The ''Calumet'' was the second

lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the ...

of that name. The vessel was built in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, in 1929, by the

Great Lakes Engineering Works The Great Lakes Engineering Works (GLEW) was a leading shipbuilding company with a shipyard in Ecorse, Michigan, that operated between 1902 and 1960. Within three years of its formation, it was building fifty percent of the tonnage of all ships ...

. For her first 71 years she was operated by two subsidiaries of

US Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, and the Bradley Transportation Company. She was christened the ''Myron C. Taylor'' after one of the directors of US Steel,

Myron Charles Taylor Myron Charles Taylor (January 18, 1874 – May 5, 1959) was an American business magnate, industrialist, and later a diplomat involved in many of the most important geopolitics, geopolitical events during and after World War II. In addition h ...

. She was originally powered by a

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) cylinder, then having given up heat ...

. During her eighty years in service she was upgraded with a self-unloading boom and conveyor belts, a bow thruster, and her steam engine was replaced with a more powerful diesel. According to George Wharton, of the

boatnerd The Boatnerd corporation is a registered not-for-profit corporation intended to spread information about vessels that ply the North American Great Lakes. Services The organization holds annual festivals at sites of interest to those intere ...

site, she was the largest vessel in the US Steel's fleets, when built, but by 1981, she had become one of the smallest. In 1956 US Steel shifted her to the fleet of the Bradley Transportation Company, due to an increased need to transport

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, one of the materials needed in the manufacture of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

. At that time the vessel was retrofitted with a large self-unloading boom and the accompanying change in her holds and the addition of conveyor belts below her holds. Her original steam engine produced , and over the winter of 1967/1968 her steam engine was replaced with a diesel producing . Her bow thruster was retrofitted in 1988. She experienced a number of groundings, collisions and other incidents, none of which caused loss of life or serious damage. When she was damaged in 2007, she was not repaired because she was scheduled to be retired later that year. She was scrapped in

Port Colborne, Ontario Port Colborne is a city in Ontario, Canada that is located on Lake Erie, at the southern end of the Welland Canal, in the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario. The original settlement, known as Gravelly Bay, dates from 1832 and was renamed after ...

in 2008. {{cite news , url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/nerds-ahoy/article1350013/ , title = Nerds ahoy , work =

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

, author = Patrick White , date = 2008-09-26 , location =

, archivedate = 2013-11-21 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131121030156/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/nerds-ahoy/article1350013/ , url-status = live , quote = All over the windswept scrapyard, flash bulbs blaze, especially at the yardworker guiding his cutting torch along the hull of the Calumet, a classic straight-decker laid up after 80 year on the Great Lakes.

References

Great Lakes freighters 1929 ships Ships built in Detroit