A Visit to the American Mariner

 

The American Mariner has been wintering downtown at the Cheerios plant!

I saw it a few weeks ago and I went back yesterday after church to visit it. The Outer Harbor was dramatic and windy but you can tell spring is coming.

Geese were walking around on the ice.

This is a time of year I love. A few days ago I paused in running errands and I drew Channel 4.

It is still pretty cold out to do drawings outside. I had hopes yesterday when I went to the waterfront but it was so windy you just had to forget it.

However again, that is what I love about this time of year. Spring is just getting started.

The sky is the limit!

Welcoming the American Mariner

You know me and my preoccupation with Great Lakes freighters. Especially now that I have spent hours over the last few weeks sketching the Maumee.

I have been missing the Maumee since it shipped out. But this evening, my ship came in! My new ship, that is.

It is the American Mariner! This Web log is no stranger to the American Mariner. I have seen it before. When I worked for The Buffalo News I even got to interview its captain.

But tonight I saw the ship as I have never seen it before! 

I went down to the Outer Harbor to get in my 10,000 steps. At about my 6500th step, I hear this big loud horn. It was a foghorn! I did not realize that at the time. I just knew it was a kind of horn I had not heard before and it must belong to a big, big ship.

One woman called her son to ask if he knew about a freighter coming in. I appreciated that her son would know about this kind of thing. But he did not seem to know.

I said, "Well, something is out there. There is a big ship ready to come in."

Sure enough, after a few minutes there it was. This big, graceful shape on the horizon, beyond the breakwall. 

Someone told me it was the American Mariner. That is the biggest ship to come in to Buffalo. I know that because of my story.

Long story short, a whole bunch of us, most of us strangers, wound up gathered on a hill by the lighthouse, watching the American Mariner come in. Here is an amateurish picture I took. I think the phone put on the flash. The pictures my new friends were taking were a lot better, I am sure.

It was so much fun! It was like being in heaven. These people were my people! They knew all about the Maumee which I had been drawing. They recommended websites and Facebook groups that could hip you to this kind of thing. They were as much in awe as I was as we stood on this hilltop and watched the huge ship glide into the Buffalo River. Night was falling and lights were blinking on.

One gentleman marveled that he thought that the American Mariner was flying the Buffalo Sabres flag and the Buffalo Bills flag.

That was when I contributed my one bit of knowledge, going back to my story.

I said: "The captain is from Buffalo!"

And a shout went up as my new friends delighted in that new factoid. I was so proud to have contributed something because they knew so much.

What a wonderful evening -- darkness falling, the city skyline twinkling, the loud hum of this gigantic ship passing by, on its way to the Cheerios plant. Right now it is docked right where the Maumee was. 

I am going to go visit it.

And draw it!

Back to the Cheerios plant

 

Today I went back and again sketched the Maumee, which is fast becoming an old friend. I sit with the Maumee in the evening until the ship's lights begin to blink on.

The people around the docks are getting to know me too. One gentleman yesterday told me that the Maumee's presence is a kind of first to him. He said that he could never remember a ship wintering here as the Maumee is doing.

I confessed that I had a thing for these freighters. He asked me about it. He said he was a sailor. Look at me, down on the docks, talking with sailors.

It is the best I can do to draw the back end of the ship, pictured above.

I do like that picture, I have to tell you. I had a nice smooth pen to draw it with. These Microns, they kick around my purse and my car and they do not stay nice for very long. Part of the problem is the caps. The Micron makers blew it with the caps. The caps come off too easily and are lost too easily. 

I lucked out today and had a wonderful time drawing the smooth outlines of the ship, inking in the windows of the Cheerios plant. I was sitting right down by the water, on the steps of the dock.

The beaver, or whatever creature that was, was not in evidence today. I was disappointed.

But I did entertain myself with the drawing. The evening was lovely and as if to welcome me, the Cheerios plant began piping out that sugary Cheerios aroma.

After the drawing above I turned the page and tried drawing the whole ship. It can be done, I can see that. You have to start with a long swipe up, as if you are drawing with a calligraphy pen, and then you just have to take things from there. I have a good start. Tomorrow mayhap I will post what I did.

Mayhap, listen to me!

I am becoming a salt.

Arr, arr, mate!

When I was done I walked back to Wilkeson Pointe and sat down on the beach with my friend Ryan who was already there. Ryan was relieved that the beaver was not there by the river and so he had not missed anything.

The grain elevator lighted up as the daylight disappeared. Again I had the feeling that I hated to see the day end. The ice is melting. One of these days the Maumee will be gone and this episode of my life will be over.

But not yet.

I think I still have a few days!

The Maumee and me

The freighter called the Maumee is docked down by the Cheerios plant. I believe it is spending the winter there.

It is parked next to the Cheerios plant and it is surrounded by ice! The ice is melting a bit but it is still very much there and ducks and ducklings are waddling around on it.

I noticed the Maumee a few weeks ago because I am always on the lookout for these Great Lakes Freighters and I love to monitor their comings and goings. Looking on Boatnerd, a site I love, I was excited to read that the Maumee was built in 1929. Alas, it turned out that was a different Maumee. That Maumee was scrapped not long ago. This one dates to 1953.

Here is the correct Maumee on Boatnerd. Ships typically go through a number of names and this ship was originally called the Reserve. I love the scholarship on Boatnerd! "The Reserve sailed on her maiden voyage from the shipyard April 22, 1953 upbound in ballast to Superior, WI for a 18,571 ton (18,869 mt) load of iron ore." Boatnerd is amazing. Every writeup tells you everything the freighter in question hauled, all the names it had, why it was named what it was, where it went, all the collisions it got into, which tugboats hauled it to safety, where it was repaired, everything.

The Reserve had also made a voyage in 1952 so, you figure that one out, I cannot.

This evening down at the Outer Harbor I found a little walkway across the river that gave me a decent view of one end of the Maumee anyway. Looking on Boatnerd I see that the photographer there, she did not do much better. It is hard to get a view of the whole ship because they are so massive.

However I was fortunate to get where I did. I had not realized there was this area where there are platforms going out over the water. I went out on one walkway and took this picture looking back where I had come from.

Then I found this adorable set of steps!

The steps headed down to the ice and signs warned you that the water could be electric. I am not making this up! Needless to say I stayed prudently up near the top.

Conditions were not ideal, but I had a wonderful time sketching the Maumee, not worrying about it, just having fun and feeling so lucky to be where I was. The sun came out and shadows appeared on the grain elevators. The air smelled wonderful, like spring. A crewman appeared on the deck of the Maumee and walked along its length. The ship's lights began to flicker on. I was thrilled. I am in love with lake freighters. I do not know what it is! Everything about them, I love. 

I would like to work on this drawing. I think I could do something good. Today I had not planned on doing this sketch and all I had with me was my long and narrow sketchbook, 5 by 12 inches. I would like to use a bigger piece of paper. Another thing, I was thinking maybe that in this case it might be interesting to branch out from pen and ink and try charcoal, or marker, or something, I am not sure. It is just that pen and ink is a kind of delicate medium for this massive freighter.

Well, this ice is not all melting anytime soon so with luck the Maumee will be with us a while.

And now that I know my way around, I will not be a stranger! Me and the Maumee, we are not through yet.

Ships passing in the night

It was thrilling last night down at the waterfront because the Brig Niagara was there. That is what it was called, the Brig Niagara! Usually it is in Erie. That is what one history nerd told us. But today it was in Buffalo.

The Brig Niagara, pictured above, was from the War of 1812!

Imagine it surviving all these years. It is here for just a couple of days and it is being celebrated.

The whole waterfront was alive. People from all walks of life were walking everywhere and reading posters and asking questions.

And in the middle was this sweet little ship, with sails that smelled musty, like the inside of an old house. This being Buffalo there was a private party going on so you could not get on the ship. But you sure could smell it, that centuries-old smell.

My friend Michelle from work and I were walking around agog. When we finally started walking away, the wildest thing happened.

We heard this giant, loud foghorn!

The kind of noise that cannot be ignored!

We turned around and what did we see but this gigantic freighter heading out of the Buffalo River, honking its horn.

Hahahaa! Get out of my way!

The freighter was the Cuyahoga.

I have never seen it before. Not that it cared. It was all lit up, the length of multiple football fields, heading out onto the Great Lakes. The Cuyahoga is a Canadian freighter, the second-oldest in Canada. It was built in 1943. The year Leonard Pennario made his debut with the New York Philharmonic!

The above picture was snapped by a friend of a Facebook friend who was also there last night. I took pictures with my phone but I cannot figure out right now how to import them. Perhaps tomorrow.

Anyway, it was just too funny. This delicate fragile old ship from 1812 sitting in the harbor, and here comes this massive ship, the Cuyahoga, blowing its horn.

It had to leave now, you know? It could not wait.

In a way, being built in 1943, the Cuyahoga was historic too. And all the people lined up on the shore admiring the brig Niagara began admiring the old freighter, too, as it steamed forward, just doing its job, bathed in lights, brimming with power and presence.

But still you had to laugh at the possibility for disaster.

You could just picture it crashing into the Brig Niagara!

If this were a Richard Scarry story ...

... that is what would have happened. The captain of the Cuyahoga -- he would be a dog, or a pig -- would be having a beer or something and.... Crash!! Oh, dear!!!

Later everyone would be saying, "That poor Brig Niagara, it survived all these years.

"And then we brought it to Buffalo...."

Our ship comes in

Today at my desk at work, sudden excitement!

The Herbert C. Jackson sailed into view.

I jumped up. I alerted Susan Martin, the Home and Style editor, at the next desk. Just as I did in 2009, the first time I saw the Herbert C. Jackson.

Today I did not bother taking any pictures because No. 1, the Facebook camera app on my phone is kaput, and No. 2, I have taken pictures before and these would not be appreciatively different.

Above is a picture I took in '09 of the Herbert C. Jackson. Here is another of it heading out to sea.

Love that Buffalo sky!

I told Howard the Herbert C. Jackson emitted black smoke which makes us wonder if it burns coal. If it does, we love it. Well, we love it anyway.

I got to do a story on the business page last year, I think it was, on freighters on the Great Lakes. The story ended up, to be honest, being a big nightmare for me. I am not used to writing about ore and trade and all that stuff and at the end, panicked, I ended up getting this guy from Buffalo Crushed Stone out of a meeting. Buffalo Crushed Stone owns our port.

"What's the matter?" I remember the guy from Buffalo Crushed Stone asked me when I got him out of that meeting.

"You have to help me!" I always laugh remembering saying that. But at the time it was not funny! I had to go over this paragraph all about ore and grain and Thunder Bay and pellets, and what went from what city to what other city. I was so mixed up!

But it all ended OK. I love the glamour behind the ships. Captain Dan, who sometimes pilots the American Mariner, the biggest freighter ever to make its way up the Buffalo River, he told me that in olden days the crew would dress for dinner and gather to dine in rooms with beautiful woodwork.

Now the crew just kind of hang out and wear baseball caps and play with their iPhones. Oh well.

The Herbert C. Jackson is becoming like an old friend. It was built in 1959, the year that Pennario's "Concertos Under the Stars" was one of the nation's best-selling albums.

It was a time of glamour and good taste!

Out to sea

Yesterday at my desk at work I took this masterful picture of the American Mariner sailing out of the Buffalo harbor. I took it on my phone and posted it on my Facebook page.

Isn't it funny, you just cannot explain the things that thrill you.

My brother George and I, just as an example, we are both interested in old things in general: buildings, preservation. However my interest extends into industry and George's does not. I love old factories and he does not. And I love these Great Lakes ships. I did not even have to see the writing on this one to know that it was the American Mariner. Because no other ship is as big and now I have a practiced eye.

Big Great Lakes freighters, I love looking at them. I love the lore that surrounds them. It was a thrill for me to meet the captain of the American Mariner, Captain Dan Bartels, and write about him for the paper a while ago. He lives across the street from my mom, is how I got to meet him.

From time to time I kick around ideas of things that would be fun to explore once I have completed my book about Leonard Pennario, not that anything could ever be more fascinating than Pennario.

Great Lakes shipping could be one thing!

I just think I could do a good job with that.

Madame LaFarge

You know me and my ships! And a dandy one today sailed into sight. It is the English River! It is owned by LaFarge Cement.

It is hard to see in the picture I hastily took from my desk but see the truck going over the Skyway? If you look directly down from that there is the ship.

Here is a cool picture I found online of our new friend the English River on the Welland Canal.


And another picture snapped in Buffalo.


Here is a shot I like of the English River leaving Cleveland. It was built in 1961 and has a capacity of 5,200 tons.


We do like our Great Lakes freighters here on the Leonard Pennario Web log.

Remember the Herbert C. Jackson?

And the Adam E. Cornelius?

Slowly we are collecting more. This is more fun than bird watching!

And it is exciting, because you never know when one will sail into view.

You never know when your ship will come in!

Ship ahoy!

Yesterday there I am going through my worker-drone work day when all of a sudden, excitement!!!

I looked up from my desk and I saw this huge ship. I jumped up.

"That is the biggest ship I have ever seen in my life!" I exclaimed.

My coworker Susan Martin jumped up too. She is our style and fashion editor! She knows style when she sees it and this ship had style. "Do you have your camera?" she said.

I did!

I also got my glasses so I could read the name of the ship.

It is the Herbert C. Jackson!

Remember when we were visited by the Adam E. Cornelius and how thrilling that was? The Herbert C. Jackson is bigger.

That is a picture of the Herbert C. Jackson up above unloading grain in Buffalo. There is this wonderful site called www.boatnerd.com that gives you pictures and statistics of all kinds of freighters which, I do not know why I like these freighters but I do. I told our business editor, Grove Potter, to pull strings so I can take a tour of one of them. Perhaps they will let me ride on one of them too! Perhaps I can sail to Duluth. I have a review of a recital Leonard Pennario gave in Duluth, did I mention that? The Duluth Library sent it to me. The review said that Pennario was a favorite of Duluthians.

I wonder if the Herbert C. Jackson sails to Duluth.

Wait! It does! Here is a picture of the ship in Duluth that I found on www.boatnerd.com.

This site is great. They list all these ships and apparently what happens is boat nerds, like me I guess, snap pictures of these ships when they see them and send them in. So you can see the Herbert C. Jackson, which I now learn was first launched in 1959, in about 100 different locations. It is like Howard and his smoking chair! Well, almost.

Here is a shot someone posted of the ship in Buffalo with our grain elevators.


Here is the Herbert C. Jackson in Milwaukee. A beautiful night shot!


What about Michael Jackson?


Hereafter when we hear the name Jackson we will not think of him! We will think rather of the Herbert C. Jackson.

Here is the beautiful and historic shot I took of the ship from our office window. Click on the pic and you can see the ship better.


By the time I was able to run out of the office and outside the Herbert C. Jackson was heading out to sea. It was being guided by a tugboat.


Another picture which shows our marvelous sky.


Buffalonians were fascinated.


Here is the Herbert C. Jackson leaving Buffalo and sailing farther and farther away. Goodbye, Herbert C. Jackson! Godspeed!


The ship gives Buffalo a smoke signal as a farewell salute.


The tug heads home.


Our story ends.

But today after the visit of the Herbert C. Jackson, Buffalo feels a little different.

The ship brought magic with it!

Now, Voyager

This huge freighter went steaming the other day out of the Buffalo harbor, right outside my office window! So I had to stop working and take a picture. There is the ship up above. It is the Adam E. Cornelius!

Isn't it the biggest ship you ever saw in your life?

Susan Martin is the Home and Garden Editor and she sits next to me and she suggested I look up the Adam E. Cornelius on the Internet which I did. I found this great site called www.boatnerd.com where you can read about the ship here. I learned it was built in 1973 at a cost of $14 million.

Adam E. Cornelius was one of the two founding partners of Boland & Cornelius which was the forerunner of American Steamship Lines. There was another ship called the Adam E. Cornelius built in 1908 but it was scrapped.

Here is a picture of the Adam E. Cornelius taken once when it was laid up.


Welcome, Adam E. Cornelius, to Buffalo! And Godspeed on your future journeys on the Great Lakes.

I wonder if anyone is writing a biography of Adam E. Cornelius the way I am writing one of Leonard Pennario.

Perhaps a few months before Adam E. Cornelius died his phone rang and a woman's voice said, "Is this Adam E. Cornelius? Mr. Cornelius, hi! I am a writer for your hometown paper and I would like to ask you a few questions."

That is something to think about.

Meanwhile my journey as Pennario's artistic executor continues. There are still some people left whom I have not been able yet to interview and so this weekend I am writing letters to all of them. I am up to H. The last letter I wrote, which I am looking at right now, is to Jay Heifetz, Jascha Heifetz's son. There are some things I would like to get his take on. Pennario had such colorful memories of Heifetz, Jascha I mean. Pennario called him Jascha. That is how cool Pennario was.

He would talk about Heifetz and we would sit around and laugh and laugh. I wish I could do that again, you know? I wish I could go back for even just five minutes. Well, we all have people who are gone we wish that about.

After Jay Heifetz the next person will be ... let's see.

Paul Hume from the Washington Post is dead. So is the pianist Eugene Istomin.

Now we are into the J's. Louis Jourdan ...


... is still alive! So Louis Jourdan will be next. That is Louis Jourdan above in "Gigi," with Leslie Caron.

But ay me! Pennario has a Beverly Hills address for Louis Jourdan and I am pretty sure he now lives in France. I think I read that somewhere.

Well, no matter. I will write to him in France.

Perhaps I will sail there, on the Adam E. Cornelius!