Here is the American Century departing Duluth, Minnesota early on the evening of April 21, 2024. She had arrived empty approximately 14 hours earlier (as seen in a previous video on this channel) and loaded low-sulfur coal at the Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior. She was now departing with her cargo, bound for the power plant at St. Clair, Michigan. The American Century has been doing weekly coal runs between Duluth-Superior and St. Clair for much of the shipping season to date and is scheduled to continue this run throughout the summer... unless another ship is swapped into this run to take her place.
The 1000-foot ships of the Great Lakes never fail to impress with their size. But one must also marvel at the power it takes to muscle such a massive vessel and its 68,000 tons of cargo. We get a head-on view as the Century makes a turn to line up with the shipping canal, making the maneuver look smooth and effortless. But her 14,400 horsepower are churning two giant propellers, working hard to push water past her rudders to keep the turn going. One could easily take for granted that ships make this turn so often, but occasionally a ship will fail to properly make the turn, either ending up aground or into the pier wall (as we witnessed a couple years ago). With so much mass in motion, there is little room for error.
Unlike the early morning arrival I captured previously on this channel, American Century let loose with a nice captain's salute on exit... with the Aerial Lift Bridge answering in return.
The 1000-foot American Century was launched under the name Columbia Star in November 1980, making her the twelfth of thirteen 1000-footers built for Great Lakes trade. She originally sailed for Oglebay Norton. In June 2006, she was sold to American Steamship Company and obtained her current name at that time. She is powered with four V-20 cylinder 3,600 horsepower G.M. diesel engines and has a cargo capacity of 78,850 tons at her maximum mid-summer draft of 34 feet. Cargo is stored in seven holds that are accessed by 34 hatches on deck. Her 260-foot self-unloading boom can discharge up to 10,000 tons per hour.
____________________
If you are interested in supporting this channel to keep new videos coming, I accept PayPal donations at the following link:
www.paypal.com...
Donations of any size are gratefully accepted, as they help offset my travel expenses to capture this footage. Your views, likes, comments, and subscriptions also help this channel and are greatly appreciated. Thank you!
4 окт 2024
