The 73 year old steamship Philip R Clarke taking some big waves against the bow as she sailed out through the Duluth Canal on a windy but otherwise gorgeous late August day! Waves are around the 6-10+ft range, highly unusual for the normally calm month. I’m not complaining though, the sight of a laker pounding its way out of the canal through waves is usually sort of a miserable experience in person, getting hit with icy spray and brutally cold wind gusts that leaves with you with frozen hands for hours afterwards. By contrast this is a perfect 72 degrees with no humidity. Even though the waves are still a bit smaller than the winter storms, I’ll take it!

Starting construction in late 1950 and launched November 26th, 1951 the Philip R Clarke was an instant classic that many people consider the poster child of the Great Lakes, both then and now. She was originally 644ft long with a straight deck (no self unloading system). 7 more ships of the same design were constructed, creating the iconic AAA-Class vessels. Of the 8 ships, 7 are still around and 5 are currently sailing, although 2 of those are no longer under their own power. In 1974 she was cut apart and lengthened by 120ft to allow her to compete against the new, larger thousand foot ships that were being constructed, then in 1982 she was converted to a self unloader and had her 260ft boom added to allow her to continue sailing following the decommissioning of the Hullet unloaders. She’s had a lot of downtime lately, spending a few years in layup between 2019 and 2022, and missed half of this this season; she fit out from winter layup in July. Rhe ship is known as a crowd pleaser, with a deep horn that can be heard for incredibly long distances, I’ve heard her horn from the other side of the city, over 10 miles away and on the other side of the 700ft tall Duluth Hills before.

On this particular trip she arrived empty the day before, spent about 9 hours in Fraser Shipyards getting some minor maintenance work done, then moved to the CN iron ore dock to load before departing in dramatic fashion. She is bound for Toledo, Ohio.