St. Marys Challenger
2005
(Hugh O'Connor -- Patriot Models)
- Type: Great Lakes self-unloading freighter
- Displacement: 10,250 net tons
- Dimensions: 551 x 56 x 21 ft.
- Machinery: Skinner Marine Uniflow 4 cylinder reciprocating steam engine, 3,500 ihp = knots
- Crew: 35
- Builder: Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan, 1906
- Notes: Oldest lake boat still trading on the Great Lakes. Built as the traditional Great Lakes bulk carrier William P. Snyder with a coal-burning triple-expansion steam engine for the Shenango Steamship and Transportation Co. Carried iron ore from Lake Superior to Lake Erie ports. Acquired in 1926 by the Stewart Furnance Co and renamed Elton Hoyt II. Sold to Youngstown Steamship Co in 1929, and then to Interlake Steamship Co in 1930. Converted to oil-burner with a Skinner Uniflow steam engine in 1950. Renamed Alex D. Chisholm in 1952. Sailed into the early 1960s before being laid up at Erie, PA. Purchased in 1966 by Medusa Portland Cement; converted to a cement carrier at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co, Manitowoc, WI and renamed Medusa Challenger. Transported powdered cement from Charlevoix, MI to various ports on Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Medusa Portland Cement acquired by Southdown Inc in 1998, and ship renamed Southdown Challenger. Southdown was acquired by Cemex of Mexico in 2000, and then in 2005 the Great Lakes region operations of Cemex were sold to St. Marys Cement Inc, a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil. Consequently, the name was changed again to its present St. Marys Challenger. In 2006 she celebrated her 100th year plying her trade on Lake Michigan.
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