By Rob Alway
Editor’s note: For the past several years, I have made it a personal mission to tell the stories of the Great Lakes maritime industry and, especially, the people who work aboard its vessels. As someone who has spent much of my career watching, photographing and studying these ships, I believe their stories deserve to be told.
Documenting the industry is important for preserving its history, but it is equally important for its future. Great Lakes shipping plays a vital role in our nation’s economy, and its continued success depends on attracting new generations of skilled mariners.
Recently, I spent four days aboard the SS Wilfred Sykes, a 1949 steam-powered freighter operated by Central Marine Logistics. This series explores the ship, the work it performs and, most importantly, the people who keep it sailing.
ABOARD THE SS WILFRED SYKES - Getting aboard a Great Lakes freighter is not like buying a ticket on a cruise ship. There is no passenger schedule. There is no guarantee that the ship will be where you expect it to be when you expect it to be there.
For several weeks I had been coordinating with Capt. Jason Cracraft, master of the SS Wilfred Sykes, trying to find the right opportunity for me to spend several days aboard the ship. Cracraft is a resident of Mason County and I wanted to tell his story about what life is like working on the lakes. As a result of my five days on the ship I will be publishing a series of stories on the crew, including a feature on Cracraft.
A commercial freighter goes where the cargo dictates. It is assigned a port to load, another port to unload and, eventually, another cargo after that. But there are a lot of variables between those assignments.
Another vessel might be occupying the dock. Loading or unloading equipment can break down. Weather can delay a ship for hours or sometimes days. A schedule that looks solid in the morning may be completely different by evening. If a ship has to wait too long at one port and another opens it, it may divert.
Then there was my schedule.
Most importantly, I wanted to make the trip with the least impact on my personal life. Attending my daughters’ after-school activities is important to me, and disappearing aboard a freighter for an unpredictable number of days required some planning.
Finally, Sunday, Oct. 4, looked like the day. Initially, Cracraft said the Sykes was expected to arrive at Port Dolomite, near Cedarville, Michigan, about 3 a.m. This meant spending the night at a hotel.
But, it also meant taking care of personal business first on Saturday. My oldest daughter performs in the Mason County Central High School Marching Band. Not only do I always want to see her perform, I’m also the dad who has the pickup truck that hauls the trailer. On Saturday, the MCC band was performing at a competition in Cedar Springs, Michigan -- at 9:30 a.m. We left the school at 6:30 a.m. After the band’s performance, I left and drove back home. Dropped off the trailer and then headed to Cedarville where I would spend the night.
A Great Lakes legend
The Wilfred Sykes is not only one of the oldest operating ships on the Great Lakes, it is also one of the most decorated.
Built by American Ship Building Co. in Lorain, Ohio, in 1949 for Inland Steel Co., the 678-foot Wilfred Sykes was the first new American-built Great Lakes freighter constructed after World War II. At the time of its launch, it was the largest vessel on the Great Lakes.
The Sykes was an important step in the evolution of the modern lake freighter. It was the first Great Lakes vessel built with a 70-foot beam and the first laker designed to carry more than 20,000 tons. Today, depending on draft, it can carry about 24,000 tons.
It is powered by steam turbines producing a combined 7,700 horsepower, turning a single 18 1/2-foot- diameter propeller. The ship was designed for speeds of about 16 mph. In normal open-water operation today, it commonly travels around 12 to 13 knots, or about 14 to 15 mph, depending on load and conditions.
The Sykes was also an innovator in how that steam was produced. While most Great Lakes steamships of the era burned coal, the Sykes became the first Great Lakes steamship built to burn Bunker C heavy fuel oil. Its two oil-fired boilers produce the steam that powers the ship’s 7,700-horsepower turbine propulsion system.
The Sykes is also one of the last active steam-powered freighters on the Great Lakes.
The ship was originally built as a traditional bulk carrier and was converted to a self-unloader in the 1970s. Its cargo is discharged through a conveyor system and a 250-foot stern-mounted unloading boom that can swing to either side of the vessel.
The Sykes also has a long history beyond hauling cargo.
In May 1953, its crew participated in the rescue following the sinking of the steamer Henry Steinbrenner on Lake Superior. Members of the Sykes crew took a lifeboat into heavy seas and rescued two men. In 1975, the Sykes was among the vessels that participated in the search following the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Today, the Sykes is operated by Central Marine Logistics. The company’s other active self-propelled bulk carrier is the Joseph L. Block. Central Marine also manages the Edward L. Ryerson, another classic Inland Steel steamship that remains in long-term layup.
The Sykes‘ present work is centered heavily around limestone used by the steel industry. While it travels to other Great Lakes ports, two of its primary loading locations are Port Dolomite near Cedarville on northern Lake Huron and Port Inland near Gulliver, Michigan on northern Lake Michigan. Much of that stone is delivered to the Cleveland-Cliffs steelmaking complexes at Burns Harbor, Indiana, and Indiana Harbor in East Chicago, Indiana
The two Upper Peninsula loading ports provide different stone.
Port Dolomite is part of the Carmeuse Cedarville operation, a major dolomite quarry. Dolomitic limestone contains significant amounts of magnesium along with calcium.
Port Inland is also operated by Carmeuse and primarily produces high-calcium limestone. Its quarry is several miles inland from Lake Michigan, with stone transported to the processing and loading area near the lakeshore.
Limestone and dolomite serve as fluxes in steelmaking. In simplified terms, the stone helps remove impurities during the ironmaking process. As the material is heated, compounds in the limestone react with impurities and help form slag, which can then be separated from the molten iron. The different chemical properties of high-calcium limestone and dolomite allow steelmakers to control that process.
For the load I would accompany, the Sykes would take stone from both Port Dolomite and Port Inland, blending the two products in its cargo holds before taking them south to Burns Harbor.
The schedule was looking fairly solid, but I learned on the very first day that nothing in the shipping business goes as planned. The Sykes certainly arrived at 3 a.m. as the captain told me. Except, another ship, the 639-foot M/V Mark W. Barker of Interlake Steamship Co., got in line first. That meant the Sykes had to anchor in McKay Bay and wait its turn.
Photographers are always looking for a good vantage point to photograph. Flying a drone adds another dimension as you often need to launch and land from a public space (unless you have permission on private property). The night before I discovered a small roadside park along M-134 just east of the quarry. From there, I launched the drone over the bay and got some photographs of the John J. Boland loading and the Mark W. Barker anchored, waiting its turn.
I returned Sunday morning where I got some photos with the drone of the Sykes backing into place at the dock. About 8:55 a.m., Cracraft called and told me he would be able to pick me up in the quarry parking lot in a few minutes.
I packed the drone and drove about a half-mile down the road.
Cracraft arrived in a pickup with a couple of dock workers who graciously helped me with my gear.
I quickly learned something about limestone quarries.
There is limestone everywhere.
It is outside the truck. It is inside the truck. It is on the road. It is on your bags. It is on everything you touch.
Everywhere.
At the Sykes, deckhands were waiting with a cargo basket. My duffle bag, camera backpack and computer bag were loaded into it and lifted aboard - along with whatever limestone each bag had collected during the previous few minutes.
Then it was my turn. No passenger gangway. No ramp.
I was handed a reflective vest, a hard hat and a life preserver and shown the ladder to the deck.
Tomorrow: Part 2. Aboard the Wilfred Sykes: Life aboard a working freighter
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This story is copyrighted 2026 by Sable Points Media.
Great perspective Rob!