PRESQUE ISLE, SPEER UPDATE

PRESQUE ISLE is currently underway for Conneaut and expected there during the afternoon of January 12 to unload iron ore before sailing to Erie for layup. The EDGAR B. SPEER is due to load in Superior today, and will arrive in Conneaut on January 14 to unload before sailing to Erie for layup. This will put both vessels in here by next weekend, weather permitting.

This will be the first time in ten years, since the winter of 1999-2000, that two thousand-foot long vessels have spent the winter in Erie. That year, the JAMES R. BARKER spent the winter at the West Slip and the MESABI MINER spent the winter at the Old Ore Dock.

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EDGAR B. SPEER arriving in Conneaut on October 14.

Historical Arrivals: January 22

January 22, 2000: USCGC NEAH BAY arrives in Erie to break ice prior to the arrival the next morning of the JAMES R. BARKER. The BARKER and MESABI MINER both spend the winter of 1999/2000 in Erie.

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NEAH BAY breaks ice in the West Slip, January 22, 2000.


Turning to head back into Presque Isle Bay.

RESERVE Backs Out

RESERVE finished unloading at the Mounfort Terminal at 0800 this morning and then backed out of the harbor. The RESERVE, which had sat almost perpendicular to the channel while unloading, backed away from the dock and slowly out of the channel, turning at the outer buoys at 0930 and heading up the lake to Calcite, where she had also loaded her previous cargo. The RESERVE is only the second vessel I've ever seen back out of Erie. In March 2000 the JAMES R. BARKER, departing her layup berth at Metro Machine, backed out of the West Slip and through the channel due to adverse ice conditions on Presque Isle Bay.

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.