The Interlake Steamship Company is an American freight ship company that operates a fleet on the Great Lakes in North America. [1] [2] [3] It is now part of Interlake Maritime Services.
The company is chaired by James R. Barker, with his son, Mark W. Barker, serving as President. Paul R. Tregurtha serves as Vice-Chairman of the company. [4]
The firm was founded in 1913 when a consortium of firms bought out the seventeen vessels of the Gilchrist Company, which had gone into receivership. [5] The other firms were: the Lackawanna Steamship Company, the Acme Steamship Company, the Standard Steamship Company, the Provident Steamship Company and the Huron Barge Company. The combined fleet operated 56 vessels.
When Interlake launched its largest vessel, MV William J. Delancey (now MV Paul R. Tregurtha), its fleet contained 151 vessels, and was capable of carrying over three million tons of cargo at one time. [6]
In early 2018, Interlake established a subsidiary service known as Interlake Logistics Solutions. Although its existing freight services were focused on bulk raw materials, the new service offered shipping of finished goods. The Barker and Tregurtha families, owners of Interlake Steamship, chartered the 418-foot (127 m), 14,000 short tons (13,000 t) barge Montville to provide this new service on an as-needed basis. [7]
In April 2019, Interlake Steamship announced construction of a 639-foot (195 m) long, 75-foot (23 m) wide River-class self-unloading bulk freighter. The vessel, built by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, was the first U.S.-flagged, Jones Act-compliant ship built on the Great Lakes since 1983. [8] and the first built by Interlake since 1981. [9] The ship was christened MV Mark W. Barker in Cleveland, Ohio [8] on 1 September 2022. [10]
In December 2020, SS Badger was acquired by the Interlake Steamship Company. [11] The deal also included acquisition of the tug USS Undaunted (ATA-199) (renamed MT Undaunted), deck barge SS City of Midland 41 (renamed ATB Pere Marquette 41), and SS Badger sister ship SS Spartan, currently in long-term lay-up. [11] [12] This was a part of a larger sale of assets. The Middleburg Heights, Ohio-based Interlake Holding Company acquired the assets of Lake Michigan Car Ferry Company, based in Ludington, Michigan. [13]
| image | name | launch date | retired | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ATB Pere Marquette 41 | 1940 | 1988 |
|
 | MV Lee A. Tregurtha | 1942 |
| |
 | SS Frank Armstrong | 1943 | 1987 [15] |
|
| MT Undaunted | 1944 |
| ||
 | SS Badger | 1952 |
| |
 | MV Kaye E. Barker | 1952 |
| |
 | SS Spartan | 1952 | 1979 |
|
 | Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder Tug-Barge | 1953 |
| |
 | MV Honorable James L. Oberstar | 1958 |
| |
 | SS John Sherwin | 1958 | 2008 |
|
 | MV Herbert C. Jackson | 1959 |
| |
 | MV Stewart J. Cort | 1972 |
| |
 | MV James R. Barker | 1976 |
| |
 | MV Mesabi Miner | 1977 |
| |
 | MV Paul R. Tregurtha | 1981 |
| |
 | MG Winfield Scott (LT-805) | 1993 | 2021 |
|
 | MV Mark W. Barker | 2022 | ||
The SS William G. Mather is a retired Great Lakes bulk freighter now restored as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio, one of five in the Great Lakes region. She transported cargo such as ore, coal, stone, and grain to ports throughout the Great Lakes, and was nicknamed "The Ship That Built Cleveland" because Cleveland's steel mills were a frequent destination.
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. Freighters typically have a long, narrow hull, a raised pilothouse, and the engine located at the rear of the ship.
SS Badger is a passenger and vehicle ferry in the United States that has been in service on Lake Michigan since 1953. Currently, the ship shuttles between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a distance of 62 miles (100 km), connecting U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) between those two cities. She is the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 20, 2016.
SS City of Midland 41 was a train ferry serving the ports of Ludington, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Kewaunee, Wisconsin, for the Pere Marquette Railway and its successor, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway from 1941 until 1988. The ferry was named after the city of Midland, Michigan.
USS Chiwawa (AO-68) is a former T3-S-A1 Kennebec-class oiler constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the only U.S. Navy ship named for the Chiwawa River in Washington.
SS Spartan is a railroad car ferry on Lake Michigan owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from 1952 through 1979. It alternated routes from Ludington, Michigan, to Milwaukee, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
MV Paul R. Tregurtha is a Great Lakes-based bulk carrier freighter. She is the current Queen of the Lakes, an unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes. Launched as MV William J. De Lancey, she was the last of the thirteen "thousand footers" to enter service on the Great Lakes, and was also the last Great Lakes vessel built at the American Ship Building Company yard in Lorain, Ohio. The MV Paul R. Tregurtha is the current flagship for the Interlake Steamship Company.
Queen of the Lakes is an unofficial but widely recognized title bestowed upon vessels on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada, honoring the largest vessel currently in service on the lakes. A number of vessels, mostly lake freighters, have been known by the title. Since 1981, the title has been held by MV Paul R. Tregurtha, a lake freighter of the 1000-foot category operated by the Interlake Steamship Company. MV Paul R. Tregurtha is 1,013.5 ft (308.9 m) long, and is the longest-running holder of the title.
The SS St. Marys Challenger is a freight-carrying vessel operating on the North American Great Lakes built in 1906. Originally an ore boat, she spent most of her career as a cement carrier when much larger ore boats became common. After a 107-year-long working career as a self-propelled boat, she was converted into a barge and paired with the tug Prentiss Brown as an articulated tug-barge. Before conversion, she was the oldest operating self-propelled lake freighter on the Great Lakes, as well as being one of the last freight-carrying vessels on the Great Lakes to be powered by steam engines.
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 tank ships and offshore support vessels. It also provides repair services to the lake freighter fleet. In the past the shipyard located in Sturgeon Bay has operated under several different names and traces its history back to 1918.
The Pickands Mather Group is an American company which provides shipping of coal and other bulk commodities, and the purchase, sale, and marketing of bulk coal. Founded in 1883 as Pickands Mather & Company, it once had the second largest shipping fleet on the Great Lakes in the 1910s and 1920s. The company was purchased by the Diamond Shamrock Corporation in 1968, which in turn sold it to the Moore-McCormack Resources in 1973. Moore-McCormack sold Pickands Mather's mining interests to Cleveland-Cliffs in 1986. Moore-McCormack then spun off the Interlake Steamship Company to James Barker and Paul R. Tregurtha in 1987. Pickands Mather was sold to a management group in 1992, and continues to operate as a private company.
MV Mesabi Miner is a bulk carrier that operates on the upper four North American Great Lakes. She is one of the small number of vessels that are too large to travel through the Welland Canal that connects Lake Erie to the lowest lake, Lake Ontario.
MV James R. Barker is an American bulk carrier that operates on the upper four North American Great Lakes. Built in 1976 by the American Ship Building Company at Lorain, Ohio, the ship is 1,004 feet (306 m) long, 50 feet (15 m) high and 105 feet (32 m) wide. Like the MV Mesabi Miner, a ship of the same design, it is owned and operated by the Interlake Steamship Company and was named for Interlake’s Chairman of the Board, James R. Barker.
The SS Pere Marquette was the world's first steel train ferry. It sailed on Lake Michigan and provided a service between the ports of Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Pere Marquette Railway from 1897 to 1930. The railway used the name Pere Marquette for many of its ships and ferries, adding a number to the end of the name.
The MV Kaye E. Barker is a self-discharging lake freighter owned and operated by the Interlake Steamship Company. She was originally built as the Edward B. Greene, and was later renamed Benson Ford before being sold to Interlake and named the Barker. It primarily hauls hematite pellets, stone, and coal across the North American Great Lakes.
Interlake Maritime Services is an American shipping firm that was created in December 2020 after Interlake Steamship Company purchased the assets of Pere Marquette Shipping Company and Lake Michigan Car Ferry Company, including the car ferry SS Badger, MT Undaunted, ATB Pere Marquette 41, SS Spartan, and MG Winfield Scott (LT-805). Its corporate headquarters is located in Middleburg Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, with additional regional offices in Duluth, Minnesota, and Ludington, Michigan.
MV Mark W. Barker is a large diesel-powered lake freighter owned and operated by the Interlake Steamship Company. She is the first of the River-class freighters constructed for an American shipping company. Mark W. Barker is the first ship on the Great Lakes to be powered with engines that meet EPA Tier 4 standards. It is the first U.S.-flagged, Jones Act-compliant ship built on the Great Lakes since 1983.
The SS J.L. Mauthe, was originally a straight-deck bulk carrier steamship, hull #298, built in 1952 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works on the River Rogue, Michigan site and delivered to its owner, Interlake Steamship Company. The SS J.L. Mauthe operated as a self-propelled vessel for 46 years. Upon conversion into a barge, it was renamed as Pathfinder and is currently active on the lakes as an articulated tug-barge unit, paired with the Z-drive tug Dorothy Ann with a home port of Cleveland, Ohio.
The MESABI MINER has a carrying capacity identical to that of the JAMES R. BARKER at 63,300 tons. Upon entering service, these two ships provided the Interlake Steamship Company with a dramatic increase in that firm's total trip capacity.