Bulker Kaye E. Barker Grounds Outside Muskegon, Michigan | What's Going on With Shipping?

[@atelierthhun1165]

I once ran around on a sandbar in the middle of a main channel at high water. As a vessel of ten times our draft had passed that way the previous day without a hitch it made me aware of how fast conditions can change without a visible cause even in well maintained harbours. Not trusting charts and taking frequent soundings in that area became a habit from then on. Beware of the sneaky shifting sands !

[@TheyForcedMyHandLE]

Could that vessel itself have caused the issue you experienced?

[@FlyingDoctor60]

Thanks for covering the Great Lakes! I grew up on Lake Michigan, and as a kid in the 60’s witnessed far more dredging than what takes place now. A measurably significant portion of the US GDP is handled by Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway vessels…this is infrastructure that needs to be maintained and improved, and that includes dredging navigable channels.

[@thesearcherman6652]

Well, if the USA wasn’t at war on the other side of the planet for most of the last 30 years, we might have some money to do dredging. Trillions and trillions wasted fighting somebody else’s war. Get involved and see how corrupt everything inside the beltway in DC is. Everything is corrupt.

[@davidhansbury6247]

The kay e barker is a beautiful "pilot house forward" classic "double ender" with a classic rouded fantail, these nicely rounded,with graceful line's are a level of craftsmanship we will never see again in ship building due to pre-fabricated and moduled everything.!!.. I'm glad to hear there's no damage to this beauty.!!🙏... Once again, after a brief f/b post from #interlaksteamshipco .. We turn to great reporting by Sal for the full story.!!👊 thank you sir.

[@SteamCrane]

Kaye is northbound for Grand Haven. Typical unloading time for these self unloaders is under 6 hours. Standard boom length is 250 feet, thus they can place material piles up to 200+ feet in from the dock face, or unload while standing off from the dock.

[@johnmeyers3954]

I just happen to be out at Muskegon mid afternoon today, Friday, and saw the K.E. Barker pivoting around the entrance to the Muskegon Harbor. I saw on the 6pm news that they had offloaded some of the load onto a barge enough to get her off the sand bar. At 10pm EDT Friday per Marine Traffic the Barker is anchored a mile off shore. The Wilfred Sykes, another frequent ship in Muskegon, is also appears now to be anchored out there awaiting to come into our fair Muskegon Lake. (edited on Saturday April 30 AM) The Wilfred Sykes was able to come into the harbor to unload her cargo. I suspect that the sand is built up by North and South wind driven currents carrying sand along the shoreline out around the break waters and depositing them by the entrance to the channel where water is deeper and calmer. Just my theory. I know those currents exist as they tend to force my sailboat off course on approach to the entrance. I wondered if this incident was going to make your channel. IT DID. Great news come from this channel. Thank you.

[@TimMcKennaItsThePlumber]

Thanks for the great channel. Living in Cleveland, we get to see the little ships (600+ft) go up and down the Cuyahoga river and we get to see the 1000 footers unloading at the bulk terminal on Lake Erie. Even this early in the season, there must be a big impact to the other traffic trying to navigate the channel. If you're ever in town please let us know.

[@ritaloy8338]

This goes to show you that why We need to fund the Army Corps of Engineers with new dredges. Megan is absolutely right.

[@beeble2003]

Why should the army be dredging civilian ports?

[@jonathanellsworth21]

@@beeble2003 The Army Corps of Engineers IS 99.9% civilian. It’s called that because when it was originally conceived back in the 30s I think, it was included in the military because they were the only people with architectural/engineering training. Plus it streamlined funding

[@PhilLesh69]

Half the population drinks water that comes from army corps of engineers reservoirs. Many lakes along the Appalachian and Ozarks are valleys dammed and flooded by the corps of engineers. All of dc and most of the suburbs around it use corps of engineers reservoirs, water treatment, settling tanks, etc.

[@PhilLesh69]

Your talking about the Tennessee valley water and power authority, I think. The corps of engineers is 100% army. They do employ a lot of civilans, but they work for the department of defense.

[@ritaloy8338]

@@beeble2003 You must remember that the ports in the United States also serve a military function during time of war. The majority of supplies during time of war are shipped on civilian ships. The only Schools of Engineering before were the Military Academies. First West Point and then Annapolis. Most of the Colleges were either Schools of Liberal Arts or Theologies.

[@alanpecherer5705]

The Great Lakes fleet and Gt Lakes commerce in general is a very interesting topic, rich in history and is greatly underestimated if not overlooked in terms of its critical importance to US GDP and economic health in a hundred ways. Yes, it is a PITA to have LA/Long Beach clogged up, but it's of no great importance if 14 containers of Chinese-made beanie babies are held up for a few weeks, and that definitely has a negative economic impact. But we could never have made the arms and ships we had for WW2 without Gt. Lakes iron & steel.

[@wgowshipping]

I need to round out my coverage of areas, including the Great Lakes.

[@alanpecherer5705]

@@wgowshipping The whole Gt Lakes shipping thing (which, if you include the history, encompasses the considerable efforts involved in creating the Soo locks and 2 dozen other locks and the St Lawrence Seaway which wasn't even open until the mid-1950's and in total goes all the way back 200 years to the Erie Canal) is almost completely taken for granted.

[@carlthor91]

@@alanpecherer5705 Agreed, the Great Lakes Seaway is very important to both rhe USA and Canada 🇨🇦 😀

[@bradpritts766]

Michigan resident here. My father in law served as a Coastie during WWII doing security duty around the Sault Locks. Until just a few years ago I had no idea how important this was due to the iron ore in particular moving thru.

[@davidhansbury6247]

@@wgowshipping that is good to hear, even with the bulk material's handled on a daily basis, often overlooked are the ocean going bulk and general cargo ship's(known on the lake's as "salties" is the amount of wheat, grain, soy that goes in/out the st.Lawrence seaway and around the world, the amount of salties is a great barometer of the grain yields coming out of the mid-west farmlands... Very important.

[@davidroberts7425]

Thank you once again for yet another comprehensive report and summary.

[@wgowshipping]

Thanks again! I will follow up once more is known.

[@talldude5841]

Good Great Lake re port Sal. I live about an hour away from here. I have seen the Barker many times on the Western parts of Lake Erie. Awesome Great Lakes carrier.

[@markcantemail8018]

Thanks Sal . This is the Shipping Channel reporting about this Ship Hung up in a Shipping Channel . Great job on this video .

[@SteamCrane]

Kaye E. Barker was built as the Edward B. Greene of Cleveland Cliffs in 1951. Later sold to Ford, became Benson Ford (III). Purchased by Interlake in 1989, renamed Kaye E. Barker for the wife of James R. Barker, one of the owners. This change of owners and renaming are very common on the Great Lakes. She lightered some stone to a barge and freed herself, currently anchored out.

[@Franklin-pc3xd]

That's very wierd. One of my first memories of sailing, as a todler, was aboard my dad's sailboat on a voyage from Chicago's Monroe Street Harbor (Columbia Yacht Club) across the lake to explore several Michigan ports from Benton Harbor all the way up to Mackinac Island - which I believe is technically in Lake Huron. Anyway, Muskegon was early on the list for an overnight stay and we grounded on a sand bar on approach to the harbor - I guess it was pretty embarrassing - I just thought it was funny. After we got hauled off, it was attributed to a "pop-up" sand bar. I have no idea, too young to care or understand - but that was just one waypoint on a great adventure. We saw lots of ore boats.

[@SteamCrane]

Kaye got to her dock. Wilfred Sykes had gone in before Kaye, finished work, and came back out before Kaye entered. Could be that Sykes was loaded a bit lighter, or deballasted. In Great Lakes harbors, the clearance above bottom is frequently a few inches.

[@backyardflipper1208]

Thanks for the Michigan news!!! The great lakes are amazing with a rich history. Love my home state of Michigan

[@leechowning2712]

I know when I was a kid growing up along the Missouri that the channel was maintained by the Army corps of engineers... I'm going to have to presume that the Great lakes is not? It is the first of May so I honestly don't understand why drifting sand that may have happened over the winter would not have been identified and treated a month ago or more. This year has not had a severe winter and the fact that they didn't even notice the loss of depth there leaves me to wonder who is in charge of the port area.

[@wgowshipping]

Lee...I completely agree. I am not sure either.

[@SteamCrane]

At least on the Great Lakes, dredging is performed by private companies, of which there are several major ones, and many smaller ones. COE has oversight, but their equipment primarily works on breakwalls, locks, and similar structures. Many years ago, COE did perform dredging, but it was privatized, I think sometimes in the 1950's. Typically, you will see your local harbor dredged roughly once a year. Grounding is fairly common on the Great Lakes, the connecting channels between the lakes are dredged in many places, and tend to be shallow. There is a hydrodynamic factor, dredging the connecting channels deeper than necessary increases outflow, and can lower lake levels. It's a delicate balance. Harbors don't have that issue.

[@leechowning2712]

@@SteamCrane So, like the USPS, an essencial service was privitized, and then we start trying to run it like a profit making business? I have worked near both the Missouri and Amazon rivers, and the difference is very noticeable. We lost the use of the main harbor in Leticia because the state never got around to funding dredging.

[@TheReedsofEnki]

I used to spend a week every summer camping near that channel. I've been where that ship is stuck in a 14' boat. Thanks for covering local events and reminding me that the great lakes won't be outdone by oceans or foreign canals!

[@markdavis8888]

Another issue going with your dredging infrastructure concern is waterway survey information. The USACE surveys federal navigation channels on a regular time frame. Some waterways are surveyed every week! That information is put online but it is not regularly used by professionals or the general public because its not in a format that is easy to incorporate. Plus pilots think they know everything and have big egos. We have the technology to be able to download the latest channel survey information from onboard the vessel but because the US maritime service functions are so divided up this won't happen. Example, the USCG does not have the latest USACE survey information. Myself, I would not feel safe crossing a bar without the latest survey information. We had it the sent via email and then we would need to process the file for the chart plotter. The Local Notice to Mariners are way out of date by the time they are published.

[@sheilamarie1481]

I watched John J Boland freighter come in to Muskegon channel on April 19. I thought it might get hung up this time of year, it made it in no problem.

[@almirria6753]

This is actually a common occurrence from the winter layups. And this folds into your earlier [from today] vid about dredging fleet/s

[@wgowshipping]

Exactly correct. I expected to hear of one.

[@darrengladstone3159]

Survey and Great Lakes buoys are seasonal here. The buoy tender / survey ship for NOAA is stored on that wall in the channel about 300 yards in front of where the Barker was stuck. Ice has only been off that shoreline for about 4 weeks. Not all the coast guard and NOAA vessels are even launched. It's seasonal. Also they call a Pan Pan because the Barker easily fills that channel. They typically take that from 6-8 kt. So likely they hit the sand bar pretty hard.

[@SuperchargedSupercharged]

Well this ties in well with todays early video.

[@kevinjarchow8812]

I happened to be flying my airplane north along the lakeshore just after this happened. I took some pictures and can send them to you if you wish. The first pics that I took are time stamped at 7:18 or so. Barker actually wasn't aligned with the channel. There was another longer vessel loitering nearby, I think that the Barker transferred to some of the stone to the other ship. But I didn't see it happened. Water level is down about three feet from last year. Last year was a high water year, so if Muskegon was dredged last year using then current water depth as a guide, they didn't do it right for this year. But water levels were predicted to go down during the middle of the summer 2021. And that's what they did.

[@colbypupgaming1962]

Anyone interested, there's an old show on KZbin "Iron boats, Iron men" about this boat when she was the Benson Ford.

[@paulloveless9180]

I saw that along with the commercials from 1988. It was actually very interesting.

[@SteamCrane]

Saturday morning, survey vessel 3058 working outside Muskegon entry. Kaye E. Barker is orbiting further offshore.

[@wgowshipping]

Reports are they were able to back her off with no damage.

[@DestinyRoxx]

Thank you Sal.

[@jasontwynn7356]

I live in Muskegon Michigan, about a mile from the channel. Every year they have to dredge out that opening to Muskegon lake. The sand builds up there so bad you can Staind on the sand bars and the water will be knee deep.

[@davidwilson2394]

Great report 👍😃

[@wgowshipping]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@samiam5557]

Great report Sir! 👍

[@kyleroth1025]

Hey @What is Going on With Shipping? w/Sal Mercogliano. I have a question about Kaye E. Barker. "E" an initial for maiden name "Ever"?

[@wgowshipping]

Ouch! I am not sure.

[@madpete6438]

Ha ha ha ha ha...... Genius

[@paullandreville5394]

A ship not over loaded, in the middle of the channel, almost a perfect position, runs aground. Ship captain is probably very happy he followed all the rules, to the letter. Somebody must be worried though.

[@ginog5037]

It's amazing these channels aren't surveyed before the shipping season starts. What's going on today, and why we still don't know anything about the Ever Forward? Especially from the pilot, captain and navigator...

[@derbuckeyetribe9789]

Now that is a valid question. On the Great Lakes conditions can change quickly. So how hard would it be to have someone in harbor go out and take soundings of the channel and approaches once or twice a week? For that matter, in the days of olde, ships would often approach an anchorage very slowly while they had their own crew checking the soundings, either because the waters were uncharted or that they didn't trust the charts.

[@cameltanker1286]

Let's see, the State of Michigan will blame the Army Corps of Engineers. The Army Corps of Engineers will blame the United States Coast Guard. The United States Coast Guard will blame Interlake Shipping and the captain of the Kaye E. Barker. In fact, I'm sure that the Coast Guard has already had the bridge crew that was on duty at the time of the grounding urinate into a cup.

[@beeble2003]

Here in the UK, it would be the port's responsibility to keep its channels dredged to the advertised depth. The army, coast guard and ship owner should have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

[@vernwallen4246]

Then the Coast Guard will blame TRUMP.🗽👍⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓

[@jjosephm7539]

Army Corp has responsibility for channel depth. USCG has responsibility for Aids to Navigation

[@TheDecguy]

These wheelhouse forward classic Great Lakes vessels are quickly disappearing. Age is catching up with them. Without trying to disparage anyones thoughts about the newer vessels on the lakes they just don’t have the looks of these old classics.

[@SteamCrane]

Part of the reason that the newer boats look bad is the elimination of sheer. The older boats had a gentle curvature along the length of the deck, especially toward the bow, while newer boats appear to have an absolutely straight deck. Makes them look clunky. For a good example of extreme sheer, look at USS New Jersey.

[@iam57yearsold]

Water is quite low here in Georgian bay.

[@tylerdurden2644]

Let' pitch in an buy the coast guard a depth finder

[@tomtrenter3208]

Former Coast Guard sonar tech here. What makes you think Charlie Golf doesn't have depth finders?

[@tylerdurden2644]

@@tomtrenter3208 It is called a joke.

[@mnrobards]

We need some good news !

[@davepickard4218]

I live 5 miles from there. MLive said it is freed. I can drive by later and post if it's still there

[@davepickard4218]

It is freed. It's now out in lake Michigan looks like is moving hard to tell from where I'm parked

[@maxmacdonald7174]

Wow prefect timing on this one. 70-year-old ship I hope it has minim damage to it and can go on for many more years.

[@chrisvandecar4676]

Sure hope the captain didn’t forgot the mariner’s first prayer “Dear _____, pleas don’t let me ‘foul’ up”. If this happened to me it would be immediately after briefing the crew on procedures and to not be the next ‘Ever Stuck’

[@derbuckeyetribe9789]

Recent weather conditions? We've had some Strong winds and storms across the Midwest. It wouldn't surprise me if they had the bad luck to hit a recently formed sandbar. Remember that time that USS Enterprise (CVN-65) ran aground in SF harbor during the 1980s? Uncharted sandbar they called it as I recall.

[@kevinpeterson7797]

Not the Baton Rouge Steel company. Rouge Steel was the renamed Ford Steel division on the Rouge River. It's how the paycheck read once it wasn't Ford and before Lakes Shipping.

[@wgowshipping]

Rouge River in Detroit. My bad.

[@alexandermckay8594]

She might be the first one to go into port this year. Somebody didn't do due diligence from the port.

[@TheThom1956]

You need to make your audio available for podcast.

[@x7valkyrie]

She ran aground again today, also in Muskegon

[@CodeZero4090]

I work with the crew a lot for work and this was probably one of the most nerve wracking things I've ever seen

[@Davidrixmusic]

I suppose if enough ships get grounded it may force Congress to act and take heed to some of Megan Milikens Bevin's (alias: "The Zar'rina) and your ideas. Always the hard way with the politics, of course) Thanks for the report of the Kaye e. Barker.

[@beeble2003]

America: The government has no business providing healthcare as a basic right to all people. Also America: A privately owned ship, carrying a privately owned cargo into a privately owned port has just run aground. The goverment must doooooo something!!!

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

I thought by this time seal level rise would have not only made grounding impossible but also make dredging totally unnecessary.

[@paulloveless9180]

Total shocker that sea level rise is not as emergent a problem as advertised.

[@madpete6438]

Isn't this a lake ? Kinda isolated from the sea. Anyway - sea levels have risen less than 1/2 a meter so far.... Just wait for a massive glacier to collapse in Antarctica - then we have drama. Just be living more than 100 feet above mean high water - you'll be fine for a while.

[@ArtStoneUS]

Lake Michigan is about 580 ft above Sea Level, and at the lowest level since 2017

[@Kevik70]

@@ArtStoneUS Which is funny as just last year the lakes were at one of their highest points in recent history.

[@beeble2003]

@@paulloveless9180 Free clue 1: _sea_ level rise doesn't affect the Great _Lakes._ Free clue 2: global sea level rising refers to the height of the water's surface; the issue here is the depth of the lake bed.

[@DukeCannon]

I was just asking you about lake freighters. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. 😮

[@engineererindfrombeantown.8327]

Good Boat, Creepy Crew when I was there

[@ibbylancaster8981]

AND…. HERE….We …..go!!!! Any bets on what will be next?🤣😂. And in other news Gravel prices in Muskegon are up 10%🤣😂🤣

[@alexandermckay8594]

So we need to dredge? How ironic, eh Sal?

[@dperson6557]

Thanks Sal for covering somethings on the Lakes... Living near Lake Huron and Straits from Lake St. Clair and down thru Detroit I have always enjoyed watching the Lakers steaming up and down bound. That design with forward wheel house is faiding out as a lot of the Great ones are now in their 70's and some pushing their 80th year of service are going to scrap.

[@bladewiper]

Talk about timing.

[@youreckonso]

Rogue waves would make a great vid?

[@paulloveless9180]

Are those for real a thing?

[@lizbethartemis4886]

❤️👍

[@michiganmudmechanic]

Muskegon pretty much doesn't take care of anything. It's my hometown. They don't take care of the roads they don't replace rd signs and now apparently they don't dredge their channel. I moved 10 minutes away from muskegon and it's night and day.

[@otm646]

2:27 You mean 3rd coast, but that's alright.

[@wgowshipping]

East, West and Gulf Coast.

[@pigrew]

Should sonar have been able to detect the sandbar before running aground, or is there some other technology that could prevent groundings?

[@tylerdurden2644]

Even forward looking sonar is limited to all but the slowest speeds. I doubt she was equipped.

[@beeble2003]

The port should be making frequent surveys and dredging the channel to the advertised depth.

[@tomtrenter3208]

What kind of sonar do you think would work in a situation like this? Only realistic solution would be to have a small boat with a GPS chart plotter and a fathometer do survey in advance of ship arrivals. This will probably have to be repeated at intervals because of changing lake elevations and the sand shifts rapidly with waves and currents. The shipping company's need this information so they can load their ships to accommodate the changing conditions.

[@tomtrenter3208]

@@tylerdurden2644 What kind of sonar are you talking about?

[@MrTimbeatty]

So does she just dump the rocks over the side to lighten it?

[@tomtrenter3208]

Her self unloading boom transfers her stone to a barge which transfers the stone to the Verplank dock down by the Lake Express landing.

[@joshuaguenin9507]

Days since last grounded boat...0 Days

[@wraithcat76]

clearly captain was stoned.

[@bobbyziglar3281]

What the ship . sounds better.

[@wgowshipping]

I hope you mean the title. :)

[@arthayday5133]

Oh boy, 3 groundings in the span of a year? I wonder what could ever be happening? It's almost as if sonar doesn't exist anymore. Hmmmmm Thousands of satellites orbiting the planet? Wow how far we have come with technology. Hmmmmm

[@tomtrenter3208]

The only sonar type system the lakers have is a fathometer to show the water depth directly beneath them, not out in front.

[@roywarriner8441]

No different than roads and bridges, harbors and ports are infrastucture that require a maintenance and improvement budget. Education and Healthcare as well. Who did you vote for?

[@wgowshipping]

I don't share or show my political affiliation.

[@roywarriner8441]

@@wgowshipping it was a rhetorical question and not directed at anyone in particular. The point being, you can't complain about infrastructure if you keep don't vote to improve it. It's your own damn fault. Again, not directed at anyone in particular, you are all responsible. How much did you spend on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that would have been better spent on infrastructure. You choose priorities when you vote, you haven't chosen wisely. You said so yourself the other day, all your ship building resources go to warships. What a waste. If you voted for that instead of infrastructure, stfu.

[@redoutdoors69]

I have videos on KZbin of it

[@wgowshipping]

Send me the links.

[@redoutdoors69]

@@wgowshipping kzbin.infomcUjgAJ_-n4?feature=share

[@redoutdoors69]

@@wgowshipping kzbin.infomcUjgAJ_-n4?feature=share

[@redoutdoors69]

@@wgowshipping kzbin.infoPeyONIG-ft4?feature=share

[@redoutdoors69]

@@wgowshipping so basically all weekend I've been walleye fishing the North and South Piers. The big Rusty ship is the one that got stuck both of them were anchored out there but get this the white one went in at exactly midnight no problem, but maybe you can answer this because my buddy and I were on the North Pier all night and into the morning and the one that got stuck has been anchored out there for like 4 days then at about 2:30 in the morning pulled anchor acted like it was going to head into the channel even turned his light on then all of a sudden turned and headed north for probably about a half mile or so stopped turned around extremely fast facing south went back to where it was anchored for days then spun around again like a full 360 anchored there for a while and then finally headed towards Wisconsin and then turned around and came through the channel at about 8: 30 9:00 in the morning

[@docksidemarine4273]

not uncommon for a ship to go aground

[@DeeDee-dl7sl]

WTH? Are they hiring teenagers to steer these ships?

[@otm646]

She's dead center in the channel, what more could you ask for? This wasn't a piloting error it's a harbor maintenance issue.

[@jonathanellsworth21]

@Dee Dee, these lakes freighters fit in and out of locks barely inches wider than themselves on a daily basis to cross between lakes. And they don’t need pilots to come aboard at every stop, they do it successfully every time. These people are some of the best in the world, this entrance is child’s play compared to other areas on the Lakes. As you can see in the video, she’s near dead center