John J. Boland

Photos of the John J. Boland were taken the same day as the previous post. Notice that on this side of the dock there are hardly any icebergs! This is a strange lake phenomenon having to do with predominant winds, lake tides, and the phases of the moon, I don't know. All I know is that the north side of the dock had a huge amount of trapped ice, and the southern side had very little. Also notice how close the ship is to the shore. I will talk more about the dredging later.

The John J. Boland is 680 feet in length, has a beam of 78 feet, and a per-trip capacity of 32,772 tons (All statistical info comes from the Lake Carrier's Association website. For a link to this great source of information on ships, see link list to the right.) The Capacity per foot of Draft is 1,584 tons. It is a ship belonging to the American Steamship Co.

Again notice how close the ship is to the shore. The bottom of the bay is dredged as needed to accommodate these huge ships.

The bridge is situated toward the aft of the ship. In order to see who is on the bridge I need to engage my zoom. I didn't actually catch anyone this particular day.

Proof that the ship is running empty. These are the depth marks for the Draft. The Draft refers to that portion of the ships hull from the water line to the bottom. For every 1,584 tons of ore that gets loaded into the Boland's holds, the ships hull will displace down one foot. That's what the Capacity per foot of draft means. Fully loaded the 32 foot mark may be the only one you can see above the waterline.

I'm not sure if this is a train worker, an iron worker, or a member of the ship's crew, but I spotted him walking up on top of the dock next to the trains that carry the ore out to the ships. Behind him you can see the size of the train car that carries the ore pellets.

Addendum: I have since found out that the men in the orange on top of the dock are all Railroad employees. They are the ones that keep the ore moving from the storage yards to the docks and keep the car shoots working properly. More on this in a future Blog.

More of these same workers. When I looked more closely at this photo I realized that there were two flags flying on the dock. The American Flag and the Canadian flag both fly on the dock since ships from both sides trade at this port.

I took this shot for two reasons, first to show the fence that prevents ship enthusiasts such as myself from climbing up onto the dock from the beach, and second to show the little tiny rope that is keeping the ship from listing out away from the dock. Seems like it could snap like a thread given a little more urging from Newton's forces!