Edward L Ryerson Tour

[Music] okay well we're getting ready for a tour for the Maritime Museum at this present time that's why when we go aboard you'll see various signs that depicting the tour route so again that settled that's this weekend the weekends event a little bit about mr. Ryerson mr. Ryerson's grandfather started ryerson company a steel service center in the Chicago area mr. Edward L Ryan rose to to be chairman of the board of Ryerson and in 1935 Ryerson merged with inland steel and he rose to be the president of Ryerson and inland steel company until his retirement in 1953 so again the the namesake that explains a little bit about who mr. Ryerson was the Ryerson family had a connection with steel since the since the early 1800s original Ryerson came to New York in 1663 and had a forge company out there and then it moved in Chicago area in 1842 or so okay yeah yeah yeah they're a worldwide thorough steel service now so and the company still continues to operate inland steel was sold to an East Indian I believe a couple years ago it's now called if bat he has all all assets of the company the the Ryerson is the only one left with the with the stacking you know the inland Steel's stack insignia so there is no more inland steel it's now it's bad and managed by central logistics out of Highland Indiana so we're all set to go aboard if you want to follow us aboard oh not no running Oh okay immediately to our right here is the in the in the in the caged area is a machine shop capable of repairing anything and everything aboard the ship the ship is actually a small city we have no no extension cords no hardware store we can run to when something breaks down so the engineers are a pretty versatile we have to make things happen sometimes in emergency situations so this this area gets used quite heavily and coming out here immediately to AH to the right along side of the cage as the refrigeration units for the galley we're still using three on here and panning to your left you'll see the the upper part of the boilers these are D type boilers 450 psi at 750 degrees superheat they have the they're rated in pounds per hour and basically what's that what that means is they can evaporate 40,000 pounds of water in one hour that's how boilers are rated and there's two of them they burn they're fired by oil a number six oil that's the residual oil you know we heat that to 230 degrees before we can even pump it and the area immediately below that is the fireman station along with the burner a typical burner laying on the deck because the oil is so heavy we atomized that with with steam for for better atomization break up the fuel into smaller particles and if you want to pan behind you we're seeing we're looking at you can see the signs up for the tour the after drinking water tank potable water 20,000 gallons and then also immediately in the foreground is the M or the mg sets we have an electric motor turning tree DC generators for the for the morning winches the morning winches are deeply powered for more control and torque the deck engines or the deck winches develop about 20,000 pounds of foot-pounds of torque so there are six of those aboard the vessel and they use a one-inch steel cable for mooring [Music] so we'll continue that we'll continue you're actually getting the same tour that the people will be getting this weekend there's a there's a placard depicting the ship when it was built I know maybe you want to zoom in on that that's okay we'll proceed down this bladder what what I'm pointing at right here is a retractable foot foot floor because this fuel it is a residual feel it has a tendency to to deposit ash and everything on the boiler tubes which which which makes the boyars less efficient so this retractable unit will go into the boiler and steam steam is it's actually a steam Lance that will clear all the foot off the tubes and then make the boiler efficiently so like I said we're looking at the operating level in the boiler room right now this would be the fireman station he's in charge of the boy of the burners changing and cleaning the boilers there are two burners per boiler this is a typical burner this is a if this burner was being pulled right out of the boiler I'd have to have insulated mitts on because the furnace temperature around 20 to 2300 degrees okay we can move around here we're looking at this this ship is what with the minor putting back together this ship could sail I would say it was in a matter of three to four weeks so the ship is basically as the crew left in 1989 when the vessel laid up here she's all set to go this is a turbo generator 650 kW this also operates on steam 450 psi and 750 degrees superheat what we have here is the turbine which probably turns about 5,000 rpm the reduction gear that brings it down to 1,200 and then finally the generator that provides all the electrical power for for the ship the ship is fully air-conditioned the big the big electrical demand aboard this ship are the ballot pump we have for 125 power motors capable of be balancing the vessel in probably three and a half to four hours and sometimes less but that's predicated the key thing with with an AR carrier is is loading the vessel in a timely fashion the other the other major concern is when you load the vessel you have to get rid of the ballast so that that's why that's the reason with the 400 and the four 125 horsepower ballot pump on the Indians day is this one of the most powerful of the inland boats I think it was 99 horse well yeah they're 9,000 horsepower it can develop ninety-nine hundred horsepower we call it the typical ten thousand horse hauled for all intents and purposes you're looking at the steam turbine right here there's two parts to a steam turbine the high pressure side this arrangement is the throttle arrangements of Barrett the owners were very particular on how the for aesthetic reasons you've seen those steam pipes which would be typical of another steam installation you see no throttle linkage everything is under deck so again we're looking at the high pressure side of the turbine the turbine is turning I want to say 9,000 rpm and actually a steam turbine is just more or less a sophisticated waterwheel instead of water we're turning the wheel with steam again the high temperature 750 degrees there's more energy the higher the temperature and therefore more 'if it more efficient turbine operation from the turbine which is this small piece part right here we go back into a reduction gear this is a double reduction double helical gear from 9,000 we go back to the reduction gear and finally to the shaft rpm we reduced 9,000 down to 105 shaft rpm from this point right here from the end of the reduction gear to the actual propeller is about 40 feet the shaft diameter is 21 inches little over 21 inches the propeller is a five bladed stainless steel configuration the you know let's see what else okay it's one of the propellers 20 feet in diameter and has a 14-foot pitch for every revolution the vessel is propelled ahead 14 feet that's theoretical that that's the way it never works that way because you've got the drag of the ship and other things that's that are considered in there so that'll push this vessel along about I know the brochure it says about 16 miles an hour but it but it will go a little fast sir than that given given the conditions in the trim of the vessel so again that's the responsibility of the captain when you feel when you see a Laker going up the lake in ballast it's usually sitting at a pretty good plane in that and that's to get the bow out of the water because the bow thruster tunnel it causes a great resistance so they want to get that bow thruster tunnel out of the water so they can so they can pick up more speed again we're moving we're moving forward this is not the typical configuration for a steamer most steamers the towel and the boiler stays forward so when I came aboard her as a third assistant it was a little bit hard for me to get used to maneuvering the engine and looking at but you know that's something you just do ok right here is the electrical control cubicle and the oh this is the load distribution center for the ship we can either one run one generator parallel two generators and where I'm standing right now is the operating console this is a man position on and at any given time there's an engineer and an oiler and and a day worker a handyman that take care that takes care of the operation of the vessel again we have the the tachometer here via head travel the external and virtually all vital information is monitored at this point this piece of equipment or this console over here is the boiler automation Council now we can control the boilers water level and the boilers it's fuel-air ratio and everything from here so if you care to back up a little bit I'll show you this this is called an engine order Telegraph it was invented by a guy by the name of Chad Vernon in England to getting to relay messages from the pilot house to the engine room in a timely fashion or I should say a more ordered fashion there's a similar device up in the pilot house the captain when maneuvering the vessel the captain is in the front window and he can the captain will will indicate what he wants the engine to do with the similar piece up in the pilot say if he wanted to go slow ahead this arrow would move to slow ahead and ring a bell the engineer on watch here would answer the Chadbourne and maneuver the engine accordingly the captain also has a tachometer up there to see that the engineer is performing the function he desires there's also a wrong directional arm on here if you would have to turn the engine or move the engine in the wrong direction that alarms that that's one of the requirements you know the American Bureau of shipping in the United States Coast Guard do surveys on this vessel to make sure the machinery and the hull are kept in good working order again we have a little office here mostly for the logbook any event that happens in the engine room or through the vessel and you know the trip is document documented true through entries in the logbook okay we're looking at the low-pressure side of the of the unit right now there's two parts to a steam turbine the high pressure side we saw over here and the low-pressure side as the steam expands it takes more room steam turbine is designed to get every bit of useful work out of the steam that possible and along that path through the turbine at various points when that's when no more use can be made of the steam in the turbine its extracted there's three extractions there's the low pressure the high pressure in the intermedia extraction and that provides different facilities aboard the vessels such as the heating water running auxilary equipment and the big thing is heating the feed water you don't want to put cold water in a boiler that's heated to 350 degrees before we inject it into the boiler the hotter the water you know the left thermal shock on the boiler so I don't want to get into too much detail about that but again moving over here we have an airy Jecker this is a condensing unit immediately underneath the low-pressure turbine is that what we call the main condenser all the steam is condensed back into water we recycle everything so there's about 1,300 1,300 1 inch tubes in this condenser that one runs a short ship under the unit and sea water passes through there and condenses all the youth steam back in the distillate again condensate in it and it's added to the system here we have an area to maintain a 28 inch vacuum on the engine we have an evaporator we make our own knob because there's never a 100% recovery we have a 10,000 gallon reserve feed tank where the VAT though the water made in the evaporator is stored that's in the lower engine room right here we have the the feed pump because the boiler operates at 450 psi we have to have a pretty sophisticated way of getting that water into the boiler so here we have a steam driven feed pump another little turbine that that puts water into the boiler and this unit is an electric centrifugal pump feed pump this is the motor part of it I think this is a 75 horsepower motor and the actual pump itself a multi-stage feed pump rain is that differ well the difference between an older vessel built in the 1900s and a steam turbine that's a reciprocating engine they use saturated steam that part of the lubrication that the Pistons need to operate efficiently they also have a lot of a lot of lot of moving parts very dangerous to work on the oiler physik have to go into the engine and oil various parts it's it's a less sophisticated operation so okay we'll move up this ladder we're going over to the starboard side air compressor is a big thing when you have an automated plant is getting good clean air and dry air so we pay particular attention to that here with the refrigerated unit on this other compressor right here is for ship service you know whatever whatever they the the deck department needs in the way of chipping hammers or anything like that is supplied from from the compressors in the engine room will move through this way here this is the chief's office in the engine room again logbooks records everything is detailed there's the paperwork is almost horrendous that we're required to keep so again this is not in a very serious state due to the do the vessel being laid up here since 1989 this is kind of stuff has just been kind of piled in here if you look forward you can see the weather tunnel will come back that way on after our tour of the forward end but anyway the weather tell us probably about 650 feet long and you end in inclement weather or during a storm the captain will order everybody off the deck and and the weather this weather tunnel be used on the starboard tunnel is for the captains of the passengers and the port tunnel is used by the cruel don't ask me why that's that's one of their rules okay we're up on the we're up on the bar deck right now and this is this would be a typical configuration for for the crew's quarters there are two man's room with a with an adjoining head pretty self-explanatory okay moving out here and we'll move afto we're going to the chief engineer's office this is the heart of all the paperwork and the chief engineer is responsible for all machinery aboard the vet hall so at any given time I was I was a chief on the on the wilfred Sykes and in any given moment whatever happens call the chief and make something happen so it's it's a pretty demanding job the longer the trips are the left the left hectic it is so this this vessel was dedicated to a run from Indiana Harbor inland Steel's only steelmaking facility up to Duluth or superior in back which usually took about seven days for a round-trip so the demands on the crew and the equipment would be less than say like on the Wilfred Sykes the vessel I was on where sometimes we've made three docks a day it's a it's a pretty intense on the machinery and the cruel so again we're coming here we'll take a look at the chief's office and we'll swing around and we'll look at the Chiefs quarters here like Corporate America the more seniority I have and the better room you get so he's got that he's got the corner room with the windows and the in the best view okay we'll continue to move aft and on the left you'll see the officers quarters the first assistant and this is pretty pretty typical these ones are a little bigger than than the average Bethel right now but creature creature comfort was yeah there you go creature comfort was what the concern for the company or for the builders at the time so this is the first assistants room right here the first assistant directly under the chief engineer and pretty much is in charge of the operation of the engine room under the direction of the chief engineer so the training for the chief engineer you know it is to be chief engineer someday if you get with a chief that that wants to retire or wants you to take over the first assistant pretty much runs the show and we like that okay to our left here we're looking at the upper boiler room what we see right here are the ISM is reaching and immediately underneath that is a is a device called the air heater because we want to make use of as much thermal energy as possible the stack gas is cool as it goes up to the stack and at the same time there's a bank of tools in this boxy looking area and that is preheating the incoming air so it's it's very important that you that you try to get the air and the water as hot as possible before it enters the boiler so you so you reduce the chance of thermal shock and that's that's a desire you want as much thermal efficiency as possible for saving fuel and the key to a steam plant is making good steam and that's it's a dedicated effort the second assistant is in charge of that water chemistry is very important he tests water daily sometimes twice a day so again that's that that's one of the key functions of a steam engineer is to make sure that you have good steam if you have good steam every else everything else run run fairly well not to say that you don't have travel but that lessens the amount when we moving it up I should bring your attention to for the maintenance of the quarters which are painted annually on a regular steamer this is a composite it's it's not for a wanker do you know what that says Bob I I'm not sure but it's something similar to it and I know and they built the board I think these tiles are about $75 a piece and that's in 1959 right so it is very expensive 75 bucks for shoe okay as you can see there's quite a few sheets here but then over the years this is paid for itself in a maintenance-free operation you know and that's like I said that goes on yearly on the other vessels where they have to be scrubbed and painted and and maintain the heads in each room are also stainless steel to reduce the maintenance now on that we're double faced so you know that's okay you all think this is only about an inch okay way to because in a regular jointer that the walls would probably be three inches or so or and then then stiffened with steel accordingly okay we're on the fantail now looking at we have spare propeller blades there's five stainless steel blades as I previously explained occasionally when you're maneuvering in ice or if the captain would would back into something and and curl the tip of this blade over or have a blade actually it's bent it has happened that a steamer has lost the blade we carry these spares all ships do have spares for such emergencies and usually it's a shipyard job to change them but I have experienced that personally to change a blade that it takes about 12 to 15 hours with all hands turning to the portside what we have right here in the foreground is an incinerator all garbage in all burner are collected here in Bern daily years ago a lot of stuff went over the side that that mentality has changed we're more environmental friendly now I can truthfully say we nothing goes over the side in everything is burned we keep all recyclable steel we put those off at at the loading port we have a 40,000 gallon holding tank so no sewage goes over the side anymore it's I guess when I started in 1967 we're a lot more conscious of what we're doing to the lake now and it's pretty much a trend on every Great Lakes steamer or every Great Lakes vessel I should say it to kind of take care of them take care of the environment immediately to the right here this is an after steering station should the pilothouse be disabled it was not on common years are going to 20s with the they didn't have a very good way to report the weather and in a few instances of the pilot working we're not right off the foundation thus implementing the regulation having station so that that's accomplished through this unit right here you see a rudder angle indicator that's the wheel in the gyro repeater and the telephone in the box there so so somebody can convey the messages on how to secure the vessel to my knowledge it is used and tested but we've never had to use it no that's an electric motor this this actually turns turns the hydraulic pump under normal operating conditions we have this is a double ram hydraulic system with very control in the pilothouse the rams the steering rams are probably eight inches in diameter that that position the rudder according to the wheel command in the pilot house but this is actually a pump that if you have no electrical power this is an emergency condition you can you are actually turning the hydraulic pump by hand that's not easy okay if you want to step over here and pan the stack that is stainless steel have the Inland insignia on it sometime in the 70s they actually took the word inland off and went with the with the I in front of it or on it okay we're an aluminum lifeboat capable of carrying 50 people this is a gravity type davit so if you pull a few pins here and the boat will launch itself you have to have an electric motor to to raise it up though so again this drills are conducted weekly emergency drills in boat drills the crew doesn't change too much anymore but here's a goal we used to have quite a turtle crew so it's very important and everybody to learn that the life-saving measures aboard the vessels this is one of them the firefighting capabilities we have to be prepared to fight any fire for any emergency aboard the vessel vessel is also equipped with a fixed co2 system in the engine room and in the paint lockers forward nap 76 100-pound co2 bottles and that's a smothering type system commonly used in in the marine practice so there's warnings when that device is founded you have about 60 seconds to get out of the engine room and that's also maintained and tested as part of the ADF and Coast Guard surveys that are conducted aboard every Great Lakes eventful right here we're looking at the at the after cruise rec room we'll be careful if it's still there pretty self-explanatory we have a tv/vcr and on most of the new vessels and all they have satellites for for TV for them from the cruise entered entertainment there this is rather a sedentary life of very ordered life there is a three watch system I have a little chart depicting how the hollow the crew works up in the pirate off and we can elaborate on that a little bit more excuse me this is the upper this is called a fiddly deck you'll see the the actual stats going up through the funnel this area gets to be about 120 in the summertime I've already changed a safety valve on top and I couldn't move to the top of the boiler so just to give you a little idea there do is keeping it going around here we're going into the galley next there's another sill here all these doors by the way our water types are gasketed in dog any water on it for you know any down so that's a major concern also for the for the ABS and Coast Guard certification to maintain watertight integrity in all the cabins and hatches okay you'll have to excuse the plastic wrapping like I said this vessel is ready to go the reefer reefer units are shut down and everything is covered up when I came aboard the vessel there was this was a six-man operation we had chief cook which is responsible for all the ordering and preparation of the meal the second cook under his direction does all the baking and and the salad prep makes the salads in the end the prep and three Porter's one Porter was dedicated to taking care of the officers quarters mopped and made the beds daily and the sense since that time they've automated this operation there also I should back up a little bit there there was a night porter in if you've got off work at midnight or 4:00 in the morning that night porter was up here and he'd cook you breakfast or or serbia launch whatever or whatever you wanted that's gone by the wayside in the 70s and reducing manpower and cost so we're down to a three-man operation here the chief stewart which still is in charge of doing all the cooking in the artery second cook the prep work in the salads in the bacon and one porter however with with that reduction also comes the prepackaged food years ago the cook would get a side of beef and he'd make his own hamburger he cut his own steaks all their work cost savings to do that [Music] there was 37 men aboard its battle yeah now we're down to I believe we're down to 27 they've done away with that with the deck watches they done they've done away with the night porter they've done away with the three firemen that would be normally manning taking care of the boilers in the engine room do that out of that boiler Automation Council and naturally when you get rid of people you don't need as many galley people to take care of them so that reduction was inevitable so if you get into these right yeah the crewing is dictated by it by the United States Coast Guard and it's all related to the safe operation of a vessel what they deemed certain certain measures have to be implemented and that that's an evaluation done by the Coast Guard say if you want to reduce Manning you have to set the criteria and then you have to prove that it can work with the reduced Manning and and and they're doing it doing the manpower is one of the most expensive thing that next to the next to the the crew cost and the fuel that those are the major areas where a company like to save money I would say on the average with the crew of 28 the grocery bill for that will probably run maybe about 10 grand a month give or take I don't know on this when they carry passengers it was a lot higher no expense was paid for the path made for the passengers that was they got the royal treatment if the passengers on this vessel were high ranking company officials or big steel buyers so that money they hope would come back and performance or big steel orders so we're moving in here today there's food there's food is a big item and this is a this is one of the events that sailors kind of look forward to I don't know more on a necessity or or or well how do I want to say that something to do this is this is kind of in addition to the rec room this is kind of a social area of the vessel is the cruise map and there's food here 24 hours a day on earth well it's it's just a given everybody pretty much to expect to eat whenever they want to so we're moving into the officers dining room here everybody had their their assigned seats in here everybody had their assigned Steve pretty much everywhere and when I go aboard a vessel even today I asked the Stewart where do you want me to sit because some of these old timers they have their territory staked out man you don't want you don't want to sit in their seat so this was the captain in the Chiefs table right here this was the mates table in the engineers table so that this is just what I remember from the 80s and if you if you wanted to sit at that table with the captain and the chief you had to be invited we're moving around here we're coming back into the galley and we're we're gonna go into the owner of dining room now put that up I set the tour yesterday and I'm go from I keep things flowing here so again this we about as opulent as as you can get for a steamer this was like I said this is a very very prestigious boat to get a ride on especially in the 60s as a brand-new boat this is where the entertaining was done the last night of the vessel was party night there's no alcohol no alcohol allowed aboard the vessel so after the passengers had their cocktails up forward the captain would bring them back for for dinner and as a crew member I used to wait for the for the passengers to leave to get the leftover shrimp cocktail in the Baked Alaska it was quite a festive night for the passengers look forward to party night we can move out here back on the spar deck okay we're looking we're looking into the owners dining room and and the deck adjacent to that the block had owned inland steel company and it was pretty pretty much the wishes of mrs. block on how that how the the past year quarters and the dining rooms were decorated and Bob if you care to add a story about that because Bob was here when they when they originally fit this bullet out and and did the decorating yeah I can remember that this has since been redecorated somewhat then he was a yellow and green stripe rug of course you have to remember was 1960s oh yeah yellow and green stripes the about six inch wide stripes boy I'll never forget it he just thought it was something real different yeah I can talking about the passengers this was these blocks were the crew thought this was next to God this was the boss coming to take a ride on his boat so no expense was paid or spared I mean and one day the chief engineer came back I was standing and watching the engine room and he said he's he's frantic he says you have your pickup truck at Indiana Harbor and I said yeah well in the passenger quarters the the shower is incorporated in the bathtub and mrs. block somehow got in the shower and and closed the door and couldn't get out everybody's panicked we're gonna rip out the 8/8 bathroom shower doors and buy new ones like on the spot and I'm thinking what oh you know you yeah everybody calmed down after a while but that was a pretty tense moment for the captain and the chief engineer here's mrs. block in the shower and can't get out so then since then I mean all the blocks that absent pass to their dearly reward but anyway a guy you kind of remember those little bits and pieces here and there so we're moving out on deck and we're gonna we're going to go forward the fencing you see on the left of fiberglass fencing that's for the event that's one of the Coast Guard think they wanted us to do prett to prevent anybody from falling falling over the side so again we're looking forward now and with the hatches here and Bob maybe you want to tell us a little about the construction of the the deck and the hatches and actually how all that works well certainly it did was different building this board in 59 and there's the new ones we had very limited creating capacity compare what we had now the put and then after we got a couple of known they they had a speed crane top of the deck which would put the sections on the other side our main deck sections were put up in only 24 foot sections because that's all we could lift I remember a bishop we put up on some boards they were 128 feet long so the different cost the building was certainly much more expensive in them days than it was present day so hatch covers are all even though they're pretty large are all aluminum keep the weight down there's 18 of them and that the hatch covers what we're looking at here the 18 maintain the watertight integrity of the cargo holds our gasketed and and clamped down we'll see that a little bit better when we go off the deck so we can move down and I know the only they have some rivets in you're the only rivets in here are the the gunnel bar and the one steam at the turn of the bills that's riveted the only rivets that were put in you're pretty much pretty much all well that I think the hatch covers the hatch combing were riveted down but otherwise it was very limited amount of riveting you could pan that and come around right right there those are two of the the six morning winches aboard the vessel we saw the motor controller and the mg set down below and we have a similar set up up forward again this ship is actually at a small city small cities because they have their own drinking water and everything that they needed to sustain life up forward except the galley the passengers had their own little galley up there but no matter what happened the forward end guys always had to come back after eat they used to come back a lot again here those are the winch control the mate on watch would control the mooring of the vessel from that station Sol they had to move everything to the rail so he could actually watch what was going on with the with the winches so I don't think there really isn't much more to say here except all the winches are I mean these hatches are secured this is a typical operator this is a typical clamp this is put together this is put together with with a dogging wrench the hatches are or the clamps are adjusted here and these are clamped down here like a like a like a pin in fulcrum so again this is a watertight patch in in the event of a storm or any inclement weather the captain will order every one of these to be dogged in the summertime in in a ballasted condition where the weather is fairly reasonable he may have the the deck crew or he may tell the deck crew to clamp every other one or every third one it's a very labor intense job it takes six men probably three hours to clamp this entire vessel so again especially in a nice sunny afternoon the captain may only require every other hatch or has every other clamp to be dogged on there are several theories of hatch clamps loose water getting in the cargo through the hatch covers or the tanks over full pipes were they well they have both said those had carried away on the storm the vessel was in like you say there's a number of different theories on that I really don't care to speculate on that but if you can imagine what what I can truthfully say is with the experience the captain had I know that every hatch every every clamp was dogged that that's just that's just a given that's so basic that that's not even a consideration for this hatch to fail there would have to be something horrendous happened to the vessel what you have to keep in mind from here to the bottom of the cargo hold is about probably 40 feet and now the vessel is full of full of ore and this to ship any significant amount of water in that hole this this hatch would have to be completely gone so leakage through a hatch wouldn't do it carrying a way of a ballast vent pipe these are usually eight to ten inch pipes that come up on the deck for overflow purposes if that would have carried away I don't very seriously if they'd have taken enough water on for that to cause us thinking of the vessel the typical Syria is that the vessel grounded in uncharted water or charted water that hadn't been up to date since the forties what you have to remember there was 35 foot seas so if you if you're writing a crest you know you're going up 35 you have to come down 35 so I don't know I guess everybody can draw their own conclusions as to what happened it was a tragic event I remember that night I was on the le block and we were anchored below the zoo in the st. Marys River and the captain was captain wanted an anchor and so we proceeded to do what we do in a normal language 20 minutes later he says I need the engine right now well it takes a little bit to get that engine ready and I said so I call him up I said okay I got her turning he says well we're gonna have to run the engine slow ahead probably all night we can't we can't keep Anchorage in the river that's how hot that's how hard to win with so you know you have to forward anchors down and turning the engine 30 rpm all night you know it was it was blowing the hatches are our stat in between here at various points along the vessel this is excuse me this is a one-man operation electric motor driving a hydraulic pump for each wheel when the vessel was built it was state-of-the-art it has has become less of a state of art due to the advances in the in the hydraulic operation that most of the new vessels are are coming out with so again a real a real piece of equipment in a in a real and a real nightmare to work on invariably it would happen about 2:00 in the morning in the rain when the operator which stood here and couldn't see the electrical cable which flipped drink when it was wet would invariably run it over so now all we can't get the hatches on call the chief get somebody out here to splice the cord so funny how you remember the little events what what you see you're on the deck in the way of of mooring lines because the vessel has been laid up here for so long we call these winter lines and at at some point in time they must have parted a line or something and rather than then store these on a reel or anything we just left them lay lay on the deck for for future use okay that's that spec coming up with the garbage can on top that's the exhaust for the bow thruster this small thrusters is a 900 horsepower diesel engine turning a variable shaft I mean a variable propeller located a sword ship in the bow the captain can use this for for controlling the the bow making the dock it's not very effective over or anything over a slow I habit so again you see the forward winches over here through the through the port passageway I should bring your attention to these draft typical operation is the the made inch of the made on watch will load the vessel he's responsible for this hold and the draft which is critical when you're transiting the Soo Locks you're only allowed to draw the vessel is only allowed to draw so much water because there is only so much water so these are the draft gauges one forward and one aft he can tell exactly what kind of where the cargo is and what the trim of the vessel is over here we have a trimming right now we got about a half an inch port list and that Julie because we're we're tied to the port side that's typical again that the mates in charge of keeping the ship on an even keel sometimes that's a little tricky but for the most part these mates are trained in this and you know you kind of grow up in keeping the ship trimming and not even keel we're going into the crew's quarters here on the port side you'll see a typical crew arrangement of forward watchmen and deckhands okay watch the till there okay again these are two men berth with again with the the maintenance for the bulkheads and stainless steel head the terrazzo floors which is you know in 1960 this is pretty much pretty much unheard of those in marine construction okay we'll move over we'll go this way you will walk we'll get over to the starboard side to the officers quarters the second mate would you be in charge of payroll for the vessel or at least for the forward end that was another responsibility of the chief engineer was taking care of the payroll for his crew and keeping track of the hours for the crew first mates room here and okay we're going up we're going up to the the pilot house right now maybe you want to take a quick walk out on the on the bow here we will come back and go up okay we're on the bow of the ship right now one that when the vessel is tramping in a river or making a port they're required to have a watchman in this position more or less the retail or to relay messages to the captain who's standing in the window up there this is a carry I believe a carryover from the days when we didn't have effective radar and you know the viewing position from the pilot again no we're looking at the pilot house up on top in the past few quarters the berthing staterooms on the next level now we can go up to the pilot house okay this is where the navigation and the operation of the ship take place the captain's maneuvering to a dock the captain's position is here in the front window he has a wheels Minh back on the wheel we have everything covered up yet we plan to take this off for the tour when the museum people get over here but there's a wheels Minh there at night there's a watchman up here in a mate so everything is pretty much covered from from right here the captain can pretty much direct what he wants to do with the ship from here I told you about the bow thruster this is the stick for the bow thruster the variable pitch propeller he can move the ball forward or I mean port or starboard this is the the engine order Telegraph that we saw in the engine room again here he's got the rudder angle indicator and he's got the RP I mean the rpm and the rudder angle indicator and also the general repeater should something fail up here should this communication link fail he also has a lever here for a working whistle and that's the mechanical whistle let's that's F and he can tell it's a very loud whistle or horn I should say he can command the engineer to do to run the engine with the whistle for various signals I'm looking for the signals but my guys they're not here okay baby you mentioned the panelling throughout the stainless steel use all for low maintenance nasty things and I recently had a chance to take I believe you say loss oh yeah that the Lord oh yeah third master from inland steel yeah he the finest best we ever sailed on as far as quality workmanship on it but the the welds are beautiful little mess with this thing the best thing he's ever been on yeah I'd have to agree with that I was only on here for two years you know the company through through seniority and and the company's wishes they pretty much you work on some kind of agreement as to what vessel do you want to go on or what vessel do you want to work on so I chose the Wilfred Sykes and in somebody else had chosen to be chief over here so as I explained before this is the chart of the of the working can working hours and the crew aboard the vessel the captain is in charge of the vessel he's responsible for for everything that happens to his vessel and aboard his vessel the first mate stands a four to eight watch the second mate the third mate the wheels men two Watchmen in the deckhands again though there are three four watches so if you're on the twelve before you work from midnight to 4:00 in the morning then again from noon to 4:00 in the afternoon and that and it's a 24/7 you know as long as the vessel op operates you you are required to stand that watch all the mates are licensed by the United States Coast Guard they're there based their licenses based on frequency of trips so when they navigate the st. Marys River they're given a blank chart and have to draw on all the navigable hazards and the buoys in that in that area the chief engineer is right here in charge of all machinery aboard the ship first second third to well one stands a watch and the other third takes care of all the deck equipment in all the maintenance that's up forward tree oil is in a utility man the steward the second cook in the Porter all the engineers are like the United States Coast Guard and that license is rated in horsepower all licenses for this vessel would have to be unlimited horsepower steam the kid coming out of the Academy's today have steam and diesel endorsements we're moving over here no problem just having to meet in the wheelhouse when they're in open waters under way and they did away with the wheels Minh in open water as they used to let's be on the rivers that's right it is man I don't know for sure that I would say eventually they'll all they're all working towards that end the wheels Minh is up here on a 4-hour watch what what they want to do in this a negotiation thing with the labor unions is to get the wheels Minh because of the auto pilot and in the navigation equipment that they have today GPS and the like the need for the wheels Minh to stand to watch and actually steer the vessel is not needing during during open transit in the lake however that he would be required to do that making it Porter going through a river or at night were you need the extra sanitizer for the lookout okay if you want to take a look at these charts right here if you want to get bad for the dishes and see that all right here we have we have no cargo this is the cargo hold and the fire deck which we just came up and the ballast tanks are loaded now under this particular vessel there are no cut there are no ballast tank under the cargo so these are void reboard the amount of between the main deck or yeah the fire deck and the end the water we're moving over here to - OH - a vessel loading in port and you can see that the main concern here is to get the water out in a timely fashion to keep up with a cargo that's coming aboard from a chute so the on the loading time for this vessel is probably three three and a half hours it's - the captain's credit if you can do that in a shorter length of time this is a this is a very intense time for the crew to get the water out of the vessel so there's no delay or the cargo can be loaded in the fastest way possible okay okay here we have a fully loaded vessel and no ballast now you note the freeboard on this vessel I I think there's maybe about eight to twelve feet of free board from the water level to the to the main deck to the gunnel rail and that that's again that's all that's all depicted you know through your load line marks that's all right so it's a regulatory affair when you load the vessels to it to a certain depth so Bob you want to add something about this well yeah when we built the vessel the original this is the first section in was built for then a 3500 speech or 3900 speed crane was put on top of here and I ran back and forward on the deck so that he could take this section from here and put it up on this side and eventually as you got long in there was a psycho speed crane added the one we're working forward one working half putting up making all the lift the other side the boat when the boat got completely built in the speed grande was disassembled and raised out in pieces but that's the way it was put this section over here was picked up from the shore by this crane and put up over here so it was quite a complicated process because of the limited crane capacity that we worked with at that time probably a 35 40 ton crane capacity to a 200 ton capacity that we use nowadays when we build a ship so that's quite different question I've been asked over the years maybe it's the most asked question around here now is why is the Ryerson City and it's a straight Decker it's probably the last one the US flag bulk carrier straight deck there's nothing we're to do a self a motor right and as I understand it the vessels construction doesn't lend itself to be converted to a self and loader small sides and voids here and it's just yes in the 70s the engineering had been done to to convert this to a self on lauter unfortunately was going through a metamorphosis in their in their steel building facility at Indiana Harbor the building of a new blast furnace and most of the revenue at that time got devoted to that project they also evaluated the rate of return as vessel as as to what they could do with the return of a new blast furnace it was unfortunate that the blast furnace one out but being a steel company that's that's where they put their money because at that time they would contract tonnage from other fleets to get the raw material to Indiana Harbor so again you have a vessel carrying 20 in mid-summer capacity carrying 27,000 ton the same amount a crew on a thousand footer will haul 60,000 Congress so it's always and in the same amount of time at the same speed so and and again the cells and footers ourselves on loaders they you'll see them that they have a 250 but boom on they depend nothing no sure site facility to unload the vessel for this vessel you have to have a shore side or bridge several of them to to unload this vessel and when I said eight-hour minimum that is the bare minimum because you're at the mercy of the crew of the rig operators if there's a crew change on the rig on the or bridge that's an hour shot you know I've already been in Indiana Harbor on loading this vessel up to two days for my 48 hours was fairly common and it's not it doesn't make economical sense for a vessel to be import that long so when I took a trip on it in 97 and every 24 hours and somewhere I read that in the inland fleets if you ran a vessel from Escanaba the inland harbor and back same carrying capacities this one a sailfin loader can make 25 extra trips and of course was season as compared the ryerson would be yep that's well that's right every time and whenever a boat sits at a dock you know that's money not being generated when I started sailing in 67 there was 400 and some boats on the lakes were down currently 255 that's counting this the cement carriers what happened in the in term is the older ships got scrapped the ships got bigger and also the seasons got longer it was very common in the early years to have your vessel laid up and be home for Christmas as the fleet decreased the owners wanted more with the ship to generate more revenue that seasons got longer the winners got shorter the last year the couple years I was on the psychs because we laid up in Sturgeon Bay the last day of lay up and the first day of fit out were nine days apart so that was your you look forward to like two to three months off in the winter time you know that doesn't happen anymore you you're lucky to get a month off between fit out and lay up so like I said I have nine days I was awful officially nine days one year so I think it's a demanding lifestyle it's a very unique lifestyle I mean if I would elaborate on some of the stuff that goes on here and no I would do it almost well it probably could be cat classed as fiction but but it is but it is true here very closed society you're you're accepted or you're not the guys that aren't accepted don't make it you know like I said there's the crew changes are less numerous now because there aren't that many ships anymore so all in all it's I guess like anything in life it's what you make you know it's I chose this for for a lifestyle it's been good to me I like I said after 28 years it was time to come home so we'll move down off or do you want to change yes okay we're moving down into the captain's stateroom and we'll go across the ship to the captain's quarters okay we are we're are looking at so again we're on the port side of the ship we're going at warship this is the captain's stateroom and there's stuff missing in here but this is the ship's office the captain's office because he is the captain he gets with the most seniority usually on the ship between him and the chief engineer they get they get they get a little extra treatment so and well deserved now they they pay their dues to get this far it normally takes a guy starting out well from third mate to captain it would usually take I'd say between 20 I'd say right around 20 years to get a captain's job depending on circumstances if he wanted to move around it may be a little less that he wants to stay with one fleet and work his way up and it's the same with a chief engineer I got my license in 1971 and I got my chief engineer's license in 1985 you have to spend so much time in a given rank before the Coast Guard will let you write the next test so by the time you get to be chief engineer and captain you know you I didn't have any gray hair when I started so okay we're moving down now we're going into the passenger quarters the owners quarters we're on the fabric side of the ship there are four state rooms each with two single berth if you want to this is pretty typical like I said it was not uncommon for mrs. block to come down and order a complete redecorating of this of this area to her to her liking so no expense was spared when it came to passengers in the big steel buyers so they do mmm-hmm also I failed to mention before when this vessel carried passengers they had a dedicated reporter this is this was all the guy did and when as long as I can remember every season we'd have the same passenger Porter and he carried to the wishes of the passengers the you name it if the passengers wanted something he did best to try to arrange that for them and he had his own little galley up here also here's these are another couple state links here typical as in the past we're moving over here we're going aft usually what this passenger porter would do he'd fix them light lunches breakfasts anything anything they didn't want to go back out for because the main meals weren't were served apt so that's his little forward galley for the passengers okay we're coming into the salon we're looking to the portside card table on one of the older us to tell you how opulent some of these passenger quarters used to get on one of the u.s. steel boats the governor Miller they actually had a wood-burning fireplace and in the in the passengers salon he remembered yeah like I said it was it was a unique experience for for somebody to get invited aboard this vessel you had to know somebody you had to be a big steel buyer or a corporate executive daily move something yeah they had Magnus well this is a stainless steel chart depicting the trip so we're down here in Indiana Harbor where the vessel originated or the trip originated this was inland Steel's only steelmaking facility unlike us dealer Bethlehem where they had several different steelmaking facilities although all the raw material from the range always wound up in Indiana Harbor so when you boarded the vessel you knew you were always going to get off in Indiana Harbor so we'd come up Lake Michigan and and through the Straits here and into the st. Marys River up on Lake Superior and for years this added Etica dedicated vessel to the dedicated run to the Burlington Northern of Burlington Northern dock and a Louise superior Wisconsin so again here's Escanaba they call down there quite frequently port inland this was a this is a quarry owned by inland steel limestone is using the steelmaking process to collect the slag that is the slag all the impurities in the blast furnace are collected by limestone so that that's a that was a big commodity that had to be transported down to Indiana Harbor and again I think we're up here to Thunder Bay the marks it's just kind of worn anyway yeah that's rent yeah over here there's not much here okay from here from leaving here to from the detour where you started the river that was about a day's run okay and depending on traffic in the river you could you could transit this in 68 hours whitefish point that was a run 12 hours to Marquette or probably 24 hours to superior so the total time of the vessel like you got aboard the vessel made the trip to Superior transiting you'd be back in Indiana Harbor probably six to seven days so it was a you know it was a very nice trip very peaceful going through the river here is very scenic in the summertime and that's where you see most of the other marine traffic too so okay we're moving down now we're going back down and down into the dunnage room on their way back out that pretty much okay this is called a dunnage room this is kind of a carryover from the sailing days when everything was stored down below whatever they needed to operate the ship on the on the port side the port side there you see the 300-pound co2 bottles for discharging in case of a fire in the paint Locker we're looking at the looking aft we're looking at the the electrical control cubicle with the mg sets the winch controllers and the gyro compass the gyro compass is usually placed a midship and the repeaters are placed at various points one in the pilot house one back aft and I've been on vessels where the old man had a general repeater in his room and also a tachometer so he could kind of I think there's one on the Alpena isn't there attacking a general repeater in the old man's room yeah so we're on the main deck one thing I'd like to bring to your attention is is the berthing area which is no longer allowed anything below the Despard deck all berthing area on new vessels have to be above the above the spar deck so that in the old days it was very common to have have your deckhands because they didn't have much seniority this is where the entry level people were birthed down here forward I understand I've never done it running through the ice oh just a mate where is running through the ice it'd be like in the worst thunderstorm you have ever heard I can't describe it up forward you had you're breaking a trail through the ice back aft in the engine room the propeller everything that's broken up is sliding back along the vessel and being chewed up by the propeller so that propeller is continually during ice chunks up against that hall yeah yeah and you can go along for a little while I'm not here not and all of a sudden it's it's beyond description really you really have to experience it and another thing about running in the ice I've never I never ran in the ice with this vessel but on the Wolford sakes it it was not uncommon to have the whole engine room crew in the engine room trying to keep the plan trying we were making the making the trip into little baby not heading for Escanaba and for 12 hours we would we would back the vessel up probably 2 or 3 miles and put it full ahead to try to try to break a trail into end of the dock through the ice very very labor-intensive very fatiguing on the crew and the machinery you know nothing seems to work right including the crew after a while so that was that was my last year Riley and I were on that together that was you know we'd come out of the end and we're stuck right so we give up we're down to call the Coast Guard I think him and I went to bed and we slept for about you know slept for about eight hour straight that's another thing you don't really get to sleep too much it was all the noise yeah yeah you get to sleep all even even during the normal operation if you're honest if you're standing standing a watch if it always by that before you have to go back on and watch so you're never getting eight hours sleep and it's usually I'd say I like to call it if you can get a good floor sleep between watches that that was pretty good you know just so just a normal operation of the ship and you know pretty much the way it is yep it was yeah the ice very like I said that in the ice cube be very typical that turned to curl one of those blades over you wouldn't think that'd be possible but and then then when you do that it's it's real the shaft and the propeller out of balance it would vibrate like like you wouldn't believe okay that pretty much takes care that we're going to go back through the weather tunnel now like I said in a storm or inclement weather it would be in a storm I guess I'll preface preface that it would be not uncommon to see the deck of wash like if you're in a twenty-foot see the whole deck would be awash and the old man would order everybody off the deck to use the weather tunnel and I like to tell the story I'm looking at or I'm looking forward one time through the porthole and I see the wall of water coming down the deck you know and it slams into the after cabin I'm going you know first you jump back just a natural and I'm saying come on come on you know and eventually the water would subside and you know you'd bob up again but one in one particular storm on this vessel the wall of water the wave came down the dock and it you know I just seemed like man that's not like anyone anything I've seen before and it smashed the after cabin so hard it will portal in the Chief Engineers quarters actually smashed the glass at like 3/4 inch tempered glass so yeah that was a lot of scrambling around during that one superior they got some pictures of the Cleveland postponed that it's where's 10 feet of water running across the deck oh yeah yeah green water yeah I've got the video of that oh not out but on the Wilford sake okay we're going back through the weather tunnel in a little dark we don't have all the light bulb change Denver we're walking on top of the ballast tanks as you saw the configuration in the in the pilot house this is the main deck of the ship to my right is the cargo hold and you'll once we get up here in the light you'll see the school kids and it's in to my left is not the site of this ship but all you balance the side of the ballast tank so to actually get to the site of the ship is probably another oh maybe another 10 15 feet to the actual ship side Dave you might want to point out a man here of accessiblity oh yeah to the side tank sitter there's eight ballast tanks along the side of the ship port and starboard and this is the access this is a watertight hatch this is opened up to every at least every five years for surveys to complete it the vessel is to be dried out every five years that's a an ABS the class society requirement the Coast Guard is involved in that during that five year period every space on the vessel has looked at all the voids on the ballast tanks we look what we do is we look and assess for damage and make make a make a judgment as to what has to be repaired what we feel has to be repaired and the owners are usually with us along with several other surveyors underwriters because it does get very expensive so the the owner wants to get the most out of his his dry dock and the most bang for his buck so the vessels are maintained I would say to the higher standard possible that's typical of all Great Lake ships that that's what I do know I'm a I'm a survey for the American Bureau of shipping so from from operating a ship to coming ashore in 94 and and to taking this job with the American Bureau of shipping I've experienced both both worlds oh wow you tell me do these are these are for your bells gates oh yeah these lines run to each ballast tank we didn't get to the ballast manifold that's that's in the lower engine room it's a 24 valve 10 manifold the oiler on watch is in charge of balancing and developing the vessel at the command the engineer on watch or or the captain whatever he has we have King gauges download those our mercury operated switches and these lines can sense the level in the ballast tank so he can watch on the on the starboard side and eight gauges on the port side for 125 horsepower some typical pumps accordingly to keep the Vette to keep the vessel trim and also to keep it to know how much water or feed I think these ballast tanks carry 38 feet of water so you see the importance on the older vessel when I first started they would have to halt the loading operation because the ballot pumps weren't big enough to keep up so there again you're sitting at you're not producing any revenue you're waiting to pump the water out so they can load more cargo so when they built this they to happen typically most or carriers have two similar pumps like 125 horsepower electric motors for pumping and at the record time for loading recall no I doing I I do remember that but I can't remember the timer like an hour or less than an hour to feel feel when every shoot up and dump it all and it put it at the bottom yeah you know when you talk about that it was to the captain's credit that faster he could get the vessel in and out of Port this was a this was a big deal there really isn't much a guy can hang his hat on in this business so if you could do something extraordinary and one thing was well I you know we got the best a long record time we set record tonnage here I made the engine go so fast as an engineer we rent we were efficient any any little thing a guy could do to kind of give himself a pat on the back you know that kind of are you still going yeah okay well we're back where we started from that pretty much concludes the tour again thank you for watching the video and putting up with all my ramblings or see stories but after after 28 years or so when Bob got longer longer than that in the business you you know you pick up a few stories here and there so thank you you know my heart's in it I haven't failed since 94 but there's a lot of personal pride with any sailor that's that's been with a company for any length of time or with a particular ship I see that what the younger guy is coming aboard they'll come aboard and it's pretty much a job well they get a half a season in and they really start to dig in say hey this is my home this is my job I want to do a good job it's it's refreshing to see hey pride also for the boaters of this vessel who come and I'm sure if I've just had a lot of memories and it's great to see it again yeah we were fortunate to invite by Li bar was the owners rep for many years at the end just before my retirement to be offered a ride on this ship so we took a trip marquette to Indiana Harvard back to Marquette is quite a pleasure Phil after 47 years in the shipyards it was it was a great ride because we had spent many hours building it working on is repairing it servicing five-year inspections over the years so it was a pleasure absolutely we were treated like you - yes you can come on for five days or eight or ten on some of you can take a big long trip but in vertically you get off and you wait six or seven pounds more now another thing you know like for a sailor that's another kind of a thing a young guy will go get the board he can't get enough he's in the galleon man this is heaven you know and the next thing you know ah jeez oh I ate too much salt pretty soon like when I say like man I I ate one meal a day but I had this terrible habit of grazing but down and since I've been assured I did put on about ten pounds but you can see the steps involved here you know on any given day would be not not uncommon for any engineer to to climb these ladders several dozen times just just as the just says the way of operating and it's if not even it's not even thought about it that's just what you have to do to do the job oh yeah Pina on it for 90s Alpena Milwaukee Waukegan LP no sauce Chicago peanut in mayonnaise I only missed one of you well again I think that pretty much concludes the tour I want to thank you and hope you have have a good picture of how what shipboard life is aboard a vessel like this because this is [Music]

Channel: Jacob Hartl

Views: 44,870

Keywords: Edward L Ryerson, Tour, Edward L Ryerson Tour, Great Lakes, Great Lake Ship, Great Lakes Steamer, Engine room, Rooms, Guest Rooms, Gally, Kitchen, Pilot House

Id: HRXUwIJ04OQ

Length: 87min 6sec (5226 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2019