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This is about one of the biggest annual fundraisers for the non-profit organization that has taken on the huge task of preserving this Great Lakes ship from the knackers’ yard.

Every October, the S.S. City of Milwaukee, moored in Manistee, MI, becomes a frightening spectacle.

Not much longer now, and the transformation will be complete. Manistee’s GHOST SHIP 2008 promises to be the scariest, strangest Ghost Ship yet! You won’t believe what you’ll see!

Drop by on Fridays and Saturdays in October and you’ll experience four stories of unsettling oddities, all within the confines of a 77-year old Great Lakes ship.

(Read more)

To help kick off the 2008 North American Safe Boating Campaign, the USPS Amateur Radio Club will hold a special event at the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, W1AW, at American Radio Relay League headquarters in Newington, Conn., on 7 and 8 June. USPS operators will be reminding boaters everywhere of the campaign’s safe-boating theme, “Wear It!”

USPS and ARRL have been working together for the past several years. ARRL, which shares our commitment to education, safety and public service, has been promoting USPS boating and marine electronic education and seminars, while USPS has promoted ARRL membership, services and resources for radio amateurs. (Read more)

I have just learned that the Delta Queen is in her last cruising season able to offer overnight accommodations. At issue is her wooden superstructure. Coast Guard fire codes prohibit boats with wooden superstructures from “having berth or stateroom accommodations for 50 or more passengers”. The 82 year old paddlewheel riverboat, with her four teak decks and original Tiffany-style stained glass windows, accommodates 176 passengers in 86 staterooms.

The steamboat, a National Historic Landmark, has been operating under a special Congressional exemption from the federal Safety at Sea Act since 1968. The exemption has been renewed eight times. She lost two congressional votes for another exemption last week.

The Delta Queen’s current owners, upon purchasing her, refused to recognize the Seafarers International Union — thus ending the history of collective bargaining with the ship’s crew.

An historic radio exchange took place Tuesday afternoon between the Battleship North Carolina and the new submarine USS North Carolina. Capt. Mark Davis and ham operator Bill Morine communicated with the Battleship from atop the submarine.

This is the first known conveyance of radio greetings between two namesake military vessels since the cold war era. This weekend the ham radio station aboard the Battleship will be activated sending greetings to hams around the world. (View video)

SOURCE: WWAY TV3

The 1930 vintage, 348 foot, railroad car and passenger ferry City of Milwaukee, a National Historic Landmark vessel, annually hosts a Carferry Reunion. She is moored at 99 Arthur Street (US-31 North) in Manistee, MI.

It is time again for the S.S. City of Milwaukee’s Carferry Reunion May 24th 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. This year we will have a full day of speakers, entertainment and refreshments. We will also be unveiling the City of Midland state room exhibit and a picture display of her history.

Our guests this year will be Author Art Chavez speaking on the construction and launching of the Spartan and Badger. John Brandt will be speaking on the Hurtigruten coastal ferry service in Norway, which has many similarities to the Lake Michigan car ferries. Rich Brauer will be speaking about the sinking of the Hartzel.

We will also have Marty Hopkins and the Time Machine providing our musical entertainment and we will have the grill fired up for hamburgers and hot dogs (for a small donation). We also invite anyone with a display or something special you would like to share, to please bring it along as we would love to see it.

Please give Linda a call at 231.723.3587 if you need table space and we’ll have one set up for you. We hope to see you at the reunion.

SOURCE: sscitymilw@AOL.com

The dilapidated, 123 year-old paddle-wheeled steam ferry boat, Lansdowne is at the breakers. The ship, built by the Detroit Dry Dock Co., spent most of its working life ferrying railroad cars between Detroit, MI/Windsor, ON and Port Huron, MI/Sarnia, ON. With over 90 years service, the Lansdowne was the longest-serving railroad ferry in the world. At the time it was also the oldest operating side-wheel boat on the lakes.

She served later as a floating restaurant in Buffalo, NY. She was taken to Buffalo about two years ago by the operators of Shanghai Red’s at Erie Basin Marina. Originally moored out of public view on the Buffalo River, it lost its docking spot at the former Buffalo Industrial Diving Co. property near Ganson Street, it was towed to its current, highly visible site where it upset the community.

Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown praised the ship’s owners for complying with Buffalo’s request to remove the “eyesore”. “I don’t care how they get rid of it, as long as it’s gone,” Brown said. “I’m pleased that they’re doing the right thing.”

Those of you who know me know that I love boats and ships. Peggy and I have spent many happy hours watching and photographing the lakers and saltys as they passed under the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron.

It always saddens me when another ship goes to the wrecker’s yard. The latest to go is the Calumet. Let us take a moment to mourn her passing.

The Muskegon Chronicle recently ran an excellent article about the old girl. The Boatnerd site has two pages about her history with lots of pictures. Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature on the Calumet and Pictures of the Calumet’s final voyage.

Recently, while doing some research, I found some interesting information about maritime radio room clocks. It seems that their distinctive faces were a result of the maritime radio silence period.

The radiotelegraph silence period (when the radio operator was to listen for distress signals) resulted from the sinking of the Titanic. The regulation was put into effect internationally in 1912, following an International Radio Conference in London, England. Equipment became available just before World War II that could automatically detect a distress signal. Radiotelephone silence periods were put into effect after WWII.

For a hundred years marine distress calls were sent by the Radio Officer (many of whom were hams), on 500 KC, in International Morse Code. In February, 1999 the satellite-based Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) replaced the old SOS system. (Read more)

I grew up just down the beach from what was then called the US Coast Guard Ludington (Michigan) Lifeboat Station. I also spent my teen years listening to their radio traffic, which was on 2182 KHz AM at that time. Both experiences gave me a great appreciation for their bravery and dedication to duty.

I have seen them go out into Lake Michigan for night training in seas that rolled the 44 footer to the point that her radar mast spreader lights would disappear from sight into the waves. This video is a deserved tribute to those sailors and airmen.

We had a mini-vacation last week to celebrate Peggy’s birthday. We did the IKEA store Thursday, the Detroit Zoo Friday and Port Huron over the weekend.

IKEA will kill the best part of a day. It is huge. If you live in an environment that has less square footage than you need to hold all your stuff, then this is the place for you. The Scandinavians live in cramped spaces in cramped countries. They know how to fit lots of stuff into small spaces. I had a delicious shrimp and egg sandwich in the cafeteria. Very Scandinavian—very good.

When I mentioned to our friend Bob Byler, K8RWB that we were going to the Detroit Zoo, he inquired if it was for a family reunion. Funny, Bob. We missed having a kid with us to share the animals. While there, I wondered if two caribou was a cariboubou, or a pairabou. Guess I will never know.

We stayed overnight in Port Huron. Had to borrow some bandwidth from the hotel across the street (our hotel’s WiFi was down) to update Peggy’s new laptop. Hooray for hotspots.

We watched large and small boats all day Saturday. Not too many small ones were in evidence, probably due to the $3.65 a gallon that was being charged for gasoline at the local marinas. On Sunday we took the tour boat Huron Lady II’s three hour cruse downriver to Saint Clair and Stag Island. I highly recommend this as a great way to beat the heat on a sunny summer day and to see some interesting scenery. We ended the day with a return vist to the Raven.

I took over a hundred fifty pictures of boats, ships and other things that I found to be interesting. If there is any interest from others, I could post them on Flickr for all to see. Send me an e-mail if you like the idea. kc8dne(at)ARRL(dot)net