Found on YouTube. Created by "capspread". Recorded on 1960-05-08. Originally published on 2020-11-08.
#LookatLife #Shipping #StLawrenceSeaway #Canada #Canal
Look at Life - Saint Lawrence Seaway in Canada - 1960
A look at the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
The Saint Lawrence Seaway is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North America, as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota, at the western end of Lake Superior.
(I was on the Maersk Commander in 1975 which sailed on the St Lawrence Seaway calling Detroit, Duluth, Hamilton and only just managed to exit the canal in December before it closed.)
More information about the Seaway follows details of some of the ships which are shown in the video.
Royal Yacht Britannia
Built 1952 – John Brown
Commissioned 1954 – Decommissioned 11 Dec 1997
Now Museum ship in Edinburgh
5769grt
Length – 412 feet – Breadth – 55 feet Draft 15 feet
Speed – 21.5kts
Capacity 250 guests
Crew – 21 officers – 250 Royal Yachtsmen
During her career as Royal Yacht, Britannia conveyed the Queen, other members of the Royal Family and various dignitaries on 696 foreign visits and 272 visits in British waters. In this time, Britannia steamed 1,087,623 miles.
Tronstad – Norwegian freighter . A frequent inland trader.
Built 1956 Kiel, Germany
1995grt Length 78.6m Breadth 12.5m Draught – 5.9m
Speed 11.5knots
Mv Tronstad 1956-1962
Mv Eva -1962-1969
Mv Caribbean Tamanaco 1969-1974
Mv Cruz Del Sur – 1977-1986
MV Cruz Del Sur was arrested in March 1985 by the US Customs for drug smuggling. She lay in the Miami river for a year and was purchased by Broward County. Cruz Del Sur MV was sunk as part of the Broward County Artificial Reef Program on the 19th December 1986.
Oriente – Oslo
Built – 1959 - Niigata, Japan
2333grt
Length – 62.5m Breadth – 13.4m Draft – 6.7m
Speed – 12kts Crew 30
Sank after a collision with the Stavfjord on 8 April 1966 when on route from Cuba for Poland with a cargo of tangerines.
Mv Wheaton - No details
Maplebranch Registered in Canada
Built 1958 – Sorel
4463grt
Length – 361 feet Breadth – 52 feet Draft – 27.16 feet
Built as bulk cement carrier. Converted to tanker at Sorel in summer of 1968 – 4491 grt
In collision, October 10, 1969, with Danish str. ATLANTIC SKOU, off Sorel, P.Q., St. Lawrence River.
Ran aground in heavy ice at entrance to Rimouski, P.Q., January 2, 1973; released on January 11, 1973.
Westbound, grounded below St. Romuald at 0519, July 9, but got herself off at 1541 and proceeded to Quebec.
Damaged while berthing at Imperial Oil dock, Chicoutimi, P.Q., July 22, 1973.
Suffered propeller damage at Seven Islands, P.Q., March 18, 1975; repairs made at Canadian Vickers, Montreal.
Grounded off St. Anthony, Newfoundland, on October 19, 1978, while bound from St. Romuald to Hawke Bay, Newfoundland. Freed herself, sustaining damage to several keel plates and bending propeller blades. Proceeded to Lauzon for permanent repairs.
1981 – renamed L’Erable No.1 Registered Canada
1982 – Renamed Tlatoani Registered Panama
Sold for scrapping in Texas in Summer 1988
Makefjell General Cargo vessel
Built 1959 Kiel Germany
7180 grt
Length – 138m Breadth – 18m
Renamed – Hai Lee 1972
Renamed – New Hailee – 1981
Current State – Decommissioned or lost (no further info)
The seaway opened in 1959 and cost C$470 million, $336.2 million of which was paid by the Canadian government. Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower formally opened the seaway with a short cruise aboard the royal yacht HMY Britannia after addressing crowds in Saint-Lambert, Quebec. 22,000 workers were employed at one time or another on the project, a 2,300-mile-long superhighway for ocean freighters.
Great Lakes and seaway shipping generates $3.4 billion in business revenue annually in the United States. In 2002, ships moved 222 million tons of cargo through the seaway. Overseas shipments, mostly of inbound steel and outbound grain, accounted for 15.4 million tons, or 6.9%, of the total cargo moved. In 2004, seaway grain exports accounted for about 3.6% of U.S. overseas grain shipments, according to the U.S. Grains Council. In a typical year, seaway steel imports account for around 6% of the U.S. annual total. The toll revenue obtained from ocean vessels is about 25–30% of cargo revenue. The Port of Duluth shipped just over 2.5 million metric tons of grain, which is less than the port typically moved in the decade before the seaway opened Lake Superior to deep-draft oceangoing vessels in 1959.
The St. Lawrence Seaway
