English River (ship)

English River is a Canadian lake freighter and bulk carrier, launched in 1961.[1] In her initial years she carried bulk cargoes and deck cargoes to smaller ports on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River watershed and estuary. Her cargo capacity is about a quarter that of most of the Great Lakes fleet, she is slightly more than half the length, and her draught is about two-thirds that of larger vessels.

English River moored by the Lafarge terminal in the Polson slip in Toronto.
History
Name: English River
Owner:
Operator:
Builder: Collingwood Shipyards, Collingwood, Ontario
Launched: 8 September 1961
Completed: October 1961
In service: 1962
Out of service: 2018
Identification:
Fate: Scrapped in November 2018
General characteristics [1]
Type: Lake freighter and bulk carrier
Tonnage:
Length: 123.22 m (404 ft 3 in)
Beam: 18.29 m (60 ft 0 in)
Depth: 11.13 m (36 ft 6 in)
Propulsion: 1 diesel engine, 1,850 bhp (1,380 kW)
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity: 7,450 long tons (7,570,000 kg)

By 1973 there was less need to sail to these small ports, as they could be served by new roads or railroads, so she was converted to a self-loading and unloading bulk carrier.[1] Subsequently she has carried mainly raw concrete for the construction industry.

She was built in Collingwood, Ontario by Collingwood Shipyards.[1] She was initially owned by Canadian General Electric. However, they never operated the vessel, chartering her to Canada Steamship Lines. Canada Steamship bought the vessel in 1963.

In 1973, the vessel was refitted and equipped with self-loading equipment by Port Arthur Shipbuilding in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario.[1] At that point she was chartered to Canada Cement Lafarge. Canada Steamship Lines continued to operate the vessel, but Laurentide Financial assumed ownership, until 1992, when Lafarge took over ownership. Her refit increased her cargo capacity from 5,200 long tons (5,300,000 kg) to 7,450 long tons (7,570,000 kg).

Canada Steamship Lines continues to operate the vessel, Lafarge continues to own her.[1] She carries raw concrete from quarries in Bath, Ontario to Toronto, Hamilton, Whitefish, Port Stanley, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Oswego, New York.

English River has been a relatively safe vessel, and has been one of the earliest vessels to travel the lakes in the spring.[1] In 1996 she collided with a dock in Cleveland. In 2012 an employee of Port Weller Dry Docks was seriously injured when he fell 10 metres (33 ft) into her hold in a shipyard in Port Weller, Ontario.[2] English River had a sister ship, French River—also named after an Ontario River.[1]

References
  1. George Wharton. "Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature – English River". boatnerd. Archived from the original on 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2013-09-04. A safe vessel; the only recent recorded incident occurred in Cleveland in the spring of 1996. The English River got caught crosswise in the current of the Cuyahoga River and backed down into a cement/steel dock causing some damage to both the vessel and dock. The vessel has often been honored in spring by being the first vessel of the season into several lower lake ports and maintains a busy schedule throughout the shipping season.
  2. "Worker plunges 10 metres in lake-freighter fall". St Catharines, Ontario: Hamilton Spectator. 2012-03-12. Archived from the original on 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2013-09-04. The 53-year-old man, who fell 10 metres inside the ship at 1:30 p.m., was airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital with life-threatening injuries after being rescued from the confined area by firefighters. The man fell inside the lake freighter English River which has been at the Seaway Marine and Industrial Inc. drydocks for repairs since December.

Media related to English River (ship, 1961) at Wikimedia Commons

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