A Boatwatcher’s Guide to the Manitou Passage

By Thomas Benn
Sun contributor
Far out in the lake, the “long boats” approaching from the south look like floating logs with small knots protruding above one or both ends. Some are on a course slanting in toward shore and the Manitou Passage. Coming closer, bulk carriers over a thousand feet in length can be seen threading their way through a navigable gap barely a mile wide between the Pyramid Point and North Manitou shoals. From there it’s a straight shot north to the Straits of Mackinac.

If it’s a large vessel, it is probably carrying little or no backloaded cargo on a return trip from the southern end of Lake Michigan. Stretch lakers fully loaded with coal or grain will elect to swing around the islands on a longer and more fuel costly route about eight miles to the west of North Manitou Island. The reason why the heavy ships cannot take the shortcut lies about 65 miles to the north. It’s known on the maritime charts as Gray’s reef. Here the lake is only 27 feet deep, too shallow for many loaded Great Lakes vessels.
The major southbound “lane” for big ships carrying iron ore pellets to the steel mills in Gary-South Chicago is still further west in the middle of the lake.
(Note: One of the ways you can tell whether a moving bulk carrier is loaded is that the bow, or front, will rise up slightly if ballast water is in the hold instead of the cargo.)
U.S. flag commercial traffic through the passage has been busier than usual so far in this shipping season. Temporary restrictions on steel imports improved market conditions for American steel, creating a renewed demand for the iron ore and limestone used for steel production. One of the major trade routes for processed iron ore, in the form of taconite, is from the Mesabi Range of Minnesota to ports on Lake Superior and thence to the Calumet region of Chicago and northern Indiana. Limestone moves to the same destinations from ports in northern Michigan.
The high rate of construction activity also stepped up the need for stone of various kinds and for cement.
Another important factor in the fast start of the shipping season — what mariners call the year’s “dry bulk float” — is the higher water levels in the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan is more than 10 inches above last year’s levels. Deeper water can accommodate bigger loads in harbors and other tight spots.
Weather anticipation plays a part too, in the delivery of coal and salt to Lake Michigan ports. A hot summer requires more coal-generated electric power for air conditioners, just as a severe winter will deplete supplies of road salt. Coal shipments to Lake Michigan ports were almost half again as much during the first three months of this shipping season as the five-year average for the same period.
While shipping orders are up, sharply higher diesel fuel prices remain an urgent incentive for laker skippers to opt for the shortest possible route.
How to tell what you’re seeing
The standard length of a self-unloading bulk carrier on the lakes is about 730 feet. From shore, you can estimate how long a passing ship is by calculating the ratio of the on-deck horizontal boom, which is 250 feet long, to the rest of the ship. The moveable boom swings up and over the side of the ship to swiftly disgorge materials from the hold below on a system of conveyor belts.
The biggest of the stretch carriers — the Paul R. Tregurtha — measures 1,013 feet with a cargo capacity of 68,000 tons. (The new ocean liner Queen Mary 2 is 1,132 feet long.) Normal cruising speed of a bulk carrier is 15 m.p.h. The blunt design of the ship (to increase cargo capacity), the tendency of a faster vessel to squat lower in the water, and of course the benefits of conserving fuel all tell us that these ships are not interested in speed records. Lakers compete for business with railroads, Mississippi River barges (especially for grain and petroleum), and trucks on shorter routes.
Among some of the other vessels you will see going through the passage are the slightly smaller cement carriers going to or from Charlevoix; the only remaining tanker in the Great Lakes fleet, the Gemini, which is captained by Daniel Hobbs, who lives in Leelanau County; and barges, often carrying liquid leads, pushed or pulled by tugs.
In a typical season, every fifth of sixth ship going through the passage is likely to be a “saltie” — an ocean-going freighter flying the flag of a foreign nation — as distinguished from what mariners call a “sweet water” American-built laker. The saltwater vessels must be small enough to negotiate the St. Lawrence Seaway and the 27 miles of Welland Canal locks near Buffalo.
Some are general cargo freighters, identifiable usually by the tree or four derricks standing upright on the deck, which are used to unload a cargo of manufactured goods. Ironically, the imported items sometimes include lower-priced steel products delivered in the shadow of the once dominated Gary blast furnaces.
A recent example of the import trade was a southbound vessel flying the Dutch flag, with Dutch officers and a Polish crew, carrying wind generators to Milwaukee. Around the same time another ship came bearing bales of processed wood pulp from Finland. Ocean bulk freighters, on the other hand, are usually filled with grain. This spring, citing another example, a Greek ship with a Filipino crew headed north out of Chicago with a load of Midwestern wheat bound for Algeria. More ships flying Lithuanian and other former eastern bloc flags began visiting the Great Lakes last year.
Unlike the U.S. flag ship traffic, however, which is from one lakes port to another, and has been on the rise, the number of foreign flagships in Lake Michigan was down about 30 percent at mid-year. The reason for this, according to Don Willecke, president of the Western Great Lakes Pilot Assn., is that foreign shippers are concentrating their fleets and their business on the more profitable China trade. Last year there were 125 foreign flagships in Lake Michigan, compared to 202 in 2001 and 182 in 2002.
Boatwatchers equipped with binoculars and a directory should look for the national flag, near the stern of the ship; and the company emblem on the smokestack.
All foreign ships must have an American or Canadian pilot aboard once they enter the lakes. The pilot’s job is to dock and undock the ship and to help the crew through narrow or difficult passages and in bad weather. Edward Harris, 49, has been a registered pilot since 1988. At repeated intervals throughout the season, his normal work period is 20 days on followed by 10 days home with his wife and three children in Elmwood Township, Leelanau County. His wife, Cyndy, teaches chemistry at Traverse City West High School. Earlier in the year, as a member of the merchant marine naval reserve, Harris used some of his off-time in Kuwait, assisting Kuwaitiis who were unloading military cargo.
He goes to work, usually, at the village of De Tour, Mich., near the eastern end of the St. Mary’s River. The trip through the river and the Soo locks can be the most trying for an unfamiliar crew. If his assignment is on a northbound vessel going through the Manitou Passage, Harris said he will make haste for the wheelhouse, regardless of the hour, approaching Point Betsie near Frankfort. In a challenging position requiring continuous consultation he will sometimes move a pillow and sleeping bag into the wheelhouse.
Communicating with the officers steering the ship can be a particular problem with the Chinese, he said, although most of his companions at the controls of a host vessel speak passable English. He is careful, especially in rough weather, about the exotic cuisine served in some galleys, and always brings his own drinking water and a reserve supply of soda crackers. Standard rule: “If I don’t know what it is, I don’t eat it.” He joined the Coast Guard after high school and said he has never been bothered by seasickness.
The working life on the lakes
What is the working life like on a U.S. flag laker? Not bad. The typical crew consists of 24 men. A few, but very few, women work on Great Lakes ships. Harris said the gender integration of shipboard officers is considerably greater on Russian and Dutch vessels.
The eight officers (each represented by one of three different unions) are led by the captain, who is in charge. Dan Hobbs, now 47, was a captain at age 28, one of the youngest on the Great Lakes. He is responsible for all the maneuvering of his ship, the Gemini. This is one of the most sensitive of tasks because of the danger of an oil or chemical spill on a tanker.
Under the captain are three mates who work rotating watches, four hours on, eight hours off, around the clock. The mate is the navigator whose job is to keep the vessel on course. Jon Olney, 46, is second or third mate aboard the American Steamship Company’s American Mariner, a frequent 730-foot visitor to the Manitou Passage. He and the other officers are on duty for 60 days, then have 30 days off, which for Olney means returning to his home near Traverse City to be with his wife, Kathy, and two children. The work routine is continuous with immediate turnarounds in port. No time for shore leave. “Don’t bother to get sick,” Olney told me. “If you’re tired and everybody on board has the flu, it doesn’t matter. You’re still it.”
If you see a ship passing in the middle of the night, there will probably be three people up and awake in the wheelhouse, one or two in the engine room.
The other officers are a chief engineer and three assistant engineers. They keep the engines and other mechanical equipment running smoothly day and night. Eight to 10 deck hands, four others who work below deck, and two cooks round out the crew.
Officers have their own rooms with toilets and showers. The ship has satellite TV. Most of the men bring their own televisions. Many also have stereo systems, laptop computers, and an assortment of video games. Deck (and below-deck) hands usually sleep two to a room. Their work rules are negotiated by their union, either the steelworkers or Seafarers’ International.
Depending on the breakup of ice in the harbors, the typical shipping season runs from late March until just before Christmas or in some cases early January. According to John Tanner, superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, deck hands typically earn $35,000 to $40,000 for the nine months. Third mates receive in the neighborhood of $45,000, second mates $50,000, first mates more than $60,000. Captains are paid $80,000 to $100,000, sometimes more.
Hobbs, Harris and Olney are all alumni of the academy, which is a branch of Northwestern Michigan College, in Traverse City, and the only fresh water maritime academy in the nation. Students elect either the deck program, training for jobs as pilots of mates, or the engine program for marine engineers. After completing the four years of course work and training, many of the men married area women they met as cadets. Tanner estimated that approximately 200 graduates of the academy who are employed on the lakes or in other maritime jobs live in the Grand Traverse Bay area.
To find out more than you will want to know about Great Lakes shipping, consult the website, www.boatnerd.com