Tour of a Great Lakes Freighter -- Post 4

I just returned home from a long road trip during which I exhibited my mineral art at the Saline Show (south of Ann Arbor, MI), as well as at the East Grand Rapids art show. Before I get to this past trip, I need to post one more blog update with the last of the freighter photos.

The freighter Calumet is owned by the Lower Great Lakes Transportation Company, which in turn is owned by Rand. On June 24, 2004 Rand Logistics, Inc. (formerly Rand Acquisition Corporation) was formed as a blank check company to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition or other similar business combination with an operating business. On March 3, 2006 Rand, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, LL Acquisition Corp., acquired all of the outstanding shares of capital stock of Lower Lakes Towing and its affiliates Grand River and Lower Lakes Transportation, whereby each of Lower Lakes, Grand River and Lower Lakes Transportation became indirect, wholly-owned subsidiaries of Rand.

The Calumet is part of a fleet of 13 ships, five of which sale under the U.S. flag with the remainder sailing under a Canadian flag. As I said in a previous post, this freighter is 630 feet long with a beam width of 68 feet and a depth of nearly 37 feet. Its midsummer draft is 26 feet. The draft (or draught) of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull (keel), with the thickness of the hull included. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate. The Calumet can carry a total of 19,650 tons. There are only two ships in the Rand fleet that have a higher load capacity. One interesting fact that at one point in the past this freighter was owned by George Steinbrenner.



Here is a shot of the shore conveyor loading the crushed dolomite into the ship's cargo hold.



During the last part of the tour, Daryl took me down below to show me the unloading conveyor system. The infrastructure was truly impressive. Here is the conveyor that moves the cargo out from the bottom of the ship up toward the surface.



From the bottom of the shift we could catch a glance of this one hold that was full of coal.



Here Daryl is walking next to the conveyor belt.



One deck up were the crew quarters. Each crew member has their own cabin with their own bathroom as well as access to satellite TV and high speed Internet.



It is not usually necessary, but there is a general alarm system on board in case of an emergency.