Many people in the United States do not realize the importance of the Great Lakes as a commercial asset; even among those who use the Lakes as a vacation spot, who sail on their waters, who fish among the islands, or who hunt along the shores there is little thought given to the passage of those great ships whose coming is heralded by a plume of black smoke visible long before the ship itself comes majestically and unconcernedly into view. If any thought at all is given to these ships it is usually not that the frequency of their passage is a prime index of the prosperity of these United States. Yet, this is so.
The Great Lakes are the center of one of the richest fields of cereal, mineral, and coal producing areas of the world, and the transportation of these commodities has developed a shipping industry on the Lakes second to none. This is peculiar in that the industry is highly specialized; ships that are built especially for the Lake traffic cannot go to sea for two reasons. While they are strong enough to weather any storm on the Lakes, they would soon break in the middle when they encountered the long swells of the ocean; they cannot get through the canals which parallel the St. Lawrence River because the locks of these canals are only 255 feet in length and most of the Lake vessels are between 400 and 650 feet long. Small motor vessels which transit the New York State Barge Canal are now taking cargoes from tidewater at New York City and points on Delaware Bay to all points on the Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, but the capacity of these is so small in comparison with that of the large bulk freighter, and their build so extreme (in order to pass under the bridges of the Barge Canal) that they must be considered a special class even on the Lakes.
This shipping industry has, as might be expected, developed a class of men who are specialists in the truest sense of the word. With surpassing skill they handle their vessels in and about the narrow, tortuous channels of the rivers, in the canals, and alongside docks without the aid of tugs. Every master can take his vessel to any port on the Lakes without the aid of charts or sailing directions, though these are found on the bridge of every vessel and are frequently consulted. They use the radio direction finder with skill and accuracy. They are pilots without peer in the world though their seagoing brethren have more to contend with in the matter of tidal currents.
Handled by these men, in a navigational season which lasts from about April 15 to December 15 each year, the large ships of the Lakes fleet carry an immense amount of bulk merchandise. On September 6, 1921, the steamer D. G. Kerr of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, under the command of W. P. McElroy, now Fleet Captain of the same line, loaded 12,507 long tons of iron ore in 16^ minutes. This is believed to be a world record for the loading of bulk cargo. During the navigational season of 1929 the SS. William C. Atwater of the Wilson Transit Company carried 557,020 tons of freight to various lake ports, also believed to be a world record. This amount carried by one ship exceeds by over 90,000 tons the tonnage of the capital ships of the entire U. S. Navy. In 1929, the Harry G. Coulby of the Pickands and Mather Line carried in one cargo 14,617 long tons of iron ore, a record for a ship of her dimensions.
The establishment of records such as these demonstrates the high degree of skill with which these large underpowered ships are operated. It goes further than just the actual handling of the ships. The weather is watched very closely by ships’ officers and the administrative personnel on shore. By weather I mean not only the immediate conditions such as fog, rain, snow, etc., but also weather conditions over a long period of time which have a direct bearing on the Lake levels, in simplest terms, the amount of water in the Lakes. For instance, the depth of water at Limekiln Crossing, a shoal spot at the lower end of the Detroit River, regulates at the present time the draft of vessels entering or leaving Lake Erie at that point. This depth varies several feet and ships making the passage oftentimes run with 6 inches or less under the keels. Drafts of vessels to suit changing conditions are recommended by the Lake Carriers’ Association, a co-operative commercial organization composed of executives of the largest companies operating vessels on the Great Lakes. Other weather conditions oftentimes tend to produce low water at the mouth of the Detroit River in a few hours; a strong southwest wind will blow the waters of shallow Lake Erie to the lower end of the Lake, frequently necessitating the anchoring of vessels until this wind dies down and the waters of the Lake return to their former level. Likewise a strong northeast wind, combined with freezing weather in the spring, will sometimes so impede the movement of ice in the Niagara River above the Falls that a dam will be formed, stopping almost entirely the flow of water over the American Falls and curtailing that over the Canadian Falls to a fraction of its normal volume.
The tremendous commerce of the Lakes has created a demand for navigational aids which are equal to if not better than any in the world; these are designed and constructed under the supervision of the Bureau of Lighthouses of the Department of Commerce. On Lake St. Clair is found the only radio operated lightship in existence. This has been in operation for the navigational season of 1935 and has given consistently excellent service. It is operated by a keeper stationed on shore who is furnished a small boat to make periodic visits to the ship for routine upkeep and to make minor adjustments. The light is controlled by an automatic clock, the fog bell is operated by means of a bank of C02 gas tanks (it is in continuous operation), and the fog signal is started and stopped by radio from the shore. Motive power is furnished by two gasoline engines driving electric generators which in turn keep a bank of storage batteries charged to a certain point. Current for the radio equipment, light, etc., is taken from the batteries.
Radio control is also utilized on certain isolated lighthouses. These are the ones located on dangerous reefs where access, spring and fall when they are needed most, is almost impossible because of packed ice or bad weather. Indeed, this area is known as the laboratory where improvements in aids are tested before they are used for ocean-going traffic under milder conditions along our sea coasts.
The channels of the rivers and harbors of the Great Lakes furnish another field for great achievement. Until the opening of the new Welland Canal in 1933, the locks of the American Canal (1,350 feet) at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, were the longest in the world and Lock No. 8 of the Welland Canal surpasses these in length by 30 feet. Major work under construction at the present time is the deepening of the Livingstone Channel in the Detroit River; this is being done under the supervision of the Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, and provides a deep water channel through some very bad shoals. The construction of this channel, partly through solid rock, will provide for the separation of traffic, upbound vessels using the present channel and downbound that under construction. The most difficult part of the work is being accomplished by means of dikes enabling the use of equipment customarily seen at large excavations on shore. The water is pumped from the area surrounded by the dikes by large centrifugal pumps until this equipment can be placed. Seepage is controlled by the same pumps until the work is completed when, after inspection and removal of equipment, the channel is allowed to fill and the earth dikes at its head and foot are dredged away. In order to maintain the same cross-sectional area of the river, thus insuring the maintenance of the water level of Lake St. Clair, permanent cross dikes are constructed to restrict the flow of water outside of the channel.
No attempt is here made to do more than sketch very briefly some of the more recent outstanding achievements of man on the Great Lakes. Nearly everything that has been undertaken has been accomplished in the face of adverse conditions in some portion of the work. This has resulted in a spirit of co-operation between the two governments concerned, between the agencies of these two governments, between commercial agencies and the governments and among commercial agencies themselves which I believe to be unequaled anywhere in the world. There is keen competition for business and cargoes but, in any matter affecting the welfare of all hands, there exists that feeling of mutual trust and respect to which any community may justly point with pride.
As has been said, the frequency of passage of Lake vessels past any centrally located point is a first-class evidence of the prosperity of the country. Some vessels carry grain of all varieties, wheat, corn, rye, barley, buckwheat, to points on the Lakes for shipment to the mills of United States, Canada, and Europe. Most of the grain other than corn is shipped from Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario; the greater part of the corn, from Chicago, Illinois. Of course, a grain carrier is usually not used in any other capacity as the holds must be kept very clean and dry. Thus they are one-way cargo carriers, the return trip being a loss except for occasional deck cargoes of automobiles or like commodities. Most of the grain is transshipped at Buffalo, but since the opening of the new Welland Canal increasingly larger quantities are being sent to Lake Ontario ports for this purpose. The construction of these grain ships is not materially different from those carrying iron ore or coal.
Other vessels carry iron ore, limestone, and coal, nearly all for American or Canadian consumption, though some is for a European destination. Most ore shipments are made from Duluth, Minnesota, (or Superior, Wisconsin, on the same harbor) with smaller shipments from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A vessel down bound from Duluth with a cargo of iron ore will discharge it at a Lake Erie port and pick up, perhaps from the same port, a cargo of coal for the up-bound or return trip. Limestone for the reduction of the ore is loaded at Calcite or Alpena, Michigan, both on Lake Huron, the greater part also for transshipment at Lake Erie ports.
The grain, ore, and coal industries provide the business of the bulk carriers. Passenger and package freight vessels do a thriving business. The largest “side- wheel” vessels of the world carry passengers and freight between Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Other vessels serve to connect these cities with Chicago, but unless one has plenty of time, transportation is more appealing by air, rail, or automobile because of the long cruise through Lakes Huron and Michigan around the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. If time is available, this is a very beautiful yet inexpensive trip, and the traveler is amply repaid for the few days spent away from the heat of a midwestern summer.
There is considerable freight and passenger traffic between United States cities and Canadian ports. Much of this is tourist trade, and, among the less seasoned passengers, there is apt to be discussion of the apparent vagaries of the international boundary line. As a matter of fact this runs quite logically until it reaches Isle Royale at the upper end of Lake Superior, where the apparent deviation from a logical direction is covered by a story. It seems that one of the first boundary commissions traveled by boat from the lower to the upper lakes dutifully working very hard to make an even distribution of the waters on which they floated. By the time they reached Lake Superior they had become so well acquainted and so well satisfied with their work that it became necessary to celebrate in an appropriate manner the near completion of so hard a task, agreeing that the course of their vessel across the Lake would be the boundary. During the party the vessel was blown well to the northward of the set course, finally making a landfall on the north end of Isle Royale. Passing around the island, the party landed on the mainland at Pigeon Bay just opposite the island’s southwest point and were satisfied to consider their duty completed. Thus are the fates decided.
Military history, as the record of divers experiences, covering all conditions of country, of climate, and of armament, as the storehouse of the accumulated knowledge of soldiers of all ages— as the revelation of the practice and the principles of the great captains—as the platform from which war in its every aspect from the maneuvers of vast armies to the foray of the guerrilla, may be surveyed, is the one and only means in default of long service in the field, of forming a military instinct, and of gaining a clear insight into the unnumerable problems connected with the organization of and command of an armed force.—Colonel Henderson, Science of War.