I headed up to the Thousand Islands region this past weekend for some camping at Wellesley Island. For those that don’t know the Saint Lawrence River and Seaway cut through this area to form stunning views of both the natural and man made variety. While the majority of the weekend was spent sitting under a canopy watching the rain fall Sunday provided near perfect weather for watching boats of all shapes, sizes and price ranges.
My wife and I were just about to leave a small park in Alexandria Bay when I noticed a plume of smoke near the horizon. I’m fairly sure I jumped up and down like an excited child when I noticed this freighter slowly making its west. Within 20 minutes the ship known as the Algosoo had finally reached the range of my camera. It passed directly in front of Boldt Castle to form the nice photo you see below. Come to find out the Algosoo is a self unloading bulk carrier owned by the Algoma Central Corporation.
Before the trip I did some research to find the location of the seaway locks in relation to our camp site. Unfortunately the nearest lock was over a hour away so I scratched plans for a visit but I did discover a nifty tool on the official website of the seaway. Turns out you can view a map of all the ships currently making their way through the Great Lakes Seaway System. This includes all the locks, canals and lakes from the Atlantic Ocean to Thunder Bay Ontario. You can view the map by clicking here.
By using the site above we can see that since yesterday the Algosoo has navigated the length of Lake Ontario and is currently moving through the Welland Canal. The Welland allows ship traffic access between Lakes Ontario and Erie. Visiting the website marinetraffic.com shows the eventual destination of the Algosoo as Toledo, Ohio with an arrival of 11PM EST on June 10th, 2013.
Click to Enlarge
Wow! That’s a lot of information but were not done yet. More searching reveals a great website by the name of boatnerd.com that has a very nice history of our friend the Algosoo. Much has happened to this ship over the 39 years since its launch including fires, collisions, groundings, and rescue missions of other freighters. It’s a good read that I recommend.
Click to Enlarge
Time for some cold hard facts.
- Self discharging
- Cargo discharge rate of 5,440 metric tons/hour
- 730 feet long
- 44 feet deep
- 28,000 to 32,000 capcity depending on time of season/desination
- 9,000 HP diesel engines (two Crossley Pielstick)
- Owned by the Agoma Central Corp.
A few more shots.
-
- Click to Enlarge
-
- Click to Enlarge
Now that is a serious dose of daily diesel.