River-class freighter
The River class is a type of bulk carrier designed for service on the Great Lakes. One ship of the class is due to enter service for the Interlake Steamship Company in 2022. History. In April 2019, it was announced that Interlake had ordered a single River-class ship from Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The vessel was the first new ship ordered by Interlake since 1981, and the first Great Lakes bulker built on the Great Lakes since 1983. Construction began in August 2019, when the first steel was cut. The ship was built  in modular sections, the first of which were joined together at a ceremonial keel laying in June 2020. At the event, Interlake announced that she would be named "Mark W. Barker", with delivery scheduled for mid-2022. Design. The River class was designed by Interlake, Fincantieri Bay, and Bay Engineering, and measures long, with a beam of and a draft of . It has a deadweight tonnage of 28,000 DWT, with a unique cargo hold and hatch design that allows for the transport of both bulk raw materials and large individual cargo. As a self-unloading ship, a bow-mounted conveyor system  that is long is installed for offloading of bulk materials. Ship propulsion power is about from two diesel engines—EMD 710s on "Mark W. Baker"—and electrical power totals from a genset and a shaft-mounted generator on each main engine. A single propeller gives the ship a service speed of about .