Battle of the Lakes

Off Buffalo, there was still ten inches of ice on Lake Erie. In the bay at Marquette, on Lake Superior, there was still broken ice. But off Toledo there was no ice visible within 20 miles of shore, and the St. Clair River from Lake Huron was clear of ice as far as Algonac.

With her steam-plumed whistle barking, the low, trim Lake tanker Paratex moved down Toledo's Maumee River, cleared Cedar Point, and pushed her blunt bow towards Detroit. The Great Lakes shipping season was open--a month ahead of time on Lake Erie, but none too early. For this year all records must be broken.

The Lakes fleet of 750 vessels will be ready, with crews signed on, bunkers filled, provisions aboard, and steam up when the ice breaks up at Duluth, at the Soo, at Cleveland, at Buffalo. Between that date and early December, the 300-odd U.S. and Canadian ore boats will have to move more ore than was ever before thought possible. They will have to carry 90 million tons, or better--mostly from Duluth and Superior to the lower Lake ports--750-1,000 miles by water. Last year they carried 80 million tons (20% more than the previous record, set in 1929), brought back 13 million tons of coal to the Northwest. But what was excellent in 1941 is not good enough in 1942. A record seven million tons of ore was melted in January. February consumption was 12% above last year. By the end of the year the rate will be up to eight and a half million, and a stock will have to be laid in for winter. The pinch is so sharp that it may be necessary to ship most of the return-voyage coal by rail, rushing the boats back empty. Coal takes only three to five hours to load, but eight to twelve hours to unload.

Coal pays 40-55-c- per ton water freight, and if they lose that, most independent shipping companies may show a loss. No ore rates for this season have yet been set, but tall, dapper Alexander Thomas Wood, president of the Lake Carriers Assn., last week started rate negotiations in Washington.

To ease this shipping situation, sixteen ore carriers are being built for the Maritime Commission, five for Pittsburgh S.S. Co. Detroit's twelve automobile carriers (no longer needed) may be rebuilt to carry ore, and ships formerly handling wheat may be switched to the dusty, dirty ore trade. If they are, Northwestern elevators, already jammed with last year's wheat carry-over, will have little room to store this season's wheat harvest.

This week ice breakers are out, smashing a channel to the Soo canal. Behind them Coast Guard boats are placing buoys, checking lights. At the ore docks, 70-ton cars of ore from the fabulous Mesabi range wait for the first ships, the Great Northern Railway men stand by, ready to smash a record made last October--333 ships loaded, at an average time of 2 hr. 35 min. per ship.

A stout stand of the United Nations' lifeline is reeved through the Great Lakes. If it snarls or frays, so does steel production.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.