Milestone: First bulk carrier built in 40 years arrives at Port Inland

Barker is U.S. flagged vessel

The Mark W. Barker is shown at the Carmeuse Port Inland dock after its 110-mile maiden voyage July 27. Courtesy photo

The Mark W. Barker is shown at the Carmeuse Port Inland dock after its 110-mile maiden voyage July 27. Courtesy photo

MANISTIQUE – The first new U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier built in more than 40 years arrived in Carmeuse Port Inland last month. The Mark W. Barker left on its 110-mile maiden voyage July 27, arriving at Port Inland to take on its first load of stone.

The ship — named after Mark W. Baker, president of the Interlake Steamship Company — is the first newbuild vessel since 1981, according to reports from gcaptain.com.

Its trip to Port Inland comes nearly three years after construction began on the vessel at the Sturgeon Bay shipyard.

The vessel, a new River Class, self-unloading bulk carrier, is believed to be the first ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes since 1983. It is made with steel manufactured in Indiana, from ore delivered from Minnesota.

The vessel was designed in-house by Interlake

Steamship Company, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, and Bay Engineering and is complete with advanced vessel and unloading systems automation.

The ship’s dimensions are a massive 639 feet by 78 feet with a haul depth of 45 feet. It has a carrying load capacity of 26,000 gross tons.

Construction of the vessel began in August 2019. It arrived at Port Inland July 27 and had 25,202 tons of material loaded to it.

The ship then departed Thursday morning for the Cobb Dock in Muskegon, Mich.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.