I was fortunate to live on the banks of the St. Clair River during the 1970's, because that was the heyday of the freighter traffic. It was estimated that a freighter went by on an average of 1 every four minutes. This was one of the busiest waterways for freighter traffic in the world.
With the wheat coming from Duluth, Minnesota and the iron ore from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, plus many other cargoes, there was much commerce going on. And it was fun to watch.
We all looked forward to the Christmas season, since the freighters would practically all be lighted up with beautiful yuletide decorations. they were a wonder to behold as they would slip by in the night all bedecked in their seasonal splendor. Many of us would put up Christmas lights and decorations on the river-side of our homes for the pleasure of the men on the freighters that would go by. Then, too, we always enjoyed the Christmas lights that we could see across the river on the Canadian side, and we wanted them to enjoy our lights in return. (Our visiting friends who lived in the interior of the United States were always amazed that they could look across the river and see another country. We could plainly see their houses, their cars going by, hear their church bells ringing, and watch them as they went through their daily activities. It gave us a great feeling of camaraderie with out Canadian neighbors. Another fact that always puzzled our visitors was that at this particular juncture Canada is to the East of the United States. Many a beautiful sunrise we saw coming from Canada and across the water to Marine City.
The "lakers" were beautiful in their majesty and the "salties" were exciting to watch as they came from all around the globe. Many of the foreign ones were painted in exotic colors and it was thrilling to watch them, to get out the binoculars, read the back of the ship to see what country they were from and to study the different flags that they flew.
Since the current is so tricky at the Blue Water Bridge, where all of the waters of Lake Huron filter into the narrows of the St. Clair River, the foreign freighter had to take on a person, familiar with these waters, to ferry them through this part of the river. As it was, many freighters hit the steel break walls of the Edison Inn, a large complex that sits near the Blue Water Bridge which joins Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario in Canada.)
When the first 1000 foot freighters came into being, most of the Marine City inhabitants rushed down to the water's edge to see the first one go by. It was the Roger Blough. But, most of us were disappointed in its conformation. No longer was it sleek and elegant! It had a square front and back and looked like a clumsy barge to us. We were disappointed.
Unfortunately, the freighters from different parts of the world would empty their bilge water into our lakes, often introducing new creatures into our waters where they had no known predators, such as the sucking eels which attached themselves to our fish - sucking the life blood out of them and leaving large tumor-like growths on their unwilling hosts, practically decimated our game fish; and the tiny zebra mussels which invaded our water intake pipes, clung to the bottoms of our boats and other structures and caused untold damage and millions of dollars to try to combat. The United States now has laws to prohibit these ships from discharging bilge water into our lakes; but who is to know whether they do so or not!
As the timber and iron and copper ore was practically all mined out, (and besides they could buy these materials at less cost from Venezuela), the great shipping companies started downsizing their fleets. The giant Cleveland Cliffs decided to abandon their endeavors and did not renew their rental leases. The Ford Motor Car Company which had a few ships, also decided to bow out of the business.
Industrial developments had made it more economical to use other means of transportation - and the ships still kept going by, but in much smaller numbers. Sometimes, you had to wait a long time to see a freighter go by! How could we ever have anticipated something like that?
I was happy to see in December of 1999 that there were a few freighters that went by that displayed Christmas lights and decorations again. I hope that this is a developing trend and that many more ships will follow suit. We river watchers missed the colorful displays.
When the rivers of the St. Lawrence freeze up the "salties" do not come through the St. Clair River any more until Springtime. But some of the old faithful "lakers" continue their journeys year-around. This can become quite expensive, as when ice jams occur the coast guard ice-breakers from the US and Canada, spend long hours breaking up the ice to free the freighters from their ice-locked prisons. The cutters scurry back and forth, breaking a pathway through the ice, and when there is sufficient room the freighter follows in the open lane. Sometimes, the ice freezes right up again and the coast guard cutters have to start all over again, ramming the ice jams until they can clear another path or the freighter to crawl forth a couple more yards.
Sometimes this goes on for days with many interested bystanders on the shore watching the drama unfold. When there are articles in the newspapers about the situation, or stories on TV or the radio, people drive to the area from far and wide to line the banks to "watch the show".
Many riverbank property owners have filed suit claiming that the activity of the freighters and the rescuing coast guard cutters have pushed the ice to the sides of the river and damaged their sea walls, their docks, and their property.
It was surprising to me to learn that the freighters had speed laws as to how fast they could navigate these waters, because of the damage their wakes would cause the property owners. The freighters were "timed" from Port Huron down to the end of Harsens Island to determined whether they had exceeded the speed limit; especially during the nighttime. So, there was a love-hate relationship with the freighters - but mostly a "love one", because how many places in the world cloud you enjoy the beautiful ships as they passed in such close proximity to the land!
It is sad to see the freighter population going downhill on our waters. They were such an integral part of our existence and most of us, who loved these magnificent ships, bemoan their partial departure from our waters.
Lorraine