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Portage Ship Canal
- University of Michigan Press
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Portage Ship Canal We were upbound with a load of coal for Marquette, Michigan, and I was excited because I had never been there before. The coal was for commercial as well as residential use. Pickands Mather operated a coal business in Marquette, and we were replenishing the supply. As we approached the breakwater, Shorty, our watchman, explained that Marquette has two harbors, the Lower Harbor off the foot of downtown and the Upper Harbor, called Presque Isle, just north of town. As we came abreast of the Lower Harbor light, which sat at the elbow of the breakwater, I had a clear view of the Lower Harbor ore dock. It was a single gravity-feed dock with room for a ship on each side, similar to the docks at Escanaba and Duluth. Just north of the dock, across the slip, was a large, black area where coal was piled. There was a single unloading rig on the coal dock, and from the direction of the ship I ‹gured that was where we would tie up. The breakwater protecting the Lower Harbor was L-shaped and ran back to land near a Coast Guard Station. The original portion of the breakwater jutted straight south from the station. It was built of concrete and had a tunnel inside so the lighthouse could be reached safely in inclement weather. Later the breakwater was extended to the southeast, although the extension did not include a tunnel. The original tunnel was sealed to prevent the curious from exploring. At the Coast Guard Station there was a second light, the Marquette Harbor Light. A third, the Upper Marquette Light, to the north of the station , marked the Marquette waterfront. Soon the ‹rst mate gave the nod, and we stood by to land the deckhands. The dock looked like an easy one to make, but I wasn’t at the wheel trying to bring her in. It consisted of a large, ›at area covered with a layer of ‹ne black dust. Each step the deckhands took on 91 the pier raised a small cloud. That’s how it is around the Great Lakes ore docks; if it’s not black or red dust, it’s black or red mud. Before long we were tied up, and the steam-powered single unloader began the task of removing 20,000 tons of coal from the cargo holds. Standing on the forecastle deck looking out over the bow we had a great view of a street that ran up a steep hill into town. Marquette appeared to be a busy little town built on a series of steep hills. The streets were lined with cars, mostly from the mid-1950s. I saw only a few of the newer 1961 and 1962 models. After dinner Willie Walker (a wheelsman), Dan Colman, and I walked into town. We climbed a hill up to Front Street and headed back down the hill on Front. Dan mentioned a little park with a statue of Father Marquette that overlooked the Lower Harbor. We found the park and took pictures of each other in front of the statue. It was a very pleasant evening. Daylight lingered as we watched the languid Lower Harbor. In the distance we saw another freighter approaching, though it stopped some distance from the breakwater. Dan said it looked like the Red Wing, one of the Upper Lakes Limited boats out of Canada. The next day after my watch I wandered up the street again. I walked west on Washington and went through a few stores I had not visited the day before. I liked this place. It was a bigger city than I was used to, but it was very pleasant. Up another hill on Third Street and I entered a residential area. The homes looked nice and well kept. I crossed Front again and entered an area of big old-fashioned homes. I walked around admiring these stately places and could not help but think that this would be an easy place to live. Of course, I imagined that every northern community was an easy place to live. Back aboard the Pickands for dinner the crew’s mess was abuzz with chatter about a dispute concerning the dockworkers and their refusal to load American ore into a Canadian boat. Piecing together the conversation I learned that the Canadian government subsidized the building of Canadian freighters and Canadian sailors worked for less money than American sailors. This enabled Canadian steamship...