Cargo ships Great Lakes - USA: books - history and shipping lines

Ships of the Great Lakes: An Inside Look at the World's Largest Inland Fleet

Is working on ships, sailing or tugging through the sea-like waters of the Great Lakes something you've imagined yourself doing? Whether it's your dream job or an area of interest, it is no easy task and takes a full crew to power the 1000-footers, steamers, tugs, Seaway and river class vessels.

Lapinski gets close and personal with ship-life, from the captain to the cook, from the inner workings of the engine department to the intricacies of navigation, from the work it takes to load and unload large masses of material, to keeping the ships in tip-top shape around the clock during the busy shipping season.
A huge variety of ships, a huge variety of jobs, and an even bigger cross section of people, all have helped make the lives of Americans a little easier by bringing in or out the goods through the Great Lakes.

Commercial Ships of the Great Lakes: A Photo Gallery

Millions of tons of cargo have been transported across the five Great Lakes bringing the products and commodities of the Midwestern states and Canadian provinces to markets worldwide.
Known for its unique commercial operations, Great Lakes shipping has always relied on the old school uses of single screw tugboats, steam propulsion, and incredibly talented engineers and captains who can maneuver their ships in and out of tight quarters and winding rivers. But times are changing on the Great Lakes, and these changes are signaling the end of an era.

This is the story of that grand era of shipping on the Great Lakes. Over 300 sharp black and white historic and current photographs bring us aboard those hard-working ships that opened the interiors of America and Canada to the world.
"Commercial Ships on the Great Lakes" provides a comprehensive look at these great ships and includes everything from the smallest tugs, the barges, the passenger and workboats, to the gigantic ore boats. Also included are ships relegated to the boneyard and others that have been resurrected as museums, fishing boats, and passenger boats.

Great Lakes Shipping: Ports & Cargoes Photo Gallery

Over 163 million net tons of cargo are moved each year on the Great Lakes in the holds of a vast fleet of steel ships. View first-hand how cargoes are loaded at the grain terminals of Thunder Bay, the ore docks of Minnesota's north shore, or the sprawling Midwest Energy coal dock in Superior.
See where these giant ships and cargoes go "down below" on the infamous Cuyahoga River, the Ford Plant on Detroit's Rouge River, or inside the heart of the famous U.S. Steel Works in Gary, Indiana.

The photographs in this book bring you a slice of industrial America rarely seen by the general public. These images, contemporary and historic, will take you to all of the primary loading and unloading ports from Lake Superior to Lake Erie.

Tugboats of the Great Lakes - Photo Gallery

From the early days of commercial navigation on the waterways of the Great Lakes, tugboats have been needed to guide the ships in and out of the newly constructed ports. As the ships progressed from wooden schooners to large steel steamships, the tugboat also grew in size.
This book takes an in-depth look into the ancient practices of Great Lakes ice-breaking, ship assistance, and towing. At the turn of the century, the towing industry changed forever with the consolidation of fleets and the design of the low-profile powerful steam ship-docking tug. This "G-Tug" design has become known all around the world and these same 80-year old tugs are still the primary workhorse in most harbors on the Lakes today.
Many other designs, unique to the fresh waters of the Great Lakes, are profiled in this book. The severe climate of the Great Lakes region is brutal on the equipment and the tugs are built tough, for heavy ice breaking. A new class of powerful Coast Guard ice-breaking tugs came out in the 1940s. Today, many of these "WYTM" class tugs survive in commercial service on the Lakes. The Lakes have always been home to a large fleet of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tugs. Additionally, U.S. Army auctions have brought many government-class tugs such as LT's, ST's, and DPC's to the Lakes in the hands of private and commercial operators. In the rivers that feed the busy port of Chicago and all throughout New York State on the Erie Canal, a rare species of tug can be found, the famous "canallers", which are also featured in this volume.