Short Update

Today's short update: The ADAM E. CORNELIUS departed Erie at about 9:00 p.m. last night bound for Superior, Wisonsin's Burlington Northern Santa Fe Dock #5 to load iron ore.

CORNELIUS visits; More info on tug VICTORY

ADAM E. CORNELIUS arrived in Erie at around 2:00 this afternoon with stone from Calcite. She docked at the Mounfort International Terminal to unload some of her cargo before moving to the Old Ore Dock.




More information is coming out on the tug VICTORY. According to rumors she'll push the LEWIS J. KUBER next season and then push the RESERVE when she's converted to a barge the following season. I don't know what this leaves in store for the OLIVE L. MOORE for next year, but I'm guessing in 2008 she'll be mated back up with the KUBER. Perhaps she'll spend next year undergoing modifications in Erie. We'll see.

Today's THOMPSON/THOMPSON JR update: the pair is due in Stoneport on Tuesday to load.

ADAM E. CORNELIUS due

American Steamship's ADAM E. CORNELIUS, with a cargo of stone from Calcite, is due in Erie at 1345 on Monday, 27 November.

Local charter fishing boat VICTORY is at the West Slip of Erie Shipbuilding for some type of light repairs. I'm unsure at this time what those repairs are; if I find out I'll post them.



Thanks to Dennis at Erie Blogs for the two mentions of this blog.

And for today's JOSEPH H. THOMPSON/THOMPSON JR. update: the pair is arriving in Fairport Harbor, Ohio as I write this with a cargo of stone from Stoneport. After unloading she returns to Stoneport on Tuesday for another cargo.

Construction on Erie Shipbuilding rail siding to begin soon

Soon construction will begin on a $700,000 rail siding from the CSX Siding along the Bayfront Highway into Erie Shipbuilding. The at-grade crossing will allow Erie Shipbuilding to receive rail shipments of steel that they'll be needing for the new articulated tug/barge unit the company will begin building in early 2007 for their sister company, VanEnkevort Tug & Barge. Both VETB and ESB are owned by Dirk VanEnkevort.

The siding will cut approximately 240 truck trips per year from the Bayfront Parkway, and will allow the shipyard to reduce congestion on the Bayfront, as the rail crossings will take place at night and during weekends, and other off-peak traffic times. The CSX siding connects to the CSX Bayfront Trackage, which runs along the Bayfront Connector and connects to the CSX and NS railroad tracks that run east/west through Erie.

In today's JOSEPH H. THOMPSON/THOMPSON JR. update, the pair arrived in Stoneport at around 0300 this morning.

Erie Shipbuilding's website is now up and running. In addition to company information it includes some awesome photo galleries of their projects, especially the THOMPSON JR. So far, this is a list of the yard's projects, in chronillogical order:

-The BUCKEYE conversion into the barge LEWIS J. KUBER
-The THOMPSON JR. repowering
-The THOMPSON barge's five year survey
-The local sand dredge J.S.St. JOHN's five year survey

The St. John concluded her season on November 13 and is now in lay-up at the Old Ore Dock. She'll be back out in April.

AMERICAN COURAGE Visits

AMERICAN COURAGE arrived in Erie at around 0930 today in a very dense fog, heading for the Mounfort Terminal. The vessel unloaded there for about four hours before shifting to the Old Ore Dock to finish her unload before departing around 1630.







In the JOSEPH H. THOMPSON/THOMPSON JR. update, the duo is on its way to Stoneport, due there early on Saturday 25 November to load stone.

Vessels Due

AMERICAN COURAGE, with stone from Calcite, is due in Erie at 0945 on Friday, 24 November 2006. This will be the COURAGE's 7th visit to Erie this year. Six of them have come as the COURAGE, with one coming as the FRED R. WHITE JR. And five of those visits have come since the 23rd of September.

THOMPSON/JR. leaves, then returns; Tug VICTORY to Lakes, Erie Shipbuilding Update

At 0200 on the 11th of November the tug JOSEPH H. THOMPSON JR., pushing the barge JOSEPH H. THOMPSON, departed Erie after spending all season undergoing an engine and propulsion system replacement. The THOMPSON had previously been powered by four used GE locomotive engines, and is now powered by two MAK 6 M 32 C heavy-oil engines.

After departing, the THOMPSON/THOMPSON JR. arrived in Marblehead, Ohio at around 10:00 a.m. that day to load stone for Marine City, Michigan. On Monday the duo arrived at Stoneport, Michigan to load a cargo of stone, and departed for Erie, where they arrived to unload at around 10:00 a.m. on the 15th. After that, it was to Detroit Harrison Marine to load salt for Duluth, arriving Duluth late on the 19th, and then the quick trip over to Superior Burlington Northern Dock 5 to load taconite pellets for Lorain, and then returning to Stoneport to load stone. I will continue to follow her short season closely and hopefully can provide for my readers an entire logbook of her season.

Arriving in Escanaba on the 19th was the former Penn Maritime tug VICTORY, now owned by Reserve Holdings LLC. What I am told is that after undergoing some modification work she'll probably be used to push the RESERVE. So much for K&K/VanEnkevort's plan to build new tugs to push three of the steamers they plan on converting to barges, I guess. They had planned on building four tugs and one new barge at Erie Shipbuilding, and using an existing tug (OLIVE L. MOORE) to push only one of the barges, the KUBER. I guess they must have sat down and decided it was cheaper to buy and modify existing tugs than to build new ones. I understand how that goes. I just wish they'd modify the tugs here in Erie; they added the raised pilothouse to the MOORE in Escanaba and they're modifying the VICTORY there too.

I've heard from Erie Shipbuilding employees that they expect a yard overflowing with work this winter, especially after the shutdown of Port Weller Drydocks. No one yet can tell me what ships exactly they're expecting, but I'm about 99% certain the RESERVE is due for her five year survey and possible barge conversion. I'll keep you posted.