"Marty" wrote:


Well, there are no steel mills on the St Lawrence, but there's plenty of
iron ore pellets transported there. Remember the Edmund Fitzgerald?

If there are no steel mills, where is the iron ore going?

Great Lakes ore boats are not designed to handle ocean waters.

Remember the "Fitz" quite well. Got the opportunity to go on board once as a
guest of my distributor who was delivering parts.

Even then, the "Fitz" was a very mature boat.


You're right, not 1000 ft, but 800' pretty damn close, 25,000 tons or more
of cargo.

As I said, a baby boat, especially when you consider 60,000 tons is the
normal 1,000 ft cargo, assuming enough water in the lakes to support 25 ft
draft..

Sure they spend some time in the middle of the lake, but only if the
shortest distance from A to B puts them there for a while.

Take a look at a lake chart, Erie for example.

Mid lake courses are well marked and followed.

Most of the small pleasure boats stay out of the middle of the lake.

Lew