Category Archive

In mid-2022, Interlake Steamship Co. will welcome the first new ship to its fleet since 1981. The Middleburg Heights-based U.S. flag fleet is partnering with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., on construction of the bulk carrier. A news release stated that the ship is “believed to be the first ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes since 1983.” In an email, Interlake president Mark W. Barker said this is the first fully integrated ship the company has built since 1981. It did a tug-barge conversion in 1998. The addition of the new ship will bring Interlake Steamship’s fleet to 10 active vessels, as it will be extending the fleet instead of replacing a ship.

You can’t help but stare at a freighter on the Cuyahoga River. The Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder is a Cleveland mainstay, representing the city’s manufacturing backbone and the river’s environmental resurgence.

The Great Lakes 2019 navigation season officially kicked off at 12:01 a.m. today, with the first 1,000-footer to ply the inland seas snagging this year’s bragging rights as the first ship through the Soo Locks.

Great pay and benefits, free meals plus room and board all without a college degree.

An apprentice pilot on the Great Lakes, Jason Church hops on numerous international cargo vessels in a given year as he transits the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway out to the Atlantic Ocean as a career.

One of the biggest ships on the Great Lakes is getting some seasonal maintenance.

More commercial shipping vessels traveled into the Saginaw River in 2018, reaching the highest number seen in the past eight years.

There’s no denying our Great Lakes Region is full of freighter fans. Whether it’s a 1,000-footer heading into Michigan’s Soo Locks or a sleek tugboat lending a hand to one of its bulkier siblings, people across our area love to watch these big boats ply our inland seas.

We love to watch them, majestic freighters as long as skyscrapers, gliding through Lake Erie or through the curves of the Cuyahoga River.

You can hop on a freighter and see the Great Lakes, work two months straight and then have a month off.