Iroquois Lock Experience

Lela and I took a trip down to Morrisburg as I was giving a backdrop painting clinic for the Seaway Model Railroad Club. Before the meeting we travelled west to Iroquois and on the way down we saw a ship heading for the lock. So we went down to the Saint Lawrence Seaway lock parking area and watched the ship approach and go through. It was great.

The first picture shows the ship in the channel heading west approaching the east end of Iroquois Lock.

CSL Tadoussac's keel was laid June 25, 1968.  A traditional styled self-unloading bulk carrier, she was built as hull # 192 by Collingwood Shipyards division, Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd., Collingwood, ON and launched May 29, 1969 for Canada Steamship Lines Inc., Montreal, PQ. The Tadoussac was the last Canada Steamship Lines vessel built with the forward pilothouse and the first to be built with stern mounted self-unloading gear.

The holds had the cubic capacity to carry 28,800 net tons  of coal. She could unload at a rate of 5,413 tons of iron ore or 3,937 tons of coal per hour.

Overall Dimensions 
Length 730' 00"
Beam 77' 11"
Depth 42' 00"
Capacity (mid-summer) 30,051 tons
at a draft of 28' 03"
Power (diesel) 9,600 b.h.p.

The Tadoussac found herself in an unusual twist of fate on November 10, 1990. On the evening of the fifteenth anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Tadoussac lost power in a major storm on Lake Superior above Whitefish Bay: the general area of the Fitzgerald wreck.

The CSL Tadoussac is named in honor of the oldest settlement in Canada; Tadoussac, Quebec. Located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River about 100 miles north east of Quebec City.  The "CSL" prefix is the vessel's owner Canada Steamship Lines Inc.

This was a great day as the draw bridge went up and the gates opened.  The ship's captain was a very good ship handler as he brought her into the lock.  Did not scrape the sides at all.

A closeup of the bridge as the ship passed by.

Heading toward the west end of the lock the ship's bow is heading into open water on the Saint Lawrence.

The stern is just clearing the lock and the power is being put on as you can see the prop churn the water.

Now well underway the ship is approaching Cardinal.  She looks like she is travelling empty at about 10 knots.

I know this is not a railway theme.  But it was part of my every day is train day experience.  After a nice dinner we joined the Seaway Model Railroad club fora clinic with lots of backdrop painting fun.