These are notes I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Cleveland, OH: Saving the Hulett Ore Unloaders and C&P (Whiskey Island) Dock
Ron Wood posted Huletts coal unloaders at Whiskey Island, Cleveland Ohio. July,1992. These were used to unload coal and ore from lake boats . They became obsolete when the more modern lake boats arrived with self unloading features. I'm not sure if any of these remain but they were quite an impressive sight! I only wish I got to see them in action but alas when I visited there were no boats docked.
Richard Wagner posted The HULETTS digging deep in the 1960s. Dan Meyers shared Whiskey Island, Cleveland OH 1960's
Ted Gregory shared Thomas Wentzel's post Whiskey island Cleveland, Ohio Hulett unloaders, Conrail railroad circa 1995
It looks like the above was cropped out of this photo.
Hulett Iron Ore Unloaders posted Hulett Ore Unloaders on Whiskey Island, Cleveland, Ohio, 1999. Photo copyright Jerry Mann John Boles shared
Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted
The bulk freighter Colonel of the Fontana Steamship Co. being unloading by Hulett ship unloaders at Cleveland, Ohio (Image Source: Cleveland Public Library – Photographic Collection).
The date and name of the photographer are not included in the notes for the image. Based on the vessel’s history, the date is circa 1922-1943, after its flying bridge was enclosed.
[The description continues with a history of the freighter.]
William Potter's posted The Huletts at work, unloading iron ore from a lake freighter, May, 1943.
John S Pacetti provided two photos in the comments on William's post:
1 Picture taken from my boat, Cleveland.
2 1992
Bill Kloss posted Columbia's Ashland under the Huletts at the C&P dock in Cleveland. Barry Stone
Bill Kloss posted The Huletts at work unloading Algomarine at the C&P Dock in Cleveland. 1986. Bob Denyer: My late father-in-law, Harold Mescall, was General Superintendant of the docks for Hanna Mining. Hanna managed the C&P for the railroad.
It describes the Huletts at Whiskey Island and the shunt locomotives that poled the hoppers.
Ronald Picardi commented on Mike's share
They were the most efficient way to unload freighters prior to self unloaders. Three workers were needed to operate one, the crane operator that rode in the bucket, the lorry car operator that loaded the rail cars, and the oiler that keep everything lubricated.
Most unloading docks used four of them.
Photos from the Ralph Roberts Collection.
Ronald Picardi commented on Mike's share The bucket could rotate making scraping the bottom of the hold between hatch frames much faster.
Ronald Picardi commented on Mike's share The rail lines which used a "Mule" to push the hopper cars along. (this one is color corrected,) Note, this cargo is raw iron ore. Photos are from the early 70s.
From an Associated Press wirephoto on June 5, 1943:
"Cleveland, June 5--BREAKS LAKE RECORD -- The 640-foot freighter Benjamin F. Fairless, operated by U.S. Steel Corp.'s subsidiary Pittsburgh Steamship Co.,, pulls up at her unloading dock with the biggest cargo ever carried on the Great Lakes -- 17,101 gross tons (bill of lading weight) of war-vital iron ore. Cargo came from Two Harbors, Minn."
Bill Kloss posted https://www.greatlakesvesselhistory.com/histo.../i/ishpeming Cleveland Cliffs Marquette at the C&P dock in Cleveland. A Cleveland Press newspaper photo from the Cleveland Memory Project. 4/10/1941 Dennis Nicholson: Collided with the Senator in Lake Michigan. Edward Hodgkinson: One of those small pilot houses you see around the lakes. Tim Grimm: Back in the early seventies an inexperienced operator punched numerous holes in the bottom of our cargo holds which was also the top of our ballast tanks. Had to stuff rags with wood shims to stop the leaks. Spent a day in the shipyard getting things welded back up.
Two were scrapped and two have been disassembled and are rusting away on Whiskey Island. (Update: my current understanding is that all four Huletts on Whiskey Island where scrapped. The two that are in storage came from LTV/Republic in Chicago. [CitizenVision] Another update: These two came from Whiskey Island. The Republic Huletts were scrapped in place in 2010. [James Torgeson comment in post])
Bill Kloss posted a couple of photos with the comment: "A couple of undated Chuck Drumm photos of Cliffs Victory at the C&P dock in Cleveland."
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Bill Kloss posted From the Chuck Drumm folder, an undated photo of Frankcliffe Hall at the C&P dock in Cleveland. Converted during the 1979/1980 lay-up season and scrapped in Turkey in 2011.
Bill Kloss posted An undated Chuck Drumm photo. Ernest T. Weir and Edward B. Greene at the C&P dock in Cleveland. Ernest T. Weir became the Courtney Burton for Columbia, and Edward B. Greene still sails as Interlake's Kaye E. Barker.
This one catches much of the ore bridge and yet another spacing of the Huletts.
Bill Kloss posted An undated Chuck Drumm photo of Upper Lakes Red Wing at the C&P dock in Cleveland. Edward Hodgkinson: Red wings bridge looked quite modern for the time. Beautiful vessel.
2, Courtesy Jeff Kerr, Environmental Design Group; and Dick Pace, Cumberland Development, Saving industrial heritage: Hulett ore unloaders
Renderings of the proposal to erect the 60-foot-tall bucket arm of a Hulett ore unloader at Dock 32 next to the William G. Mather Steamship at North Coast Harbor. Decorative paving on the dock would create a shadow image of en entire Hulett, in which the bucket arm served as a key part. The bucket arm would be embedded partially in a raised platform evoking the hold of a freighter such as the Mather, from which Huletts scooped as much as 17 tons of iron ore in a single bite. Landscaping would evoke a row of holds running down the dock parallel to the Mather. Digital displays could also display what the Huletts looked like and how they operated.
Since there are four Huletts, a lot of water on the left, tracks for a narrow gauge polling locomotive and big storage piles on the right, I'll bet this was Whiskey Island in Cleveland.
yes you are correct. That large pool of water on the left is Lake Erie.
Bill Kloss posted Columbia's Ashland under the Huletts at the C&P dock in Cleveland.
James Torgeson shared The 604’ Str. Ashland (built 1943, scrapped 1987) is under the PRR Hulett unloaders in Cleveland. She was named for the Armco Ashland Works in Kentucky, not the Wisconsin city which was a loading port for Gogebic Iron Range ore until 1965. [I disagree that it is under the PRR unloaders. Given the buildings in the background of the photo, these Huletts are on the north side of Whiskey Island.] Kenny Baldauf: One of the things I remember about the Hulett was how fast it moved it plunged down into the hull going way faster than seemed possible or safe and them telling us that the Hullit could compete with ore bridges as far as tonnage
Bill Kloss posted Paterson's Canadoc under the Huletts at the C&P dock in Cleveland. A Chuck Drumm photo. No date given. Philip Pirrip: The wheelhouse sat high in the sky on this freighter. Barry Stone
Steve Vanden Bosch posted This photo of the Col James M Schoonmaker was taken in May of 1943 when she was being unloaded at Pennsylvania RR Hullets in Cleveland. The photo was taken by Jack Delano and is from the Library of Congress. Kelly Schumacher: Now she rests in Toledo at the National Museum of the Great Lakes
Robert Jovanovitch posted eleven photos with the comment:
Being hired as a Carman by Conrail in July of 1976 at the Collinwood Backshop in Cleveland Ohio allowed me at times to work at Whiskey Island over several years.
This allowed me to get up close to the Hulett iron ore unloaders while they were unloading iron ore boats and also watching the tug boats help these huge ships snake their way through the Cuyahoga River.
Here's a few pictures I took in August of 1992 of the 4 Huletts after their final move before being dismantled and of the electric shunts that they used to move the iron ore hoppers around and a tug boat helping one of those huge ships snake its way through the Cuyahoga River.
One of four photos posted by Steve Vanden Bosch [Go here for all four photos and other photos of "before Huletts."]
2 of 7 photos posted by Lance Aerial Media with the comment: "The most powerful, fastest freighter on the Great Lakes, the MV Edwin H. Gott - visiting Cleveland for the first time in nearly 20 years. This freighter is over 1000’ in length and can cruise at 18mph with nearly 20,000 hp. If you look close, you can see a windsurfer circling the front of the ship as it’s leaving the Bulk Terminal."
Chad Rawson: Great photos! Its interesting that the Edwin H Gott is the fastest, most powerful footer now and able to pull 18 MPH.
The Edward Ryerson was also the fastest ship in her day, also able to pull 18 MPH.
From one “Fast Eddie” to another!
John Putnam: Maybe the fastest footer, not the fastest of all.
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Francis Driscoll Jr. posted three photos with the comment: "They have started to clear the trees and debris around the Hullets that are stored at the CBT for removal. It was nice to see them more exposed. I’ve seen coyotes living in them. Wouldn’t you love to go and explore them. Cleveland Ohio. 3.28.24"
James Torgeson shared with the comment: "The days of the Cleveland Huletts are numbered!"
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Stephen Budweg provided three photos in the comments on James' share:
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2 of 32 photos posted by DRONE OHIO with the comment:
This pile of steel is roughly 114 years old, and is the ONLY TWO REMAINING Hulett Ore Unloaders left on this planet! The Port of Cleveland has signed a contract with Maple Leaf Demolition of Canton, Ohio to remove the disassembled components of these two historic Hulett ore unloaders from the Port’s Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey Island! Yes, there's a long story behind all this, but facts are facts! Cleveland was an industrial powerhouse in the late 1800's and early 1900's. These Huletts were invented here, built here, and operated here for nearly a century! Huletts fueled not only Cleveland's steelmaking but all the ancillary businesses that grew from the resulting copious supply of steel, and fueled the vast steelmaking needed to win both World Wars. This is CLEVELAND HISTORY at it's finest, and it may disappear all together unless something is done NOW! It is the 11th hour folks!!! Share this post, send it to the Mayor, the Governor, etc, etc!!! A contract has been signed to scrap the Huletts, in my humble opinion, that would CRIMINAL!!! Sorry for all the Caps, but it really irks me that we are at this point playing with Cleveland History!!!!
Dan Nelson shared with the comment: "I know a lot of people on here will want to see this."
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Dan Meyers suggested two videos of Huletts in action on William Potter's post: one and two.
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