Orefax Question

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Guest

Re: Orefax Question

Unread post by Guest »

Thank you for the response, I thought you might know some background on this vessel. I thought it unlikely that this ship was involved in the ore trade, as its name implies, but it was difficult to establish its trading patterns from looking through old maritime journals so I really appreciated the information you provided on its various cargoes and destinations. In John O. Greenwood's Namesakes 1956-1980, he states this ship was renamed Orefax in 1961 to denote Hall Corporation's involvement in the iron ore trade. This came two years after it was lengthened, deepened, and converted into a self-unloader at Montreal in 1959 while still named Southcliffe Hall. What an interesting vessel! And what an interesting timeframe in which it operated on the Great Lakes!
William Lafferty
Posts: 1491
Joined: March 13, 2010, 10:51 am

Re: Orefax Question

Unread post by William Lafferty »

Despite its name, the ore trade was never a consideration of Hall Corporation for the Orefax, it intended to be a replacement for the canaller Coalfax. Its typical routes were typical self unloader routes: coal from Sodus Point to Hamilton, Toronto, and as far east as Montréal, and stone from Marblehead and Alpena for Windsor, Kingston, Wallaceburg, and any number of similar Canadian ports. When I was a kid I saw it often at Chicago in the early 1960s carrying white clay to Sept-Îles, I think, for the paper plants there, or maybe the other way around. It was on one of these trips it ran into the gale you mention. I know it carried potash as far east as Prince Edward Island since this is what it was carrying during its explosion and grounding on 22 September 1970 near Brockville. Salvaged and brought to Hamilton, it remained there until sold as a spoils carrier to Consortium Île d'Orleans. At that point the vessel was redundant with the sleek Hallfax in service since 1962, and too underpowered, using a war-era Fairbanks, Morse Diesel from an LCM that had already seen considerable commercial use. The explosion was caused by a flamed out bearing in that engine.
Guest

Orefax Question

Unread post by Guest »

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what trade routes the Halco self-unloader Orefax operated on before being sold for conversion into a sludge hauler for a deepening project on the St. Lawrence River in 1971. This was one of the canallers the Hall Corporation had lengthened following the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway but it seems that at only 341 feet in length, it would have not been competitive to operate in the ore trade against 730-foot vessels. Despite, this it appears that the Orefax operated until late 1970. In 1963, it suffered considerable damage in a storm on Lake Michigan that included the loss of its pilothouse. Just wondering if there were any ports that shipped or received iron ore that required a ship of this size.
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