Tom Wenstadt, our Door County correspondent, reports that the S/S WILFRED SYKES left Sturgeon Bay Friday afternoon March 22, 2024. The vessel headed out Sturgeon Bay, then out the unfrozen bay of Green Bay to Lake Michigan. Her destination is Marquette, Mich., for the first load of taconite for the season.
The WILFRED SYKES was built as a straight decker completed in 1949 by American Shipbuilding Co. in Lorain, Ohio. The vessel’s name came from the President of the owner, Inland Steel Co. She has carried her name through-out her life and has been owned and operated by Indiana Harbor Steamship Co. and Central Marine Logistics Inc. of Highland, IN respectively since July, 1999. The SYKES had the honor of being Queen of the Lakes (the largest vessel on the Great Lakes) from 1949 through 1952. In a major upgrade, the vessel was converted to a self-unloader at the Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wis., in 1974/75. In her earlier years the SYKES set a number of cargo carrying and unloading records.
Specifications:
Length 678 feet
Beam (width) 70 feet
Depth 37 feet
Capacity 21,500 tons
Power 1 7700 horsepower Westinghouse compound steam turbine engine turning one propeller bow thruster
Self-Unloading rate 6,000 tons per hour
Look for a forward pilot house, an aft self-unloading boom with an iron ore red hull and white and gray upper paint.
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Tom Wenstadt, who lives in Sturgeon Bay, is a retired marine engineer, having worked in the Great Lakes area for thirty-seven years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and is the author of Freighters of Manitowoc. He is a member of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society and the Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse Preservation Society. He is a volunteer archival assistant and docent for the JOHN PURVES.
Photo by Bob Kuhn: WILFRED SYKES dated May 3, 2018
This story was originally posted on March 24, 2024.
