More Layup News and Rumors

The tug/barge unit JOYCE L. VANENKEVORT/GREAT LAKES TRADER was moved into drydock at 0700 on the 3rd for unspecified repairs.

CASON J. CALLAWAY, which had been rumored to be wintering in Erie this year, is now headed for Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin for the winter.

However, 1973 Erie-built integrated tug/barge PRESQUE ISLE is, as of this writing, loading taconite pellets in Two Harbors, Minnesota for the port of Conneaut, Ohio, right across the state line. After that she's supposed to be heading for Erie's Mounfort Terminal, probably sometime Friday morning, for layup. This will be the third winter in the past four years that the vessel has spent in Erie.

Due for its five year survey this year, and rumored, according to an Erie Shipbuilding employee, to be spending the winter here, is another of the thirteen thousand footers in operation on the Great Lakes, Interlake Steamship's JAMES R. BARKER. The BARKER has wintered here several times in the past, notably the winters of 1991, 1992, 1999, and 2000. She's due in Duluth on Friday to load 53,000 tons of taconite pellets for Nanticoke, Ontario, right across Lake Erie from Erie. For her survey she will need to be drydocked, and only two shipyards on the Great Lakes--Erie Shipbuilding and Bay Shipbuilding (Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin) can accomodate 1000 foot vessels.


PRESQUE ISLE is shown while arriving Erie for winter layup on January 10, 2006.



JAMES R. BARKER is shown while arriving Erie for winter layup on January 8, 1994. Jim Thoreson photo.