Saturday a busy

day for shipping

Mon, Jun 29, 2009

It was a quiet week until Saturday when at 9 a.m. the Grand River Navigation's self unloading motor vessel Calumet delivered another load of coal for the season to the Board of Light & Power's plant on Harbor Island.

At midday, the Algoma Central Marine-owned Seaway Marine Transport-operated Agawa Canyon came in with our first load of salt for the season. It was still unloading at Verplank's dock in Ferrysburg when this was written.

The Calumet backed out at 4 p.m. blowing a salute and a warning blast on its horn as it proceeded through recreational traffic and turned heading north.

Did you know that Grand Haven had an active commercial fishing industry from 1856 until the early 1960s? The 1984 Sesquicentennial Calendar described it as follows: "1856 – Fishing: Grand Haven's fishing industry began when a Milwaukee group brought a fishing fleet here. By 1857 they had 20 boats and a crew of 160 men. Each boat was capable of producing 500 barrels of fish a season at $4.00 per barrel. They were shipped to the Chicago and Detroit Markets." The last fishing business was the H. J. Dornbos and Brothers, which began in 1889 and closed in the 1960s.

We may see the Manitowoc and the Calumet sometime this week.