Great Lakes Auto Carriers

[Jon Paul]

Here are some photos my father and I took of CSL package freighters with deck loads of trucks or autos.
We did not take the photo of the whaleback J T Reid but it is from my collection.
The photo of the T J McCarthy shows a more detailed look at the decking added to the spare deck and would lead one to belive it changed its stability from its original design.

[Jared]

The same way they are loaded and unloaded today. A large ramp is installed and the autos are driven on and off. For the vehicles in the hold, there were usually 2 large elevators (look at the Sonoma below) that the vehicles were driven on and extracted. For smaller vessels that occasionally carried cars (such as the canallers), either a ship or shore mounted crane would lower a platform attached to 4 anchor points at the corners and then be lowered into the hold where the car was driven on and extracted.

The Senator had 2 large doors cut into the side of her hull, and the Lakeland being a package/ passenger steamer also had large openings in the hull to drive in.

[Guest]

The following is mainly concerned with the ships that were dedicated car carriers with car decks added and not bulk carriers that carried cars as deck cargo. Did these modified ships require any special ballasting to address the weight of the vehicles and car decks impact upon stability? Or was permanent ballast installed as a precaution against the potential of capsizing? Even though automobiles would weigh considerable less than bulk cargoes for the same volume of space the carrying of several of them high above the spar deck must have had some impact upon the ship's stability. Were these ships ran at only certain times of the year or at least in a manner to avoid any rough weather to minimize the chances of shipping damage? How were the cars secured to the deck to prevent shifting/damage?

[RCRVRP]

dont forget csl package freighters quite often took a deckload of new cars from windsor to thunder bay

You are correct and I have several nice photos of CSL package freighters carrying autos and trucks that I will post tomorrow.
The original question on this thread however was about how regular bulk freighters were modified to carry autos and not what types of boats carried them.
Here is a photo from my collection that I posted on another thread recently of the Renvoyle with a nice deck load.

How were they loaded and unloaded?

[Guest]

Just to add that many of the auto carriers that were converted in the 20s and 30s were converted back to bulk-carriers during World War 2 due to the high demand for iron ore and other raw materials. After the war, nearly all were converted back to auto carriers.

[Jon Paul]

dont forget csl package freighters quite often took a deckload of new cars from windsor to thunder bay

You are correct and I have several nice photos of CSL package freighters carrying autos and trucks that I will post tomorrow.
The original question on this thread however was about how regular bulk freighters were modified to carry autos and not what types of boats carried them.
Here is a photo from my collection that I posted on another thread recently of the Renvoyle with a nice deck load.

[badger]

dont forget csl package freighters quite often took a deckload of new cars from windsor to thunder bay

[Jon Paul]

How did the the bulk carriers modified into carrying automobiles handle after their conversions? It seems that the cars would have been considerably lighter than bulk cargoes such as ore, coal, stone, and grain these ships were originally designed to carry. Did these ships need any structural modifications in addition to the auto decks and ramps to operate in their new roles?

As mentioned by Jared, boats modified for car hauling were usually older and smaller boats. Some had extra decking added above the spare deck as the attached photos show. These boats also had limited horsepower which was common for boats in the 400' foot range unless they had been built for towing consort barges.
Even fully loaded with autos the freeboard was an issue in high winds.
In the case of the City of Bangor, the boat became unmanageable in the high winds and seas and due to the lack of hp, they were unable to maintain headway and their steering failed as they attempted to turn around and seek shelter south of Keweenaw Point.

[Ray]

Barring lack of knowledge of the City of Bangor in the other thread, I dont think auto carriers had any stability or handling issues. From what I have read, boats converted or participating in the automobile transportation were considerably smaller than other fleet boats of that era. So they were bound to take less chances. For example there are about a dozen "modern" ore carriers on the bottom vs 1 automobile carrier lost in the fog.

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2 on the bottom if you count the Lakeland. Though that might have been an assisted catastrophic loss of freeboard.

[Jared]

Barring lack of knowledge of the City of Bangor in the other thread, I dont think auto carriers had any stability or handling issues. From what I have read, boats converted or participating in the automobile transportation were considerably smaller than other fleet boats of that era. So they were bound to take less chances. For example there are about a dozen "modern" ore carriers on the bottom vs 1 automobile carrier lost in the fog.

I have 2 pictures of the Sonoma hanging in my house with a load of beautiful cars. (The other one is too big to be posted but is posted in the other thread).

[Guest]

How did the the bulk carriers modified into carrying automobiles handle after their conversions? It seems that the cars would have been considerably lighter than bulk cargoes such as ore, coal, stone, and grain these ships were originally designed to carry. Did these ships need any structural modifications in addition to the auto decks and ramps to operate in their new roles?