MV ''Roger Blough'' is a ship built in 1972 by

American Ship Building Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio in 1898. It changed its name to th ...

Lorain, Ohio Lorain () is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of ...

. She serves as a

lake freighter Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that operate on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Since the late 19th century, lakers have carried bulk cargoes of ma ...

on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

. The ship is owned by

Great Lakes Fleet Great Lakes Fleet, Inc. is a shipping firm headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota that operates a fleet of nine self-unloading bulk carriers on the Great Lakes transporting dry bulk cargo such as iron ore, coal and limestone. History Great Lakes Fl ...

, Inc. and is named for the former chairman of

U.S. Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

Roger Blough Roger M. Blough (January 19, 1904 October 8, 1985) was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the United States Steel Corporation for 13½ years, from May 1955 through January 1969. In this position, he is best known for servi ...

Service history

The ship's launch was originally planned for July 1971. However, on June 24, 1971, the ship suffered a major engine room fire which killed four and caused serious damage.

Sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s and delivery were delayed by a year to June 1972. The ''Roger Blough'' assisted in the search for . On November 11, 1975, the morning after the sinking, the crew of the ''Roger Blough'' recovered a 25-person life raft from the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''. She was stuck in the ice in

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

near

Conneaut, Ohio Conneaut ( ) is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Creek northeast of Cleveland. The population was 12,841 at the 2010 Census. Conneaut is located at the far northeastern corner of the state. ...

for eight days in February 1979 and then was laid up from 1981 to 1987 due to the economy and the capacity of the newer lake freighters. On May 27, 2016, while under operation of the

Keystone Shipping Company Keystone Shipping Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a major shipping and transportation company. Keystone Shipping Company operates a fleet of ships for both dry bulk cargo and tankers. Since World War I, the Keystone Shipping Company has ...

, the ''Roger Blough'' ran aground on Gros Cap Reef in

Whitefish Bay Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of Lake Superior between Michigan, United States, and Ontario, Canada. It is located between Whitefish Point in Michigan and Whiskey Point along the more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield o ...

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh w ...

with some minor flooding reported. She remained aground on May 29, 2016 near Gros Cap Reefs Light with the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

vessel on station monitoring the situation and enforcing a safety zone around the vessel. At 5:45 AM on June 3, the ''Roger Blough'' began offloading some of its

taconite Taconite () is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing (over 15% iron) sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate. The name "taconyte" was coined by Horace Vaughn Winchell (1865–1923) � ...

cargo to the SS ''Philip R. Clarke'' to lift the ship off the reef. The vessel was refloated off the reef at 10:45 AM, June 4, and anchored at Waiska Bay for further evaluation or repairs. Lightering operations were completed at Waiska Bay on June 7, 2016 with the SS ''Philip R. Clarke'' and the receiving the remainder of the taconite cargo. Starting off on June 11, 2016, the ''Roger Blough'' was escorted by the tug ''Candace Elise'' to

Bay Shipbuilding Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) is a shipyard and dry dock company in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. As of 2015, Bay Ships was a subsidiary of Fincantieri Marine Group and produces articulated tug and barges, OPA-90 compliant double hull t ...

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Sturgeon Bay is a city in and the county seat of Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,646 at the 2020 Census. The city is well-known regionally for being the largest city of the Door Peninsula, after which the county is na ...

for repairs.

Fire in layup

On February 1, 2021 the vessel was again engulfed in flame from an engine fire while docked at

No casualties were reported as the ship was empty and in winter layup when the fire started. According to the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

's August 17, 2022, incident report "''the probable cause of the engine room fire aboard the bulk carrier ''Roger Blough'' was likely the repeated removal and reinstallation of the furnace’s burner that led to the failure of its mounting coupling, resulting in the operating burner dropping to the bottom of its enclosure and fracturing its fuel supply line, which allowed diesel fuel to ignite. Contributing to the casualty was the absence of a fire-activated automatic fuel oil shutoff valve on the fuel oil inlet piping before the burner, which would have stopped the fuel feeding the fire shortly after it started and limited the spread of the fire.''" The ship’s future is very unclear (as of November 2021), however there are possible indications, including visible repair efforts to the vessel’s aft section, that the ship is salvageable and the funds needed for repair work ($20 million) are available, barring no additional complications. The NTSB report puts the amount of damage at more than $100 million. On October 27, 2022, the MV Roger Blough departed Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay under tow, destined for Conneaut, OH, for long term layup.

References

External links

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Keystone Shipping Company
operator as of 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Roger Blough 1972 ships Ships built in Lorain, Ohio Great Lakes freighters Merchant ships of the United States