Elmer Engman, our Duluth correspondent, reports that on Sunday, June 7th, there was some more vessel movement in the Twin Ports with the AMERICAN CENTURY loading a cargo of taconite at the CN ore docks.
Last year I caught the AMERICAN INTEGRITY offloading her cargo into the AMERICAN CENTURY for some work on the stern.
The next vessel is the HEEMSKERGRACHT, from Holland, with a cargo of bagged quartz. She was built in 2009 and is 456 feet long. She was also in port last year with the same cargo.
Before container shipping, it would take a crew of 72 to unload or load a cargo ship. If you could work the forward and after part of the hold at the same time, you can double the number of men needed. It was hard work but interesting.
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 program is usually held on the second weekend in November.
