Walter J. McCarthy Jr. - Warm Day Arrival

Note: While we wait for the 2022 shipping season to start, I am uploading a series of videos I captured in 2021 but haven't published until now. Most of these were held back so we'd have something to enjoy during the off-season, though a few were held back for other reasons. Since I have a good number of these videos, I'll try doing daily uploads for most of this month.

Here is the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. arriving in the Duluth shipping canal on the morning of June 14, 2021. She was arriving to load coal at the SMET dock in Superior, which was then scheduled to be delivered to the power plant at St. Clair, Michigan. I was particularly excited to capture this arrival, as I hadn't captured a salute from the McCarthy since 2015. Most of the previous times I saw her were at night, when she usually doesn't salute. I thought for certain this would be the time I hear her horn again, as it was late enough in the morning that most people were awake. But nope! She didn't salute. I would later see her departure that evening, at which point I finally captured a salute... though a very brief one. To see that video, click here: https://youtu.be/ug22zTfhUN8

Despite the lack of salute, it's still fun to view this video from the depths of March, when nice summer days are still a few months away. Technically, June 14 was still in spring on the calendar... but any warm and sunny day in Duluth has to be counted as summer, since there aren't many to choose from!

The 1000-foot Walter J. McCarthy Jr. was launched in 1977 and originally named the Belle River. She was the first of the 1000-footers built as Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and was the fifth of thirteen 1000-footers built for the Great Lakes. According to the Boatnerd website, the "McCarthy is powered by four V-20 3600 horsepower GM diesel engines. These engines are arranged in pairs, with each pair connected to a gear reduction box driving a four-blade 17.22-foot diameter controllable pitch propeller. This arrangement permits one engine of each pair to drive each propeller shaft for more economical cruising. She is equipped with 1,500 horsepower bow and stern thrusters. Her 37 hatches feed into seven holds, where she is capable of carrying 78,850 tons at her maximum mid-summer draft of 34 feet. Her self-unloading equipment consists of a loop belt conveyor feeding a stern-mounted 250-foot-long unloading boom that can be swung 92 degrees to port or starboard and can discharge at a rate of up to 6,000 short tons of coal per hour." The Belle River was renamed the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. on May 25, 1990 in honor of the retired chairman of Detroit Edison.

If you would like to re-visit the highlights of the 2021 shipping season, be sure to check out this video showing 45 different lake carriers I captured last year: https://youtu.be/TLTrdVa_qC4

Видео Walter J. McCarthy Jr. - Warm Day Arrival канала 1 Long 2 Short