B last Wednesday night. They capped it off with the star spangled banner followed with a fireworks display. The area was packed with people young and old. Awesome performance!

The salty ships are still rotating in and out strong. Here are two of four that are in the Port of Cleveland now. They shot the annual 4th of July fireworks display from dock 20 last night. That is near the silos in the background. The salty whistles were saluting the display in concert with each other the whole way through it.

The pipe will occupy these lots well into the Browns season displacing many Browns fans' tailgating patterns. We will see how that all shakes out.
The trucks are continuous and can haul two pipes at a time on a flat bed to southern Ohio.

Hope all had a safe and memorable 4th of July!
Cheers!

[beecher]

The Cuyahoga on the Cuyahoga.

The Iowa was on the tow.

Here she is passing under the recently rebuilt Columbus Rd Bridge.

She flies the flag: "Don't give up the ship"

She passes by very quietly every time.

Cheers!

[shirlohio]

Looks/sounds like a lot of activity and excitement up your way, Beecher. Thanks for the pix and news.

Cheers!

[beecher]

Thanks Mr. Mike! That makes a whole lot of sense.

These are the Gtugs that were on the on the Algoway tow the other day. I think they were the Iowa and the Illinois.

Several months ago on a Sunday evening around dusk I went down to the parking lot below the lower tug in the picture where that car is. I went there to get a picture of a boat passing by. While I was there I heard sounds like someone was chopping wood. I thought it to be very odd. I got my shots and came back up for dinner several minutes later. Just as I sat down, all the power downtown was blinking wildly. I went to the window and saw a rolling fire at the substation at the base of the cement silos pictured ahead of the lead tug. I called in the fire and got back to dinner.
A short time later the light bulb went on over my head. Those were scrapper thieves I heard chopping at the substation. Substations all over the county had been hit. LE had been on the lookout but yet to catch them.

More Salty action:

The fishing has been light by the crib as you can see only a few boats out there. The Mayflies and Midges have subsided here.

Cheers!

[pcolachap]

Hi Beecher! The St. Clair is anchored out because they give priority to the "river boats" running shuttles. Last winter the Joe Block had the same experience waiting for a Boland boat to complete 3 or 4 trips up the "crooked creek". Regards, Mike

[beecher]

The maritime activity is busier here this year than I can recall over the last decade.

The Manitowoc and the American Courage are playing do-si-do in the river channel now by the W3rd St bridge right now. This is where they passed:

The navigable lower Cuyahoga seems to have an insatiable appetite for materials. The flow of ore has been steady. The piles are high at Whiskey Island. The Sam Laud is on the wall there now. The St Clair has been a few miles outside the breakwall for the last 36 to 48 hours. I wonder what they are up to?

[hayhugh3]

They look like what the German's put out on the beaches at Normandy. Probably for fish habitat.

[beecher]

Thanks Guest, I have caught the Cuyahoga at many different angles.

The USACE are working on the breakwall reinforcement. With these concrete do-hickeys.

They are trucking them in as fast as they are barging them out and placing them. I was down in Valley View last week at Allega Cement and saw a huge stockpile of them. We have many trucks in and out of the port of Cleveland carrying these and then the trucks carrying the pipeline piping to southern Ohio. They are trucking the pipe seven days a week.

[Guest]

Nice pictures Beecher! Third picture you ask if it's the Saginaw. Fleetmate to the Saginaw, it's the Cuyahoga.

[beecher]

I found an old data card with some pictures from last year:
They floated the Columbus road bridge and installed it successfully at the end of last year. It works well.

This one looks like the Saginaw?

The Channel was closed for a few days last year for construction of the Inner Belt Bridge over it. Here are six cranes over the river working in concert.

The Algoway has two G-tugs escorting her up river now.

Cheers!

[beecher]

I went by the Port of Cleveland the other day and noticed an obvious void in the Port. There were no salt water ships. We are so used to seeing the activity now.

The Republican National Convention is here next summer. They are fast at work making improvements all over downtown. One is pictured here. It will be a new Hilton Inn connected to the new Cleveland Convention Center.

The river showed traffic out the window today. Here is St Mary's Cement's Sea Eagle with the Iowa on the tow. Tailing them is the Tug Thomas R Morrish shuttling a dredge scow. The Holiday is waiting for them to pass. He is probably going fishing. The Rapid Transit train in the foreground runs from tower City to the Airport.

Cheers!

[shirlohio]

More neat pix, Beecher! :)