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Picture above taken on Wednesday, June 7, 2006
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| The John Sherwin has been a consistent sight in the Duluth Superior harbor for 25 years. Built in 1958, the Sherwin, along with her owner, Interlake Steamship of Cleveland, entered the 80's with big plans to add a self-unloader to her deck. As a traditional straight-deck carrier, she could not discharge her cargo as fast as the giant 1,000-footers appearing all around her on the Great Lakes. She had a sister ship, the Charles M. Beeghly, built a year later, that somehow got in front of her in the line to get a self-unloader installed. That happened in 1981. Then it was the Sherwin's turn, and then the bottom fell out of the steel industry, slowing the Great Lakes taconite trade to a crawl.
Interlake Steamship had some money set aside to make the upgrade to the Sherwin, but with the downturn in the steel industry, some other options opened up. With markets diminishing, they wanted more flexibility for the fleet to make sure they could serve as many markets as possible.
To make a long story shorter, after 25 years sitting in the water, the tug Ohio towed the Sherwin out of here and down to Milwaukee and then Chicago where it will become a storage bin for grain. The Ohio is the largest Great Lakes tug.
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Picture above taken on Monday, April 10, 2006: Flag was raise this day; the boat was towed to Fraser Shipyards the next day.
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Picture above taken on Wednesday, September 29, 2004:
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Picture above taken on Friday, January 2, 2004
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