Great Lakes--Overseas an Expanding Trade Route

Abstract

T nHE St. Lawrence seaway route between the Great Lakes and Europe has been actively used by shipping for many years. The Seaway project will not result in the creation of a new route for water-borne traffic, but rather will result in the enlargement of an existing one. Canada has developed, over a period of more than 150 years, a system of canals to circumvent the rapids of the St. Lawrence River and thereby make possible direct non-break-bulk communication between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The restricted dimensions of these canals and their locks have been the principal impediments to large-scale development of a direct Great Lakes-to-Europe trade by through vessels. It is the limitations imposed by these locks which prevent access to the Great Lakes by standard-sized ocean freighters. These locks, likewise, together with the connecting channels between them, prevent the large bulk freighters of the Great Lakes from access to oceanic trades during the closed season for lake navigation. In spite of these limitations, vessels have for many decades regularly passed from the Great Lakes to the sea. A type of vessel, known as a canaller, has been developed especially for passage through the restrictive locks (Fig. 1). Such ships engage in trade on the Great Lakes during the open season of navigation. When the connecting passages between the lakes are closed by ice, generally between December and early April, many of the are engaged in coastwise trade in the Atlantic. During the spring, summer, and autumn seasons of open lake navigation, most of them ply between the Great Lakes and ports of the loWer St. Lawrence River. The canallers are engaged in a variety of trades, among the most important of which are the transportation of woodpulp and newsprint from Canadian ports to the consuming centers on the G reat Lakes, such as Chicago. They are also engaged in the package freight trades between Montreal and upper lakes ports of Canada, and in the transportation of grain from the upper lakes to Montreal for transshipment there en route to Europe. These vessels are nearly all identical in appearance, except for a few more or less distinctive tankers, and are practically identical in dimensions. The typical canaller is 254 feet in length, 43.6 feet in beam, and with a loaded draft of 14 feet. With these dimensions, the vessels can pass through the St. Lawrence locks, such