American Integrity - The Eyes of a Monster

Here is the American Century departing Duluth, Minnesota late on June 4, 2023. She had loaded low-sulfur coal at the Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior and was heading out onto Lake Superior towards her eventual destination of the power plant at St. Clair, Michigan. The American Integrity was the fourth of six 1000-footers we saw pass through the Duluth shipping canal on June 4, with the others being the Walter J. McCarthy Jr., Indiana Harbor (three times!), and American Century. Only their fleet mates the Burns Harbor and American Spirit didn't make the passage on this day. As the American Integrity made her way through the shipping canal, the clock struck midnight... bringing a very busy June 4th to a conclusion.

As she made her turn to line up with the shipping canal, one cannot help but notice the two bright floodlights on the pilot house of the American Integrity... looking like the eyes of a monster in the darkness. Thankfully, the American Integrity has been a friendly monster so far. In fact, she is so friendly that she didn't even growl in the night, hoping to avoid waking up residents sleeping nearby in the Park Point neighborhood.

When people visit Duluth, I strongly recommend that they take in at least one night passage of a lake freighter. Gone are the loud cars, obnoxious tourists, loudspeaker announcements, private motorboats, and those awful e-scooters. Instead, the piers are much more peaceful... to the point that you might even forget that the giant steel boat quietly gliding by is carrying 70,000 tons of coal! And if you happen to hear a salute in the night, pay attention to how many times the horns echo off of the Duluth hillside.

The 1000-foot American Integrity was launched in 1978 as the Lewis Wilson Foy. She was renamed the Oglebay Norton in 1991 when she was sold to the company of the same, then finally renamed the American Integrity in 2006 when she was sold to the American Steamship Company. According to the Boatnerd website, she is "powered by 4 GM Electro-Motive Division 20-645-E7 V-20 cylinder two stroke cycle, single acting 3,600 b.h.p diesel engines burning marine diesel oil. The power is fed through Falk single reduction gears to 2 controllable-pitch propellers giving the vessel a service speed of 18.4 m.p.h. She is equipped with both bow and stern thrusters. The vessel's 37 hatches feed into 7 holds where she is capable of carrying 78,850 tons at her mid summer draft of 34' 00". Her self unloading system feeds a stern mounted 250' discharge boom that can be swung 92 degrees to port or starboard and unload at a rate of up to 8,930 tons (10,000 net tons) per hour."

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