The Manchester Ship Canal is 36 miles to Eastham via 5 locks and 25 further miles to the Mersey Bar light vessel. Work started in on the canal 1887 and completed in 1894
Mike sailed on two ships out of Manchester; the �Pass of Balmaha� a chemical tanker of 3500 dwt built in 1975 owned by Panocean and managed by Corys, and the bulk carrier �Carchester� of 14,800 dwt., a modified IHI Freedom. We travelled from Manchester on Carchester with pictures whilst in the various locks and under the bridges showing why Carchester had to have telescopic masts!
There were also pictures of crossing the Atlantic some in calm and peaceful conditions and others in severe weather with the ship pitching and rolling in some severe gales. These were taken from Carchester and from ships of Bolton Maritime Management when Mike sailed aboard Nosira Lin, Nosira Sharon and Nosira Madeleine.
The St Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal, a great feat of engineering that bypasses Niagara Falls, make the Great Lakes accessible to the sea allowing import and export of goods to the manufacturing and farming heartland of North America.
The journeys start at the entrance to the Seaway at Montreal, which is some 900 miles from Newfoundland, passing Beauharnois on the way to Lake Ontario, and ending in various ports within the canal and lakes system, including Detroit, Toledo and Duluth, which is probably the furthest from Montreal at the western end of Lake Superior, a distance of over 1300 miles. Mike gave us a detailed history of canal systems and showed pictures of the �lakers� both old and new that ply the many ports in the United States and Canada.
We are grateful to Mike for coming from Dover to show us his slides and talk about his life at sea, and for the well-researched commentary on the waterways and ships that came across his camera lens.