Lake boat

The Great Lakes freighter Walter J. McCarthy sails by downtown Detroit back in 2009. The McCarthy., a self-unloading bulk carrier, is 305m long with a beam of 32m. At this very moment in 2023 she is en route from Duluth, Minnesota to Cleveland, Ohio.

Great Lakes freighters (popularly known as lake boats or lakers) are long and narrow, as you probably guessed from the McCarthy's dimensions, so they can carry large loads through the locks between the Great Lakes.

Because of her length the McCarthy probably cannot get through the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario. Shorter lake freighters can, and can then proceed to the ocean.

I only know about their seagoing ways thanks to Andreas Boettcher, who a week or two ago published a photograph of the FITNES, a Canadian ship out of St. John's that works in the North Sea (the PiP at top left shows Andreas's photo). Andreas explained to me that ships that could work the Great Lakes largely work as bulk carriers in the North and Baltic Seas, just as the McCarthy does on the Great Lakes. I also discovered that some are working the Australian coast.

So thanks to Andreas for broadening my knowledge. I grew up in the Great Lakes calling them lake boats, so assumed that they only worked in the lakes. School was wasted on me.

The harrowing compression is of course due to extreme zoom. I was in Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River, the Walter J. was sticking to the American side, and my little point-and-shoot got stressed.