Watching the Freighters
There are nine Ohio ports on Lake Erie. Since the distance between Toledo and Conneaut is only about 180 miles, this means that we average a port every 20 miles. In 2000, about 73 million tons of stuff passed through Ohio’s Lake Erie ports, carried in ships coming from or on their way to all sorts of interesting places. Most of us know practically nothing about all those ships. Unless you’re a shipwatcher.
Like trainspotting, shipwatching is a hobby that keys into the same drive for encyclopedic knowledge on an esoteric topic that compels eight-year-olds to collect Yugi-Oh cards. Shipwatchers learn the countries of origin, trade routes, number of crew and most common cargo of the vessels serving their shipping region. Many of them even hook up together for conventions in places like Duluth, which even has a waterfront hotel designed to cater to their favorite pastime.
But while Yugi-Oh duelists hang out in game stores trading cards, shipwatchers can be found out in the fresh (well, maybe slightly deisel-tinged) air of the docks trading personal experience while they gain insight into real issues of geography and international trade.
If you can pry those ragged cards out of their sweaty little fingers long enough, you may enjoy an afternoon of shipwatching with your children at North Coast Harbor this summer. In order to impress them with your vast grown-up knowledge, you’ll need to cram a little first with Know Your Ships 2003, the annual “boat watchers bible.”
Cleveland Public Library has a copy of the current edition in business reference, where it does you absolutely no good. For a copy that you can take along to the lake, you can borrow mine or order your own for $15 at www.knowyourships.com It contains a color guide to the flags flying on Lake Erie vessels, lots of photos, and an index of vessels arranged by name and fleet number.
As handy as the little guide is, it does lack some key elements that would enrich your shipwatching experience. For instance, if you stuff a pocket atlas or world map into the backpack along with the sunscreen and binoculars, you can help the kids to connect the dots a little better.
Hands down, the best place for Cleveland shipwatching would be from the lake side concourse of Cleveland Browns Stadium. But since that location is impractical for the overwhelming majority of us who have never set foot in it, you might try Whiskey Island Marina or Voinovich Park.
What You Could Have Seen This Week if You’d Been Paying Attention
• The State of Michigan A training ship from the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, manned by cadets and stopping at the Cleveland Coast Guard Base for a day of public tours.
• Highlander Steve Forbes’ 150-foot “floating palace” — a massive yacht that includes a heliport and a wine cellar.
• A little on, a little off Several self-unloading freighters of 600 feet and more were in and out of the Cleveland Bulk Terminal to pick up cargo from the salt mines, or to “lighter” — transfer cargo to a flat-bottomed barge.