Tom Wenstadt, our Door County correspondent, reports that the WILFRED SYKES meandered around out in northern Lake Michigan until she arrived at the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding dock in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., early Tuesday, January 8, 2025. She motored up the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal to her dock for winter storage.          

The S/S 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, Indiana, respectively since July, 1999.  The SYKES has 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 Yard 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, an iron ore red hull, and white and gray upper paint. Also check out the two new gigantic assembly buildings on the south side of the yard. They are being used to make subassemblies for a new class of US Navy frigates to be built across Green Bay at Fincantieri Marinette Marine.

The winter fleet can be viewed at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, Sturgeon Bay, with viewing spots on both sides of the bay. Check out the view from the Door County Maritime Museum Lighthouse Tower.

Photo by Bob Kuhn dated January 27, 2019

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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.