Sunday, June 1, 2014

My First Ship! The Michipicoten!

It makes sense that the Michipicoten was my first ship. I really didn't know what I was doing. I've been out to the Island daily with my mother and I'd seen lots of ships over the years. But now that I am living in Marquette with her, I decided to make ship watching into an actual hobby. I learned quickly. As I began to tell people about my new project I found that the Marquette Mining Journal has a notice telling when the ships are due in. I've been checking that daily and catching most of the ships that come in during the day. At first I thought I'd just do a bucket list and try to get all of the ships. Later on I might do that, but at this point there are more than 50 big ships that transport goods on the Great Lakes. Some don't even come to Lake Superior. So I will have to wait and see on the bucket list.

This second Picture of the Michipicoten clearly shows the balancing arm raised. This "arm" (I don't know the actual name for this part of the ship) is what counter-balances the ship as the ore is being loaded. I'm not sure I know exactly how it is used but I can theorize that it aids in shifting the ore to the other side of the hold from where it is being loaded and helps to balance the ship so that it doesn't keel or capsize. I'm sure my understanding and terminology will get better the more I communicate with other enthusiasts. Please feel free to correct me!

By the way, these pictures were taken on May 27, 2014, notice the ice floating on the lake? More on that later.

I am hoping I can open communications between myself and other ship enthusiasts, and the ship crews. I'm sure they have Wi-Fi connectivity on shipboard. I'm hoping someone on a ship will see my Blog and wish to communicate with me.

I invite all photographers, ship enthusiasts, and ship crew members to contact me through this Blog. Thanks for all the good work you all do!

--Cindy Koch-Krol

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