Deb Simons and her hubby, Ron made it to McLain Park last week, in time to capture some good shots of the Algoma Conveyor as she entered the Upper Entry, sailing past the light there and into the channel. The Algoma was loaded with road salt for the coming winter months in the Copper Country. Yes, folks winter is not too far off here UP North.

The bottom photo was snapped by Jeff Dennis that evening as the Algoma was unloading the cargo of salt at Mattila’s dock on the Hancock Canal. I’m choosing to focus on the colors in the sky from the setting sun and not the thoughts of road salt on wintry roads.

We have a treat today from the Facebook page I Love Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Their video shows the James R. Barker headed downbound passing by the newly introduced Mark W. Barker headed upbound at Rotary Park. Each of them give a great salute!

Always up for a Laker update.

I know I've said this here before but I love thinking about it so I guess I'll write about it a bit. In the 1970s I spent almost a week on one of her sister boats, the Algoma Enterprise. Back then they were owned by a different company and she was the Canadian Enterprise. The short name of this ship would be The Conveyer.

The food was great but I was there to work. Fortunately they served a complete dinner every 6 hours.

They always look so calm and serene, especially from a distance, but up close or on the inside they contain massive machinery and noise and vibration from engines producing thousands of horsepower.

Fantastic pics & video, I love the horn's!!

D.A. this may be a stupid question... lol...
however... When you say you're there to work, are
you and the other crew members actually working on
the ship itself, or actually tending to the cargo?
Or both perhaps...? I'm curious what everyone has to
do especially when the ship is not in port and
actually travelling?? Sorry if this is sounds
ridiculous? lol

It was a great day for being at McLain
taking this all in. The weather was
beautiful, not like last year's wind and
rain. I could watch freighters come and go
all day.

D.A., like UC, curious minds want to know. I
was very interested in what you had to say
but would love to hear more.

Thanks for passing these, Mary. We were very
excited that we caught it. Had been
following it for a bit and when we saw it
was past Eagle River and closing in on
Bucky's, we figured we'd better hurry
because it was moving faster than we
thought.

Forgot to say I loved the video. And yep,
love those horns.

I agree Deb, the horns are great, especially that 2nd one in the video.

For my entire professional career as an MTU electrical engineer I worked at the same company in R&D, designing passenger elevator controls. At the time I was pretty much the newbie so when the 9 story elevator we had recently installed in the brand new Laker, Canadian Enterprise, failed to meet specs they sent me to Canada. The other equipment that needed work was the steering mechanism so there was an engineer from Switzerland on board as well.

It had been previously assumed the immense vibration from the engines was the source of our troubles since the elevator controls were mounted right next to the engines. I asked the Captain what caused the most vibration. Answer: Shifting from full forward to full reverse. We were already traveling in figure eights in the middle of Lake Ontario (to test the steering) so I asked the Captain if we could add this procedure to help me. Sure thing he said, just let me know when you're ready.

So I'm at the very bottom of the boat, yelling at the top of my lungs to a guy on a phone. Seconds later it felt like my teeth were going to fall out and they're not dentures. Really, it made my teeth hurt. We eventually made a hammock-like affair to cradle the sensitive electronics.

But in the end, the biggest problem causing malfunction was the mechanical elevator doors. There is a spring that makes sure each door closes fully. When the boat is underway the bow rises out of the water quite a bit and in this case the doors were having to close "uphill" towards the bow. Therefore the spring simply needed to be tightened.

I got off after traversing the Welland Canal series of locks as the Enterprise headed out on Lake Erie to pickup a load of coal in Ohio and I was probably 5 pounds heavier.

Side note: Twenty years later, our company here in Illinois was purchased by a Finnish elevator company. I then started traveling to Finland on a regular basis.

Hi
The horns were wonderful--the second one sounded
like something you'd hear in a concert.

D.A., your story reminds me of an Isaac Asimov short
story called "Not Final". In it, one scientist
working only from theory, "proved" something was
impossible. A second scientist who wasn't as strong
in theory just experimented and observed...and did
the impossible.

D.A. thank you. That was so interesting. I
was reading it to my hubby and he told me he
knows how to read. If I had to be on one of
those I'd be throwing up all over the place,
lol. I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. Again,
thank you for accommodating us. If I knew
how to make smiley faces here I would. FJL
tried to teach me. (I think it was FJL.)
But I'm hopeless at this stuff. I often feel
sorry for Mary with all my questions. But
she's a trooper.