Cleveland and Great Lakes Shipping

The first boat to bring iron ore to Cleveland by way of using the Sault Ste. Marie Canal. The boat was owned by the Cleveland Iron Mining Company. The man who was captain of this boat was named Justus Wells.

The steamer Pontiac was built in 1917 was 600 feet in length and could carry 12,00 tons.  This is an excellent photo to show the unique design of a iron ore boat on the Great Lakes.  With the pilot house towards the from and the engine and crew quarters towards the rear it left plenty of room to load and unload the boats.

This photo shows the Cadillac being unloaded by two cranes with buckets on the end.  It is easy to see the ease of unloading this vessels compared to the schooners that had masts in the way and other ships that were more focus on passengers and other cargo that did not require the use of a boat like this.

Along with transporting iron ore, grains, or coal the ships would some time carry cars on top of the deck of the ship.  The cars would simply drive up a ramp and park on the deck. When it came time to take the cars off just driving off of a ramp on the dock was the simple way of doing it.

Every ship had to deal with the weather on the Great Lakes. Iron ore boat captains and crews had to worry about the weight of the boat being too much and one large wave engolfing the ship.  If the cargo hold hatches were to come off water could get in the hold and risk sinking the ship. Novemeber was typically the last month to be on the lakes before winter moved in. A dangurous month for maritime shipping and crews that could use up leave time during November so they would not be out on the boats during the rough weather. This photo shows the Chacornactaking a wave as it travels one of the lakes.

Created by Alexander McDougall the design of the whaleback was suppose to help deal with the weather on the Great Lakes. This idea was that waves would simply roll ovet the ships hull and they boat would be fine. There were some whalebacks that did sink so the design wan't the answer to the weather challenges. This is the Clifton which was the only whaleback used by the Cleveland-Cliffs.