page_title: Lake freighter
section_title: Famous vessels
hierarchical_section_title: Lake freighter / Famous vessels
caption_attribution_description: Edward L. Ryerson transiting Welland Canal
context_page_description: Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships.
  Since the late 19th century, lakers have carried bulk cargoes of materials such as limestone, iron ore, grain, coal, or salt from the mines and fields of the upper Great Lakes to the populous industrial areas farther east. The 63 commercial ports handled 173 million tons of cargo in 2006. Because of winter ice on the lakes, the navigation season is not usually year-round. The Soo Locks and Welland Canal close from mid-January to late March, when most boats are laid up for maintenance. Crewmembers spend these months ashore.
  Depending on their application, lakers may also be referred to by their type, such as oreboats, straight deckers, bulkers, sternenders, self unloaders, longboats, or lakeboats, among others.
  In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the Lakes, but by the early 21st century there were fewer than 140 active lakers. SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975, became widely known as the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Great Lakes.
context_section_description: The most famous laker was SS Edmund Fitzgerald (popularized by Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976), which sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Fitz was the first boat with a length of 729 feet (222 m) and the flagship of the Columbia Steamship Division of Oglebay Norton Co. MV Stewart J. Cort was the first of the 1,000-foot (300 m) oreboats.
  The first laker with self-unloading equipment was Hennepin (formerly George H. Dyer) a small wooden laker that was refitted with the equipment in 1902. The first laker built as a self-unloader was Wyandotte launched in 1908. Before these, all boats were unloaded with shoreside equipment. Self-unloading equipment worked well for cargoes that could "flow" out of the holds onto belts, such as coal and limestone. It did not work well for grain, which flowed too readily and would spill off the conveyors, or iron ore, which would not flow well and would hang up in the hold. Because the predominant cargo for lakers was iron ore, self-unloaders did not become common until higher grade ores were depleted and taconite pellets were developed in the 1970s. Steam power first appeared in the 1860s and became the standard source of power for over a century. The Canadian grainboat Feux Follets of 1967 was the last laker to be built with a steam turbine and thus was the last steamer built on the lakes. Ford Motor Company's Henry Ford 2nd and Benson Ford of 1924 were the first lakeboats with diesel engines. Diesel powerplants did not become standard until the 1970s. The last active ships of 1920s vintage, and the oldest ships still operating in non-specialized bulk trades is the motor vessels Maumee of Lower Lakes Transportation. She was built as William G Clyde for US Steel. S. T. Crapo, inactive since 1996, was built to haul cement for Huron Cement Co. back in 1927 and was the second ship of that design, the first being John G Boardman of the same company. S. T. Crapo was the last coal burning freighter on the Great Lakes.
  The classic design of cabins fore-and-aft with open decks over the hold started with the 208-foot (63 m) long R. J. Hackett, designed and built by Elihu Peck in 1869. The first iron-hulled laker was Brunswick, launched at Detroit in 1881. Brunswick sank after a collision later that year and was apparently little known. Many follow the lead of the contemporary Cleveland press and credit Onoko as the first iron-hulled laker, launched in 1882. Onoko's higher center section did become a standard for later lakers. At 302 feet (92 m), Onoko was the first bulk carrier to hold the unofficial title of Queen of the Lakes (longest vessel on the lakes). SS Carl D. Bradley (1927 – 640 ft (200 m)) held the title for 22 years, longer than any other laker of the classic design. Carl D. Bradley is also known for breaking her back and foundering in a Lake Michigan storm in 1958. There were only two survivors.
  Currently the title of Queen of the Lakes is held by the modern stern-ender Paul R. Tregurtha. Launched in 1981 as William J. Delancy, and measuring 1,013.5 feet (308.9 m), Paul R. Tregurtha has held the title since her launch. Wilfred Sykes (1949 – 678 ft (207 m)) is considered to be the first of the modern lakers, and when converted to a self-unloader in 1975 was the first to have the equipment mounted aft. Since then all self-unloading equipment has been mounted aft. Algoisle (formerly Silver Isle) (1962 – 715.9 ft (218.2 m)) was the first modern laker built with all cabins aft (a "stern-ender"), following the lead of ocean-going bulk carriers and reprising a century old form used by little river steam barges and the whalebacks. Stewart J. Cort (1971) was the first 1,000-footer and the only "footer" built in the classic cabins-fore-and-aft style. Algosoo (1974 – 730 ft (220 m)) was the last laker built in the classic style.
  Also of note is the steamer Edward L. Ryerson, widely known for her artistic design and being the only remaining straight-decked (without self unloading machinery) freighter still in active service on the US side of the Great Lake
caption: Edward L. Ryerson
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