St. Lawrence Seaway Opening 1959

[Guest]

By 1960, the Sept Isles ore dock had already been in service for several years. I've enclosed a screen capture from a document I have showing the dimensions for that dock.

In fact, Wilson Marine Transit had a couple of ocean ships that were loading at Sept Isles for Philadelphia in 1958. And with a maximum draft of 49 feet at the dock, it was ready for the 730-footers.

[pcolachap]

Another one of the projects connected with the opening of the Seaway was the St. Clair River cut off channel. It eliminated the South East bend section of the St. Clair River for navigation purposes. It also facilitated the "construction" of Seaway Island where the spoils of the new channel were deposited. So it became a straight channel instead of a winding river route.

[Prescotont]

The Port of Johnstown (formerly the "Port of Prescott) is situated along the St. Lawrence River just west of where the rapids began prior to the construction of the Seaway. Lakers brought Western Canadian grain to the Port where it was transhipped at the Grain Elevator to the smaller canallers for transit down the St. Lawrence Canals to Montreal and beyond. The Elevator was constructed in 1930 with its loading spouts having the canallers in mind (maximum air draft of 10 metres). In anticipation of the Seaway and the potential for loading larger Lakers and Salties with higher freeboard, 6 new spouts with a maximum air draft of 12 metres were added in 1958. Given that today's Lakers and Salties have even higher freeboard than was envisioned back in 1958, the 9 spouts have been removed this winter and are in the process of being replaced with 3 new loading spouts which will enable the Port to load more efficiently and effectively.

[hugh3]

1964 US did not sell grain to Russia, We loaded grain at I believe Continental (US) grain in Toledo. Down the St. Laurence to Baie-Comeau and unloaded at Continental (Canada), right into a conveyer belt which went around the slip and right into a Russian ship.

[William Lafferty]

Federal appropriations paid for the dredging of connecting channels on the lakes to 27 feet by 1962. At Chicago the area between Navy Pier and the lock from the main channel entrance was dredged by GLD&DCo to 27 feet by 1961 through city-issued bonds, as was the building of a new wharf and warehouse on the south side of Navy Pier. The north and south Calumet Harbor entrances were dredged to the Calumet River entrance to 29 feet in 1963, and from the entrance to the Chicago Regional Port District complex on Lake Calumet dredged by Fitsimmons & Connell, completed in 1964, but only to 21 feet. GLD&DCo completed a 27-foot channel between Lakes Michigan and Calumet for the 1966 season. Part of this involved some straightening of of the lower portion of the Calumet River and modifications to railway bridges in that area. This was all done with federal funds.

[Mac Mackay]

There was a major expansion of grain handling facilities in Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City and brand new facilities in Baie-Comeau and Port-Cartier. Even the grain elevator was enlarged in Halifax due to larger ships bringing in grain from the Lakes, and those toppping up from St.Lawrence drafts.

[wlbblw]

Mainly dredging. Seaway draft is 27' & most ports were dredged in the upper teens & low twenties at the time. Buffalo wasn't even ready by the opening. The heavy cruiser USS Macon had to anchor out in the lake & have visitors brought out to the ship by small boats & tugs when she toured the lakes in 1959. Later on, we caught up & about 1/2 of the Outer Harbor, from the South Entrance only, was dredged to Seaway depth. To this day, the North Entrance, the Buffalo River, City Ship Canal & Black Rock Canal are all still 22'-23' & cannot accommodate a ship loaded to Seaway depth. Only 2 of the Outer Harbor piers & the Lackawanna Canal/Gateway Metroport Trade Center there can handle these ships.

[Guest]

I know it has been discussed quite a bit about how shipping companies began building larger ships (730-foot length by 75-foot beam) during the late 1950s and continued, especially in the Canadian fleets, throughout the 1960s and into the mid-1980s. This was primarily made possible by improvements made to accommodate the new St. Lawrence Seaway that opened in 1959. My question is what improvements were necessary, if any, to the loading and unloading facilities to accommodate the larger vessels in particular those on the St. Lawrence River?