MV ''John J. Boland'' is a diesel-powered

lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that operate on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Since the late 19th century, lakers have carried bulk cargoes of m ...

owned and operated by the Buffalo-based

American Steamship Company The American Steamship Company (ASC) is an American transportation company that operates a fleet of self-unloading vessels in the Great Lakes. The company is currently owned by Rand Logistics Inc. History The American Steamship Company was fo ...

(ASC), a subsidiary of Rand Logistics. This vessel was built in 1973 at

Bay Shipbuilding Company Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) is a shipyard and dry dock company in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. As of 2015, Bay Ships was a subsidiary of Fincantieri Marine Group and produces articulated tug and barges, OPA-90 compliant double hu ...

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Sturgeon Bay is a city in and the county seat of Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,646 at the 2020 Census. The city is well-known regionally for being the largest city of the Door Peninsula, after which the county is na ...

. Initially named ''Charles E. Wilson'', the vessel was renamed to its current name in 2000. She is a self-unloading vessel, with a boom, mounting a conveyor belt, that could be swung to port or starboard. The ship is long and wide, with a carrying capacity of 34,000 tons (at midsummer draft), limestone, grain,

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

Design and description

The

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the stern ...

with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . At the time of construction, the vessel was measured at and . The ship is powered by two GM

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s rated at driving one

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

and bow and stern thrusters. The ship has a maximum speed of . She is a self-unloading vessel, with a boom, mounting a conveyor belt, that could be swung 105° to port or starboard. The ship has 22 hatches for 6

holds A hold (abbreviated HLD, H or HD) is awarded to a relief pitcher who meets the following three conditions: :1. Enters the game in a save (baseball), save situation; that is, when all of the following three conditions apply: :: (a) He appears i ...

Service history

The ship was built under the terms of the

Merchant Marine Act of 1970 A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

, the first of nine vessels built by the Buffalo-based

, taking advantage of the Act's loan guarantees. She cost $13.7 million USD. The ship was constructed by Bay Shipbuilding at their yard in

with the

yard number __NOTOC__ M ...

710. The ship was launched on March 10, 1973 and completed on September 1 later that year as ''Charles E. Wilson''. The official owner of the ship is the Franklin Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the American Steamship Company, with the exception of a short period in 1978 where the American Steam Ship Company took over. The vessel is registered in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

. Operated by the American Steamship Company on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, ''Charles E. Wilson'' served uneventfully until 2000. In January 2000 the third ship to be named ''John J. Boland'' was sold and ''Charles E. Wilson'' was renamed ''John J. Boland''. On January 2, 2018 ''John J. Boland'' was among the ships that became trapped in ice on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. The ship was freed by

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

vessels on January 4. The ship is currently in service.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:John J. Boland 1973 ships Great Lakes freighters Ships built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin