Tregurtha's Captain Calls It a Career in December

The man in the pilothouse of the Paul R. Tregurtha is retiring in December, and the detail worth sitting with is where he started.

Steve Hughes grew up in Marquette, where his father, a Northern Michigan University geography professor now 97 years old, used to walk him down to watch ore boats work the docks. Three decades later, Hughes commands the longest vessel operating on the Great Lakes. He calls the distinction more symbolic than operational. The freighter watchers who line the banks tend to see it differently.

The Tregurtha was logged downbound through the Soo Locks Sunday evening. She is on the lower lakes this morning, her career at the wheel of that boat down to its last few months.

Meanwhile the Edwin H. Gott, another Interlake boat, is closing the same corridor from the opposite direction: downbound from the Keweenaw with an ETA at the Soo of 12:50 this afternoon. One flagship heading down the system, one fleet-mate coming to the locks behind her, on the same Monday.

Harbor Notes

Robert S. Pierson made it three vessel passages on the Saginaw River this month, arriving Saturday evening at sunset and traveling upriver to unload Goderich salt at the Sargent Docks in Zilwaukee. She finished Sunday morning, worked through the Sixth Street Turning Basin, and headed outbound. Three passages in ten days is a spare count for August on this river.

At Monroe, Clyde S. VanEnkevort departed for Calcite after unloading coal at DTE. CSL Assiniboine cleared Toledo for Stoneport the same morning.

At Cleveland, Mark W. Barker arrived with limestone for Osborne, then moved to the Cargill dock to load salt once empty. American Century arrived at Conneaut with ore for the P&C Dock.

On the St. Clair this morning, Dorothy Ann is downbound from Harbor Beach with an ETA at Port Huron of 10:32, and American Century is upbound with an ETA of 11:21 at the same point. Two lakers, opposite headings, same stretch of water before noon. The Sam Laud we tracked Sunday cleared Port Huron downbound Sunday evening, continuing her run toward the lower lakes.

The Levels Ledger

Lake Ontario leads the gauge at 3.67 feet above Low Water Datum at Rochester. Lake Erie follows at 3.01 feet at Cleveland. Lake Michigan sits at 2.27 feet, Lake Huron at 2.08 feet at Harbor Beach, and Lake Superior at 1.79 feet at Sault Ste. Marie. Superior is the lowest of the five. Boats loading ore at the head of the lakes are working with the least water under them anywhere in the system right now.

Weather on the Water

Lake Huron carries the most unsettled week ahead, with a stalled frontal boundary over the southern Great Lakes bringing organized thunderstorm chances back through early next week. Lake Erie faces three weak low pressure systems near 29.90 inches tracking along the front through Wednesday. Superior is the quietest of the five: a 29.9-inch ridge holds today and into Tuesday before weak troughing moves through Tuesday night. Waves run 2 feet on Superior and Huron, 1 foot on Michigan and Erie.

Looking Astern

The Carl D. Bradley went to the bottom of Lake Michigan in November 1958 with 33 men aboard. Only two survived, pulled from the water by the Coast Guard cutter Sundew. That same Sundew, now 82 years old and privately owned by former Minnesota trucking executive Jeff Foster, is bound for Rogers City this week for a public ceremony at Lakeside Park. The Presque Isle County Historical Museum and the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum arranged the visit. The Bradley's bell, recovered from the wreck in 2007, will ring once for each of the 33 lost.

Tomorrow's Watch Edwin H. Gott is due at the Soo Locks at 12:50 this afternoon; if she locks through on schedule, her stack should clear the St. Marys downbound by mid-afternoon.

Vessel Spotlight: Steve Hughes of Duluth, a Northern Michigan University alumnus, will retire in December after three decades in the industry, most recently as captain of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the longest vessel operating on the Great Lakes. He describes the distinction as more symbolic than operational, though the watchers who grew up the same way he did, standing on shore watching ore boats work the docks, may count it differently.