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A first of 40 years
ago
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It was a blustery spring Sunday, May 3, 1959, when the British-flag Ramon de Larrinaga steamed into the Port of Duluth-Superior, establishing a long-awaited deep water link between the Twin Ports and the Atlantic Ocean. The de Larrinaga, en route to the Peavey Elevator in Duluth, was greeted by thousands of cheering citizens who ignored rain, wind and cold to recognize the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Five minutes later came a more appropriately named ship, the Herald. Flying a Liberian flag, the Herald went to the Globe Elevator in Superior. Both ships and both elevators are gone now, replaced by bigger vessels and modern grain loading facilities. The de Larrinaga's name endures, though, as an important part of local history, commemorated this year by a special coin produced by the Seaway Port Authority of Duluth. Other ships and events of the past are being remembered throughout the Great Lakes this year on the Seaway's 40th anniversary. Pre-Seaway vessels were limited to lengths of 259 feet and widths of 43.5 feet with drafts of 14 feet. The seven locks in today's Montreal-Lake Ontario section - and the eight locks in the Welland Canal between Lakes Ontario and Erie - accommodate vessels up to 740 feet long and 78 feet wide with drafts of 26 feet. And captive to the lakes west of the Welland Canal (which by-passes Niagara Falls) are the "thousand-footers" and other big lakers hauling domestic and U.S. Canadian iron ore and coal. So we celebrate them all this year, the first ships to traverse the Seaway and the first ships in the last year of the 1900s. We remember the Ramon de Larrinaga, but we serve the ships of today - as depicted on these pages. Photo courtesy Duluth News- Tribune |
But
for the record, lost in the hoopla, is the fact the Great Lakes were
not land-locked until the advent of the St. Lawrence Seaway. For more
than a century before 1959, a series of small lock systems had evolved
to navigate around the tumbling rapids of the St. Lawrence River between
Lake Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. In the final pre-Seaway decades,
Canadian "canallers" carrying up to 3,000 tons and small ocean
ships of up to 1,600 tons negotiated 22 locks to climb or descend the
244 feet between Lake Ontario and sea level. |
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