What is the oldest freighter on the Great Lakes?

It was during that time that the Alpena was converted into a self-unloading freighter. Later that year, the ship was purchased by New Management Enterprises, which officially renamed it the Alpena. The Alpena is currently the oldest ship sailing the lakes.



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The oldest laker still steaming across our Great Lake is probably the Alpena, which was first launched in 1942 as the Leon Fraser. However, when I asked Roger LeLievre, editor and publisher of the annual Know Your Ships field guide , he reminded us that the J.A.W.

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Because of this narrow width most ocean-going ships can't make it through. However, our lakers can make it to the atlantic, but usually don't venture too far as their narrow beam and the larger waves of the ocean make it perilous.

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Statistics. M/V Stewart J. Cort was the first 1000-foot vessel on the Great Lakes when she entered service for Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1972. Her bow and stern sections, built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, were joined together and called “Stubby” for the trip to the Great Lakes.

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The largest and last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on November 10, 1975. The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes.

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Lake Michigan wrecks: the oldest and the mostest Lake Michigan contains more shipwrecks than any of the other Great Lakes, as well as the oldest recorded one: the French ship Griffon, the first European vessel to sail the Lakes.

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— The Great Lakes have been sailed upon since the 17th century. Over the last 400 years, it's estimated that 6,000 vessels and 30,000 lives have been lost traversing these fresh waterways.

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Self-unloading equipment and enormous cargo capacity make them very efficient carriers. Invented on the Great Lakes, the self-unloading technology allows a 1,000-foot vessel to routinely discharge as much as 70,000 tons of iron ore or coal in less than 10 hours! The vessels are dieselpowered with speeds up to 15 knots.

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Lawrence Seaway (Highway H2O) Facts. Opened to deep draft navigation in 1959. Vessel maximum: 225.5 m (740 ft.)

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An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters. These are unique resources. The history of Michigan can be traced by the material records of its shipwrecks. They are a wood and steel chronicle of the history of naval architecture on the lakes.

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