Elmer Engman, our Duluth correspondent, reports that the EDGAR B. SPEER was slowly leaving the CN ore dock in a haze of wildfire smoke and heading toward the Duluth ship canal on June 11th.
The EDGAR B. SPEER was built in 1980 by American Ship Building. The after section was built in drydock at Lorain. The forward cargo section was built in Toledo and the cabins were built at South Chicago. Named for Edgar B. Speer who was the chairman of the board of the US Steel Corporation, she measures 1004 feet in length and 105 feet in beam and transports iron ore and other bulk commodities mostly on Lakes Superior, Michigan and Erie. Sails as part of the Great Lakes Fleet of the Keystone Shipping Co.
Photos by Elmer Engman
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Elmer Engman is a long time resident of the Duluth area. He started scuba diving in 1968, because of an interest in maritime history, and wrote the first dive guide for the area called, Shipwreck Guide to the Western Half of Lake Superior. He is a past board member of the SS Meteor Maritime Museum and the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association. He is also the founder of the Maritime history program called “Gales of November”. This will be the 38th of the program held on the second weekend in November.
