Ear on Chicago; Iron Ore Boats on the Great Lakes: S.S. Wilfred Sykes of the Inland Steel Company

That's the horn of the Wilford Sykes. We are aboard the Wilford Sykes and our caring boat belonging to inland steel company. We're five miles out of Indiana Harbor in Lake Michigan. We've boarded this ship to tell you the story of the or carrying boats. The modern steel hulled bulk freighter was developed at the turn of this century when America entered the steel age. At that time, our country was flexing her industrial muscles and steel was needed in here to for unprecedented quantities for our rapidly expanding industrial economy. To make it, steel men needed hundreds of thousands of tons of iron ore, coal and limestone, and they needed ships to transport these raw materials to their plants swiftly, efficiently, and economically. The bulk freighter provided the answer to this need. Born of necessity, it is a unique specimen of modern shipping. Narrow beamed with no structure to break the long sweep of its hatch deck and as long as most skyscrapers are tall, it was built for capacity and efficiency. It has served the steel industry well and certainly the Wilford Sykes is the queen of Lake

Michigan. George Fisher is her captain and he's about ready to call in now to ship on Ship to Shore Radio and talk to the harbor. So let's listen to the conversation. WC5932, the Wilford Sykes calling Chicago Marine on Channel 1 FM. Wilford Sykes to Chicago Marine on Channel 1 FM. Channel 8, WC5932, the Wilford Sykes clear on Channel 1. WC5932, the Wilford Sykes to Chicago Marine on 8. Wilford Sykes to Chicago. I like to place a call to Chicago Central 67920. No, Central Central. Thank you.

I'd like to speak to Mr. Ali O 'Brien, please. This is the captainal steamer Wilford Sykes, Mr. O 'Brien. We are approaching Indiana Harbor. You have any instructions for us? Yes, sir. We're about sorry. How was your weather? The weather is fine. It was a little bit off yesterday. But the wind died down. We have a pretty good dawn since last night. Okay, you'll be in about 48 minutes. Yes. We should be tied up in about 45 minutes. Okay, you can have a clear dock. Yes. And we'll see you on dock number two. Clear dock. What's our next orders? Yes. When you're right there at that in one dock number two, you go right to the great northern dock superior, and load less than you are. Great northern dock that's superior and load less than you are.

Okay, we're going to get any passengers next trip. You know, you'll have some guests or the company cap. And I tell you what I like to do when you call me when you get in and talk to the other way. Okay. I'll do that, Mr. Urbine. Okay. WC -59 -32, the Wolfert Sikes, Clearwood, Chicago Marine. Now, the captain has completed his call now, and he'll log that call on his log, and then comes the telegraph. We're going to listen to that. Check it. May, does everything ready down there for the harbor? Well, he's finished talking to the mate, and the mate said everything is all set.

Now, I'd like to talk to Captain Fisher just a moment. First of all, it was pretty easy, Captain Fisher, to understand the phone conversation between you and Mr. Urbine. But who was Mr. Urbine? Mr. Urbine is fleet manager. Oveenland still fleet. So, he directs you into the harbor and then tells you what your orders are going to be. That's right. Well, now, what about this telegraph? It sounded like a telephone instead of a telegraph because it had bells. And what does this do? Well, whenever we are approaching the harbor, first we're going to chief engineer to stand by. And then engineer stands by, and he waiting for our farther orders. As we are approaching the harbor, we always check our speed. So the ship would be maneuverable as we are approaching the dock. Captain Fisher, I'd like to ask you about some of the other equipment that you have up here on the bridge. Now, for example, let's start up here. Here's something that says RPM. I suppose that's revolutions per minute. Yes, that's the revolutions. But it shows the speed of the ship. And how fast

are we going about right now? Right now, moving 16 .5 miles per hour. What about this instrument over here? A wind indicator. And the one that shows the velocity of the wind and then the other dial that you see is the wind indicator. The direction of the wind. That's an important instrument for navigation, I guess. Yes, it is. And the next instrument to its left. The next instrument is the rotary indicator. Whenever we are approaching the harbor, we're using an awful lot of rudder. And it's always be watching how much rudder the ship has got whenever the wheelsmen get these orders to give the rudder. What about this instrument down here, Captain Fisher? This is the gyro compass. This is the most important instrument to board the ship. This is a steering compass that takes us any part of the lake that we want to go. And this instrument over here

must be radar. This is the radar. This is not a very important instrument, which we use in the fog, rain, snowstorm, at night, we can pick up any objects on the lake. I know you probably don't like to discuss things like this, but when we mention this radar and going along across Lake Michigan in the fog, anybody that's listening will certainly recall that steam ship collision out in the Atlantic Ocean just recently when the Andrea Doria was hit. Anything like that ever happened to you? No. And you hope it doesn't. No, I hope it doesn't. What kind of chance do you take out in the fog over Lake Michigan? Well, whenever we are approaching the ship, if we see the ship, we always can pick them up anywhere from 10 to 15 miles, and we plot our courses carefully on the chart, and we see that we're going to meet near ahead, or nearerly so we check our speed, and we communicate with the other ship with the telephone

to avoid the collision. So there's very little chance that you will collide. That's right. Well, now I want to ask you a little bit more about this telegraph over here that you call a telegraph, and it's a large round instrument with a handle on top that moves backward and forward. And on it is indicated stop, finished with engine, slow, half full, a stern ahead. Now, what does that mean? Is that indicating to the chief engineer just how fast or slow you want the engines to go? Now, this could act when I put my dial on slow, the chief engineer answers, and he hit on his engine accordingly. And what's the difference now? It says here ahead, and there are stern. Now, of course, right now, since we're pulling into Indiana Harbor, we're moving ahead. And when you move into the harbor, will you then move a stern in order to park? Well, a stern, it stops the ship, and if the ship is moving a little bit too fast, we slow it down, and in the meantime, she's swinging the stern, all we swing support, and help us to make the turn,

if it is right hand turn. There's one thing Captain Fisher that I saw when I came in, and it was one of the first questions I wanted to ask you, and that's that sign over there, General Alarm. What does that mean? The General Alarm is used in case of there's collision to occur. That's very important to use that in that case. Captain Fisher, there's one thing we've got to discuss before we leave the bridge, and that's this wheel up here. Now every time we think of a ship moving in Lake Michigan, or anywhere for that matter, we think of the captain of the ship up there at the wheel giving orders. I suppose we see that in the movies too much, I don't know, but how often do you actually have to stand up here at this wheel? I never stand up that wheel. I stand in the front of Indo -Eddie, and give command to my wheelsman. Oh, I see, the wheelsman is here. That's right, the wheelsman. The captain is always up forward. That's right, if I watch my ship, whichever she swings, how I want to maneuver my ship, I give orders to wheelsman, and he responds to those orders. That is the

time that I watch the rudder see. If the wheelsman give the right helm. Captain, I wonder if you'd mind talking a little personally for a minute. I understand that you've been in the Navy life for a long time. If we can call it, it's Merchant Marine. Merchant Marine. Ever since 1920. Is it true that you were Shanghai? No. Yes. Is that right? Yes. How did that happen? Oh, that happened on Vennbeer Street in 1920. How did it happen? It was walking on the street, and I didn't have a job, and men met me on the street, and asked me if I would like to work on the great lakes. I mean, explain to me how good a job is, and good food. So I decided to try it. If you had it to do all over again, would you make the same decision? Yes, I would. It's a good life, isn't it? Yes, it is. Tell us a little bit about the Wilfred Sykes. How old is she? And the Wilfred Sykes, this is her seventh year now. And she's the queen of the lakes. Yes, she

is. That's what everybody must say, and I can see that she still holds her crown. As far as your concern, she's the finest ship. Yes, she is. What about the capacity? How much will she carry? How much ore? Our record load was 21 ,000, 13 tons, but at present time, we're carrying about 19 ,400 and an account of the draft that's regulated by Saint Mary's River. And our draft is cut down to 24 foot 4 inches. That's the reason we carry 19 ,400 now. And her length is 678 feet. That is correct. I can remember that number. Her breadth is 70 feet and 37 foot deep. Now navigating the waters of Lake Michigan and some of the channels around Chicago and some of the channels up north in Lake Superior, where you have to go to get the ore. It's rather tricky business, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's especially maneuvering around the Saint Mary's River. And in Superior Harbor, the harbor is very small

for this type of a ship. As I understand it from somebody was telling us this morning who was well acquainted with the merchant marine shipping on the Great Lakes, he said it's much more difficult than it is, for example, a captain of a large ocean -going cruiser. It's more delicate operation. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Because of those channels. They're having tight quathers on the Great Lakes. What kind of a crew do you have? Fine crew. A very good man. Some of the men been with me for 14 years. We're going to talk to some of those boys a little bit later. And I think we've just about talked ourselves out here, captain. And I want to thank you very much for allowing us to come aboard and taking this little trip with you back into Indiana Harbor and telling us about the Wilford Sikes. We were glad to have you aboard and thank you very much. The ship has now docked at Indiana Harbor, and in a few moments, it's all will be unloaded. We are now in the engine room of the Wilford Sikes. We're going to talk to the chief engineer, Edo Caralla. Chief, could we walk over here closer to the engines? Now, right now, of course,

the ship is not moving, and we're in dock, and they're rather quiet. But when you're out on the lake, is there a lot more noise here than it is now? Yes, there's quite a lot more noise. How much horsepower do these engines develop? The engines will develop close to 8 ,000, but normally, we use about 7 ,200 or 7 ,200 horsepower. How many engines are there? There's only one propulsion engine. It's a class compound steam turbine made by Westinghouse. Now, chief, how fast can you actually make this vessel go, if you really wanted to push it up? Well, I can make it go almost 19 miles an hour without a load -in, and close to 17 miles an hour, loaded. If you use a lot more power when there's a load than when there isn't a load, we must because when the boat's empty, well, then we just keep enough balance water and to keep the propeller underwater, so we go along something like a speedboat. Well, now, right now, we're in dock and the ship is stationary. So, why do you have the machinery still running? Well, a turbine is made so

that if we shut it off altogether, right away, the rotor may warp, because there's so much internal heat in there, and all the heat will rise to the upper part of the casing, and consequently, the lower part of the rotor will cool off sooner than the top, and then it'll warp, and the clearance is just a few thousandths in there. So, we turn the gear for two hours after we shut the steam off, and then enough heat has been dissipated, so we don't have that trouble. Chief, I notice some of the men down there working around the machinery. What are those boys doing down there? Well, they're watching the various gauges and the cooling process of the turbines. And, of course, the fireman he must wise the broiler and the steam pressure at all times. I keep saying that we're looking down, and I better describe the fact that we're standing up here on a railing, looking down over into the engine. Now, what do you call this particular platform or deck of the ship that we're on? This is really called a main deck, but I usually call it the balcony, because it kind of represents one. Yes, it does. How long have you been with the Wilford Sikes? I've been with the Wilford Sikes since she was being built. It's about eight years or so. I was off two years.

I was on the LE block, but I came here when they began to put piping and machinery in. How long have you been in the merchant marine? Since 1925, so that's over 30 years. 30 years. You're going to make a life's work out of it. Seems that way. Well, Chief, what about these stacks that come down out of there and down into the engines? What are those? Those are main steam lines. That's where the main steam comes into it. It's either propeller or the turbines. One more question I want to ask you, and that's about the alarm system you have over there. May I read it? It says, when the alarm sounds, they cater once, carbon dioxide being released. When do you ring that? What happens? Well, in case we have a bad oil spill and a fire that will go down into the villages where we have 24 large bottles of carbon dioxide and we can automatically trip them and they allow discharge and put out the fire for lack of oxygen. We have many safety precautions on the ship. Oh, yes, there are dozens of them. You stay back here a stern all the time. Just

about, I make a round of forward now and then visit the pilot house. What about this small boat up here? What's that, a wife boat? You know, we call that the Sykes Jr., that's our work boat. Whenever we have any reason to go out around the right of the hull, well, then we launch Sykes Jr. and we're all around with it. Sykes Jr. is about one million, I suppose, the size of the Wilford Sykes. It's about, what, ten feet long, twelve, ten or twelve feet long, and it weighs less than a hundred pounds. The Wilford Sykes are 678 feet long. That's correct, yes. All right, thanks a million chief for talking to us and we wish you bon voyage when you leave Indiana Harbor. Yeah, you're very welcome. He's a pleasure, I'm sure. We've come down to the galley now. Actually, I would call it, and you probably would too, a kitchen. But a board ship is called the galley. We're going to talk to Lawrence Green who is the ship's steward. Now, you can probably hear some of the noises in the background. And Mr. Green is cutting some bread. That's a band saw you hear. Or a meat saw.

Well, now, first of all, we better start from the very beginning. And I wonder if we can have the meat saw turned off for just a second. All right. And the beginning is ordering a food, Mr. Green. This is a big ship. And you have a lot of men to feed. How do you go about doing all that? Well, we ordered each end of the route. And, well, I don't think I can tell you exactly the amounts you use each day. Part of the whistle potatoes. We have steak for dinner. It takes a whole beef loin. And a 30 -pound rib roast. I guess I said a wishless potato. Two, three loads of bread. About five, four pounds of butter. It's a beef roast over here. You have cooking today. It's in the oven now, yes. You fellas eat pretty well. It's not bad. And we use five pound of coffee a day here. $10 a pound is not bad. Now you are a doctor today. And I suppose you'll pick up your cargo of food. Is that right? Yeah, they'll be down about four o 'clock this afternoon. It's been ordered. And how do you get it a board ship? Well, this came here. They delivered it with a truck. And then there's a hoist. It's brought up with it to the top here. Now what's on the menu

for today? For one thing I can see over there, my favorite delicacy. Pumpkin pie. Well, there's a rose, a vegetable soup. Rose beef. And beans. Potatoes, gravy. And pumpkin pie. And there's food on the table at all times. Of course you have that coffee. Coffee, yeah. Always coffee. Always coffee. Well, now what about feeding during off hours? For example, right now it's about lunchtime. The boys will be coming in for lunch. But are there night time feedings? Well, there's no off hours on this board. It's 24 hours a day. Yeah. They come in and eat and they're back in a half an hour for coffee and a cookie or doughnut or something. I see. Well, now tell me a little bit about some of the dining rooms you have. We were just in the captain's dining room. And it's really a beautiful room indeed. It's as fine as any restaurant you'll find in Chicago. It has a thick blue rug on the floor. It has some beret colored drapes. And the table is offset and prepared for the captain's lunch. And for guests that he may have today. But what about the rest of the

rooms? Now we haven't visited them. Well, there's three dining rooms. The one you just guessed dining room, you just mentioned. Then there's an off -search mess. With four tables of sheeting four at each. Then there's the cruise mess with two long tables in. That's right here behind you. That's one behind you there. I understand your wife, Mrs. Green, helps you out here. Oh, yes. Let me know. I wonder if we could talk to her just a minute. I think you'll find her a better talker than me. Mrs. Green, do you make the pumpkin pie? I do not, sir. Your husband said that you'd be a better talker than he is. Well, I tell you, he makes the pies and all the cakes. And I do the frosting. Before I get up in the morning, he does all that, see. He gets up about four or three in the morning, and I get called at six o 'clock, and reset all the tables. Is that your job just to set the tables? Oh, no. I set the tables. You get all the subtree like the butter and the cream and the breakfast food and the food or the orgies whatever we have. And the first thing I do is when the passengers room get that all set up, see. Well, here's a new twist for a wife anyway.

That the husband is cooking all the meals, and the wife does nothing more than, and help out. Well, I have my job in wintertime, see. He wants to even make a pot of coffee in the wintertime. On the wintertime, he's not sailing, that's right. That's right. Now, what about this idea here about you retiring? Is that true? Yes, we retiring two months and six days. I've got it right down to the days. Do you count of the hours and minutes? Well, I will after a while. How do you feel about retiring? Wonderful. Just wonderful. What are you going to do? Well, we've got to farm up in Michigan about five miles. Yeah, about five miles an empire. Big cherry farm. And we're going to stay there about six months a year and then go to Florida for six months. Will there be any cooking? Why sure. And you'll be doing it? Oh, me doing it. Yeah. We do quite a bit of entertaining and, you know, just friends come in and we always have a bunch to the trailer and we have a nice trailer in the cell. Just going to just enjoy ourselves. Race flowers and make

garden. I'm going to keep them out on the tractor, of course. And there'll be no shipping, no sailing. No sailing. No sailing. After 34 years, I think we've sailed enough. Well, I think you have too. And I think you deserve retirement. I think I, by all reports, I'm the oldest lady in age and service on the Great Lakes. Mrs. Green, we want to wish you and your husband a wonderful life and when you retire. Well, we expect to have a wonderful time. We've got a lot of hobbies and there isn't. We know the whole moment to the house. And no more sailing, your wife says, Mr. Green. No, sir. You agree with her then? Yeah, I'm all through. We'll be doing the cooking. Mrs. Green. Thanks a million for telling us about the galley. Well, I didn't tell you much. I could have invited a lot more. There's a well -equipped galley here. It has three region ice boxes. Meat saw, slicing machine, automatic egg baller or water cooler which you'll find in very few galley's, deep freeze, potato peeler, and automatic dishwasher,

big electric range, four ovens in it. In fact, everything in the galley is electric. There's a fully equipped electric galley. Any housewife would like to have the equipment that's in here. Anything with a stainless steel? Yes. That's hard to clean. Hard to clean. Thank you very much, sir. We're standing now out on the deck again. We've come out of the galley after having a very fine piece of pumpkin pie. Believe me, it really was delicious and a cup of coffee with Mr. and Mrs. Green. We're standing right next to a hold where you probably hear the crane digging into that iron hard down there and lifting it out. Just a few moments ago, they began to unload the ship. We're looking down into hold number 19. And this huge crane is taking big bites out of the stock pile of iron ore, lifting it up high over our heads and back over and dumping it over on the ground over there where they have even huge of piles of iron ore. Here it comes now. Let's listen for just a minute.

That's the noise of the machine rain. The bucket is just dug down into the iron ore and is lifting it up now. Out of the hold and up above the ship. High up above our heads and back again to the large pile of iron ore, stocked over there about 150 or 200 feet away from the ship. Bill McKinsey, who is docked farm and is standing right next to me. Bill, this is one of the most amazing operations I think I've ever seen. This fellow operating this crane certainly has to be an expert, doesn't he? He knows, he has quite a bit of experience. Now that crane that is coming back over here to get another load, it's going to dig it down in here a minute. I'd like to ask you a little bit about it. How big, how tall is that? How high is it from where we're standing? From the ground surface to the colly runway is approximately 102 feet.

And how far back does he go along that runway? The length of the bridge from the outer side to the back is approximately 500 feet. Now a little while ago, Bill, down at the other end, we saw the entire machinery moving. Now it's very difficult to even picture to you just how huge this machinery is. It looks like a huge bridge and it moves sideways and it moves forward and backward. Now at this moment we're standing next to hole 19 where the crane is moving back and forth and getting the iron ore. But when this hole is empty, I suppose that this again will move over now, approximately 10 or 15 feet to hole 18, is that right? That's right. So that they can unload that. Now you say this is 100 and some feet high? Approximately 102 feet from the ground surface to the colly runway. And that fell out there. Now how does he go about his work? He certainly is very efficient because he's sitting way high above us, 100 feet in the air and manipulating that crane.

He's a man and I suppose Bill that has been working at this kind of work for a long time. Yes, he has. We've got some up here that's running these trains for 35 years. I heard you mention a while ago that it looked like a huge bridge. That's just what we call it. Is that right? We call them bridges, although in reality it's a crane, non -loading device. But we call them a bridge. This particular bridge here operating now, he's taken 12 and a half tons out every time he goes. Although we have them bigger. The next bridge too in here, he carries 20 tons at a bike. Now how long will it take 20 tons at one bike? At one bike, 20 tons, yes. How long will it take to unload this ship, Bill? This particular cargo here, going to the fact that we have to carry it directly to the stock pile, would take us approximately 14 hours. 14 hours to unload the sights. That's right, and he has around about 19 ,000 rows

tons. Thanks a million for talking to us, Bill, and telling us about how the crane operates here and something about the unloading of the ship. And you're finally welcome. Well, that's about the story. I'm afraid we don't have any time left. We were going to talk to a few of the members of the crew, but it's time to move out of the Wilford Sikes. Before long, we'll be unloaded. And on its way, once again, up through the great lakes to the north and the Musabi iron ore range to bring back another load to inland steel. It's been a very interesting experience for us to be aboard the Wilford Sikes. We want to thank Captain George Fisher for all the courtesy he has shown us and thank all the people who have cooperated to help us tell you the story of Great Lakes shipping. This has been the story of ore carrying boats on the Great Lakes, and especially the story of the Queen of the Lakes, the Wilford Sikes. This is Hugh Hill speaking.