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Supplemental Story to February/March 2007 issue of Lake Superior Magazine
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Captain Franz VonRiedel, President, Zenith Tugboat Company
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Jim Banks, President & CEO, Allouez Marine Supply Inc.
Supplemental Story to February/March 2007 issue of Lake Superior Magazine
Here is a sampler of maritime-related jobs, with insight from the folks who hold or have held the positions.
Cargo Surveyor
Capt. Sencer Under, Senior Surveyor , National Cargo Bureau Inc.
In his job as a senior surveyor, Captain Sencer Under performs the complex calculations to make sure ships properly stow grain in their holds so the cargo can’t shift and imperil the vessel’s stability. He may advise shipmasters on how cargo should be loaded and work on behalf of insurance companies, shipowners and ship charterers to make sure their business interests are protected as cargoes are loaded and shipped.
A graduate of a merchant marine academy in Istanbul, Turkey, and a former shipmaster, Sencer generally works with about 90 salties and 40 lakers a year. He typically must visit each of those ships three times as they arrive, load and prepare to leave port. “Interlake traffic is quite stable. The fluctuating one is exports, primarily grain. This port is well-equipped to handle those. We have professional companies; they do a very good job.”
Tugboat Owner
Captain Franz VonRiedel, President ,Zenith Tugboat Co.
Young entrepreneur Captain Franz VonRiedel has operated Zenith Tugboat Co. as its president since 2001, handling general towing, ship assistance and icebreaking on western Lake Superior. He has five part-time employees who work his two tugboats in Duluth and nine full-time workers who operate three tugboats he has on the East Coast. “I feel very optimistic about transportation by water in general. It’s a very efficient way to move things. I think we’ll see it only get stronger as the years go by.”
Vessel Agent
Dan Sydow, Manager, FEDMAR International
A vessel agent for more than 40 years, Dan Sydow primarily works with the salt-water freighters operated by FEDMAR International that frequently call in Duluth and Superior. He works with foreign shipmasters - some of whom have never been in the Twin Ports - to take care of immigration and customs requirements quickly and efficiently, to order tugboats, to coordinate the pilots who guide salt-water ships on the Great Lakes and to work with stevedores and loading facilities. Occasionally he even needs to make sure crew members get needed medical or dental care. Shipmasters “need someone who can help them with our local customs and local knowledge,” Dan says. “We’re trying to get that ship into port and out of port as quickly and cheaply as possible.”
Marine Supplier
Jim Banks, President & CEO , Allouez Marine Supply Inc.
Allouez Marine Supply and its Duluth-Superior Ship Chandlery supply lakers and salties with groceries and supplies needed to keep the ships moving. It also acts as a freight forwarder, delivering engine parts or other needed items to vessels in port. During the March-to-January navigation season, Jim Banks’ eight employees make deliveries to the ships 24/7 - “because that’s when the boats come.”
Jim sees a bright future for lake shipping because demand for important cargoes like coal and taconite are strong. “I’d say a person would have to have pretty positive feelings about that (but) we take it one season at a time.”
Great Lakes Pilot
Captain Don Willecke, President, Western Great Lakes Pilots Association
Captain Don Willecke is one of 19 U.S. and four Canadian members of the Duluth, Minnesota-based Western Great Lakes Pilots Association who board salt-water ships to guide them safely across the waters of lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. The pilots are government-licensed and experienced lake sailors.
“Pilots are required on all ocean ships in the Great Lakes. The pilot gets aboard one of these ships and directs the navigation, does the shiphandling when docking or undocking,” he says. “They may have come across the ocean, but they don’t know the Great Lakes. We know the lakes.”
Former Deckhand
Captain Thomas Paglaro , Thunder Bay Tug Service
Thomas Paglaro has been in the maritime business for more than 30 years. As a deckhand, one of his first jobs on a vessel, he recalls looking after various details on the deck, painting, cleaning, being available while the ship is berthed and unberthed and cleaning cargo holds (especially with grain). “It was mostly maintenance and you had to have a lot of (different) skills at times.” The need for people to fill those entry jobs is growing, he thinks. “The working conditions are getting better, but the young people don’t want to go away from home.”
Captain and Mate
Paul Beesley, semi-retired , Canadian Coast Guard and tugs
Paul Beesley of St. Catherines, Ontario, has sailed into Duluth and Thunder Bay in command of the Canadian icebreaker [Samuel Risley.] Now retired, he still works part time as a Coast Guard captain and a tugboat mate. “From what I’ve seen, (Great Lakes shipping) seems to be getting a little bit better, although nothing new is coming along (in new ship construction) other than some tug-barge combinations. I can understand the reasons for doing that economically, but it’s leaving some of the shipbuilders in the lurch.”
Oiler/QMED
John Cull , Great Lakes freighters
The fifth generation of his family to sail the Great Lakes, John Cull of Boynton Beach, Florida, worked on his family’s tugboats as a youngster, and has more than 20 years of experience as an oiler and QMED or Qualified Member of the Engine Department. “The oiler generally operates the plant of the engine room. I have my hands on the controls of every piece of machinery,” he says. Today’s Great Lakes fleets - composed mostly of self-unloading vessels - are so efficient that they “run like clockwork.” But steel imports to Great Lakes mills have taken their toll on the lake fleets and their jobs. “The Great Lakes shipping industry supports so much of the nation’s economy it’s unbelievable,” he says. “People don’t understand how important it is.”