Topic starter
17/08/2012 5:12 pm
Steamboating colleagues:
This portion of the web site probably best to post that, again, SS BADGER on Lake Michigan again under threat. BADGER, last coal fired steamship in the U.S.--if not most other foreign ports--provides a vital commercial link from Ludington, MI. to Manitowac, Wis. carrying passengers [staterooms available], auto, heavy truck, agricultural equipment, motor cycles on her runs. The ship also adds to the employment onboard, ashore in both ports.
U.S. Senator Dic Durban has taken the position the ship should cease operations due to 'feared' coal ash in the lake. Past investigations prove that what ash in dumped is relatively harmless with only a minute trace of mercury naturally found in coal. The alternative would be LPG gas or oil to fire the ship. LPG, and other conversions, would be very expensive. Drawings of the BADGER I've seen using LPG would require installing high pessure tanks taking up much present cargo/vehicle space.
U.S. Senator Carl Levin has taken the stool on the opposite side of the boxing ring IN SUPPORT of the BADGER continuing to run. In some respects the ship could be considered a last vestage of a steam packet operation.
Arguments in support of the BADGER can't hinge just on 'romance'...steam etc., but that is important due to her construction, steam turbines. The BADGER, though not a beloved river steamboat, is one very BIG steamboat in her own right.
Additional information on your own is to consult your computer search engine and type in: SS BADGER, coal ash This provides a dialogue exchange on the issue too involved, long to post here. Cheers!
R. Dale Flick - Summer northern shores of Lake Michigan.
17/08/2012 5:30 pm
Thanks for posting here, Dale. However, I was under the impression the BADGER was triple-expansion reciprocating, not turbine. Could possibly be Skinner Unaflow. Frank, help us out, please.
18/08/2012 6:56 pm
The BADGER and her sister SPARTAN both have Skinner Compound Unaflow Marine Steam Engines manufactured by the Skinner Engine Co. of Erie, PA. Today the SPARTAN is a vital source of engine parts if her sister needs something. Both boats have two engines with each engine having eight cylinders. The high pressure sits atop the low pressure cylinder and the two share a common piston rod. This arrangement is called steeple compound and the steam is used twice like a tandem compound engine. Only with the steeple compound the cylinders are vertical with each of the four piston rods attached to a common crank shaft.
There is one other laker that still has a Unaflow engine. The ST. MARY'S CHALLENGER which celebrated her 100th anniversary in 2006 is still operating Although the Unaflow Engine replaced the boat's original triple expansion engine, it has been on her since 1950. Another interesting fact about the ST. MARY'S CHALLENGER is that her name in 1906 when she came out was WILLIAM P. SNYDER.
Topic starter
18/08/2012 8:32 pm
*RE: BADGER's engines*
Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks to Frank for informing me on the BADGER's engines. I said 'turbines' and was mistaken. Anyway, the real issue is the threat hovering over the BADGER. It was my understanding in May she had been granted several more years reprieve.
A 'shy lurker' asked why I regard the BADGER as possibly a last remanant of what we knew as a steam packet. With passengers in staterooms, dining facilities, heavy motor and other cargo, she fits the bill. If the BADGER carries any U.S. Mail is unknown to me. She also keeps to a set schedule with arrivals and departures. 'Packet' applied to 'boat' had origins in early steamboats/steamships in Great Britain originally carrying packets of mail from England to Ireland. The French also used a similar term 'pacqueboat.' No doubt there are other so applied reasons. Cheers!
R. Dale Flick
Summer - north shores of Lake Michigan
19/08/2012 1:24 am
While not related to the SS BADGER there is a nifty article about the SS UNITED STATES and WILLIAM FRANCIS GIBBS her designer in the Weekend Midwest edition of the WSJ, 18-19 AUG 12. The article leads with a nifty large top of the page color photo of the Ship with Gibbs looking on from a pier. The article concerns a 457 page book by the title of A MAN AND HIS SHIP.
The fine print: I do not own a copy, I have never seen the book and do not in any way make comment on it's being authentic or accuracy or inaccuracy.
20/08/2012 2:26 am
Once again, it's all about politics. Remember when Obama was campaigning up and down the Ohio river valley in '08, proclaiming to be in favor of an exemption for the DQ? How's that work'n out? Now you have two democrat senators at odds over the SS Badger. Carl Levin, being from Michigan knows all too well that the economic impact of thousands of Pax and vehicles being deposited upon Ludington is absolutely vital to that city's economy. Hotels, motels, resorts, restaurants, convenience stores, plus the direct and indirect impact of hundreds of seasonal jobs that would disappear overnight with the loss of the Badger. My family has vacationed for many years in the Ludington area, and I have made dozens of trips on the Badger, all very enjoyable-soot and all. Senator Durbin D-Il. really has no dog in this fight, other than that he is beholden to the evironmentalist lobby and claims to be concerned about the "feared"cinders being deposited in the lake. What isn't mentioned is that most cities and towns with a coal fired power plant nearby spread those very cinders (coal ash) on their streets in winter to provide inhanced traction for motor vehicles, and that the EPA has deemed those ashes to be unharmful.. Those very cinders end up behing washed into the various lakes, rivers and streams via the storm sewers with the spring thaw. No uproar from Durbin about that, though. Plus, consider how many millions of gallons of motor fuel aren't being burned by all the semi's, motor homes, campers, tour buses, cars and trucks, etc. All thanks to the Badger. I'm no fan of either of these two senators, but, as we steamboat fans discovered in "06, elections have consequences. Become informed and VOTE.
Topic starter
20/08/2012 4:30 pm
*RE: W.F. Gibbs/SS UNITED STATES*
Jim & Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks for the link to the WSJ article on William Francis Gibbs and his SS UNITED STATES of 1952. I'll sleuth out A MAN AND HIS SHIP publication. Larry Driscoll, Steamship Historical Society of America member recently wrote three articles for 'PowerShips' [Now replacing SSHSA's former STEAMBOAT BILL quarterly]. Larry, as a youngster, lived in Paris, France where his father was posted and sailed on the US, and other liners, in his time. When his book is finished not known to me at present.
I 'believe' the photo you reference of Gibbs is in B/W showing him sporting his well-worn hat standing with the bow of the ship in the rear in the wet dock at Newport News Shipbuilding Co. in the 1950s. Gibbs, regarded as America's premier ship designer, admitted to having a heart cold as flint in his demanding specifications. Yet he was shy and demure shunning big social small talk--until it turned to ships. Asked, "Mr. Gibbs, do you love the UNITED STATES more than your wife?" he smiled, "At present, yes." Gibbs' grandaughter now carries on the name in her close involvement with the liner UNITED STATES preservation.
I have a copy bound in blue linen and gold of 'By their works ye shall know them,' RE: Gibbs and the firm of Gibbs & Cox in New York. This printed by the company in limited edition as hard to find now as hens' teeth. The company offices were located facing the Hudson River in Manhattan, N.Y. The only time company employees were permited to leave their design desks to look out the windows was when the UNITED STATES was sailing in or out on her Atlantic runs.
Some years back, while doing research, I was given access to the Gibbs papers, drawings, designs now housed in Mariners Museum, Newport News, VA. This under the watchful eye of a librarian in the next room looking through a glass window as I made notes. Gibbs, a Spartan all his life, worked from a simple drawing table of wood with a glass cover on wood tressle legs seated at a simple high stool. I 'walked' the US while docked in New York for a tour before sailing on the old QUEEN ELIZABETH two piers down in 1968. The US, while underway at sea, 'buried' her stern in the sea as her props speeded up, dug into the water. At the pier, her stern rose up somewhat like the tail of a swan. May not be 'pure steamboats' here, but the UNITED STATES was, and still is, a very big steamboat. Well, what do I know?
R. Dale Flick - Summer northern shores of Lake Michigan.