# Great Lakes Hanna Line/National Steel Corporation SS George M Humphrey



## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

I may have mentioned that I am involved with a major sorting of my home, with an eye to getting rid of a lot of junk, intermixed with things that I want to keep? In a book I found these three circa 1965 Polaroid pictures I took of the Hanna Line SS George M. Humphrey engine room. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M._Humphrey

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Humphrey was born on March 8, 1890, and raised in Cheboygan, Michigan, the son of Caroline Magoffin and Watts Sherman Humphrey. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. On January 15, 1913, Humphrey married Pamela Stark. They had three children together, Cynthia Pamela, Gilbert Watts and Caroline Helen Humphrey.

After practicing law in his hometown for five years with his father's firm, he accepted a position with steel manufacturer M. A. Hanna Company in 1917. That association lasted 35 years and included his ascension to company president in 1929. He served as Chairman of The Business Council, then known as the Business Advisory Council for the United States Department of Commerce in 1946. Following Dwight Eisenhower's election to the Presidency in 1952, Humphrey was recommended by close adviser General Lucius D. Clay, who had worked with the corporate magnate regarding post-war plans in Germany.

As Secretary of the Treasury in the first Republican Administration in 20 years, Humphrey was one of the most influential of President Eisenhower's Cabinet members. Eisenhower was once quoted as saying, "When George speaks, we all listen."

Humphrey had given up a $300,000 salary to accept the Cabinet position that paid just $22,500. He fought to have a balanced budget, tight money, limits on welfare and foreign aid, as well as "trickle down" tax cuts. He was even more adamant about government spending, saying in a 1957 press conference that if it wasn't curbed, "you will have a depression that will curl your hair." After leaving office on July 29, 1957. Following the Humphrey's departure that same year, he returned to the Hanna Company, serving as honorary board chairman and director, then later became chairman of National Steel Corporation.

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Attached

GeorgeMHumphrey.jpg (137.1 KB) 
GMH-hatchcrane.jpg (71.5 KB) 
Humphrey-ER-1.jpg (99.2 KB) 
Humphrey-ER-2.jpg (99.0 KB) 
Humphrey-ER-3.jpg (98.8 KB)

While it is true that these three engine room pictures have faded over time, the 1954 built Humphrey engine room was almost ALL General-Electric equipment and VERY brightly lit with GE USCG Approved watertight fluorescent light fixtures.

ER-1 shows the two, boiler water feed pumps. The electric motor driven unit is in the foreground, while the backup steam turbine driven IR - Ingersol-Rand - horizontal multi stage behind.

ER-2 shows the pair of turbo-generators and wide ladder up to the fantail. I wish I had taken some fantail pictures.

ER-3 looking down on the 8,500 HP turbines. Note that the front of the boilers faced the throttle station. Also please note the ER telegraph on its pedestal bolted to the deck on the right.

1960 I was a Coalpasser on Edmund W. Mudge, 1961 April-July Ordinary Seaman on Joseph H Thompson then Wiper on Leon Falk Jr July-December. 1962-63 I was F/WT on the Joe Thompson, 1964-65 I was Oiler on Humphrey. 1966 March fit-out to September I was 3 A/E on Joe Thompson. 

I was on senior 2 A/E Jim McKillips 12-4 watch. Jim was one of the Hanna engineers who sailed offshore winters.

When Unions came to the Great Lakes in the early 1950s they instituted C/E, 1 A/E, two 2 A/E and one 3 A/E manning. The two 2 A/E and one 3 A/E being watch-standers. Versus offshore manning was C/E, 1 A/E, 2 A/E and two or three 3 A/E with 2 A/E and two 3 A/E as watch-standers.

Watches were awakened fifteen minutes after the hour, while tradition, both on the Great Lakes, and offshore, was relieving at 15 minutes before the next hour. Jim McKillip taught me to do a complete inspection of operating machinery before relieving the watch. Begin in the stack eye-balling the whistles, checking the direct contact feed water heater and wander down through the fidley inspecting operating machinery.

The age 60 8-12 Oiler I relieved had been with Hanna 42 years and when I arrived in the engine room he was ALWAYS already in the locker room shower. The late 40s 4-8 Oiler who relieved me, never did so in any formal way, since the first thing he did each watch was take a sit down constitutional in the locker room.

We were up bound light on Lake Superior and ALL of the engineers were up forward working on the hatch crane. They had moved it all the way forward to get it out of the wind as much as possible. 

hatchcrane.jpg

I took this Polaroid picture of the hatch crane while discharging cargo at C & P ore dock in Cleveland.

While making my relief round, you know? You do it all on auto-pilot feeling bearings with the back of your hand. So as I began to touch the forward bearing next to the coupling on the electric feed water pump motor, before I touched it I felt heat. Looking down I saw the whole bearing housing was glowing hot.

So I dashed up the ladder and told the F/WT what was going on. I just secured the main engine, then ran back down below and lit off the steam pump. I had the electric pump secured and the steam pump online and was at the throttle bringing the main engine back up to speed, when I was descended upon by five engineers.

Louis Vieu was C/E and a really nice calm supportive guy. While the 1 A/E was a tall bear of man with a REALLY short fuse. So he has his face right in mine and he is hollering at me "what the f**k do you think you are doing?"

But Jim McKillip poked him and said something like "If you get out of his face maybe he can tell you." The C/E took the 1 A/E up to the engine room office while I told and showed Jim and the other assistants what the problem was. Then all the engineers had a confab in the ER office.

Finally Jim came down and told me I had done well. He told me the only thing he would have done different, is he would have moved the ER telegraph to STOP, to let the guys on the pointy end know something was wrong. He said that he too would ignore the phone klaxon just the same as I did. As it was the pilothouse guys noticed the ship slowing, there was no answer when they phoned the ER, so one went down on deck and told the engineers.

Greg Hayden


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

Hi Greg
Well remember those Huletts in Cleveland. Had to admire the guys that rode up and down in them discharging the cargo.
They were very efficient but showing their age with frequent breakdowns.
I believe they are all gone now.


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## JohnD610 (Jul 24, 2011)

Greg,
Wonderful post and great pictures you've shared.
Thanks John.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

*C & P ore dock Cleveland Ohio*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulett

Attached:

Hulett1-1.jpg (80.7 KB) 
Hulett2.jpg (57.4 KB) 
Hulett3-1.jpg (56.4 KB)
Hulett-discharging.jpg (87.9 KB)

The first is a photo published online when a minority of preservationists, who were unable to find ANY museum ANYWHERE in the world, who would take one; and they had no luck finding a place in Cleveland, so they were scrapped.

The other two Polaroids that I took show the operator sitting in his cab above the clam. The clam itself could be hydraulically extended nearly the width of the ships holds. When they got down to exposing the bottom they dropped a Cat D-6 down there to push stuff from the sides to the middle. 

Above the clam you will see I believe three flood lights and look above the lights and you will see the operators hard hat looking out of his little window. If you do not see the hard hat look below the little porch roof above his window.

This operator controlled this whole monster arm. He took a big bite then rose up and the whole arm swung back until he could drop the ore into a collection pan. Where it was automatically weighed. 

When they collected a railroad hopper car worth. The whole collection pan was driven by other folks over where they opened doors on the bottom of the collection pan and dumped a railroad hopper car full.

The last picture shows the collection pan dumping a cargo into one of the rank of hopper cars parked underneath. The collection pan operators worked in that little building you see with the window. The whole collection pan moved from one end of the the apparatus to the other. They would make that dash when the clam operator was doing his digging thing.

Greg Hayden


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## Ron Dean (Aug 11, 2010)

Very interesting posts Greg.
A great pity that none of the Huletts could have been preserved, if only for the present & future generations to marvel at the scale of engineering involved and the many thousands of rivets used in their construction.

Ron.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

While doing online research for my Hulett post I ran across a page that said two of the Cleveland machines were preserved @ another place on Whiskey Island. There was a Google satellite image that purported to be these two machines sitting side by side.

Yet in 2002 I visited Whiskey Island and drove all over it. In the place where the Huletts used to be, now self unloaders discharge their cargoes into piles. They had these huge diesel powered front end loaders -- I had not seen front end loaders this huge since I was in 'Nam -- that transferred the pellitized ore to railroad hopper cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelletizing#Pelletizing_of_iron_ore

Attached:

TaconitePellets.jpg (76.6 KB)

I drove every road on Whiskey Island including those with signs that said Keep Out. Yet I never saw these two machines. Nor was I ever challenged by anyone.

Greg Hayden


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

1964 & 65 I was an Oiler on the 1954 built Great Laker George M. Humphrey. 

https://www.greatlakesvesselhistory.com/histories-by-name/h/humphrey-george-m-2

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Humphrey, George M. 2

1954 George M. Humphrey 2 1986

Steel Great Lakes bulk freighter

Built at Lorain OH by American Ship Building Co., Hull 871
Built in dry dock (too large for existing building berths); floated June 19, 1954

710’ LOA, 690’ LBP, 75’ beam, 37’6” depth
1 deck, arch cargo hold construction, hatches @ 24’, oil-fired boilers, steam turbine engine, 8500 SHP

Enrolled at
690.4 x 75.9 x 32.9, 14034 GT, 10528 NT US 268564 to:
National Steel Corporation, Cleveland OH, M. A. Hanna Co., Mgr. (home port Wilmington DE)

Entered service Oct 1954

Laid up Dec 31, 1983 at Ecorse MI and did not operate again

Sold for scrap 1986 to Taiwanese shipbreakers. Fitted out and cleared Ecorse Aug 13 for Quebec QC with a crew of retired Hanna employees (retired Vice President Howard Andrews was one of the deckhands), whereupon the crew took the train to Windsor ON and returned to Ecorse to pick up str. Paul H. Carnahan. Cleared Lauzon QC with Carnahan Sept 2, 1986 towed by Dutch tug Smit-Lloyd 109. Tow arrived Kaohsiung Taiwan Dec 10, 1986.

IMO 5128895

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I tried boatnerd but they insist on showing ONLY George M Humphrey (1) built 1927 but not (2) built 1954.

http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/JamesLOberstar.htm

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The Shenango II was the last of three 710-footers (216.41m) built to similar plans to enter service; the other two being George M. Humphrey (1954) and John Sherwin (1958).

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Sherwin and Shenango II had NO vibration problems.

The first of the three Humphrey vibrated something awful but only back aft. Over her life many things were tried to stop it but none were successful up to the time I sailed her. This included Flow Fins jutting out from the hull ahead of the prop.

It was impossible to write legibly if you were sitting at a desk due to the vibration. OTOH that vibration was neat when dropping off to sleep in your bunk. 

EVERYONE on board typed EVERYTHING. Most had their own personal portable typewriter. My Oiler roommate had his. A wide carriage manual typewriter was built into the log desk with a swivel stool. Logs were one sheet with several carbons a new one was put in at midnight daily. They were filled out from the bottom to the top to make it easier for the C/E to subtract how much fuel we burned compared to yesterday. The C/E copied this to a smooth log on his own typewriter. So I bought first a Smith-Corona 12 inch carriage manual portable typewriter. Later, I do not recall when I replaced the manual with an electric typewriter.

20110604-IMG_4102-typewriters.jpg 
Manual right electric left.

Sailing the lakes going to go live somewhere else for nine or ten months I always arrived 'prepared'. I carried three matching hard shell burgundy color Samsonite two suiter suitcases, color matched Samsonite hard shell briefcase, with a 3 digit combination lock; try 007. 1964 I added a typewriter in its case. 

Yeah, it could be a pain when I had to set down a few items and leave them behind while I went ahead and parked others. Then walk back and get what I left. Keeping my cases in view walking back and forth eventually I reached my destination way out on the end of a long pier. 

This has been just the preamble to say that I earned a LOT of OT weekly offshore usually on Sunday sitting off watch at my own cabin desk typing overtime. It was the C/E's responsibility but like many other things, usually the C/E 'delegated' it to someone else. And regardless of my rank 3rd, 2nd and 1st usually I was the only engineer with a typewriter still have them. Each individual filled out an overtime form listing their OT for the week. The crew all gave them to the union steward, who then gave them to me. I typed them then returned the sheets to the union steward. The engineers gave me theirs. 

Studying for my original 3 A/E license in Cleveland the two engineer instructors George Rector and Eli Rantanas introduced us to Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers so I bought a copyright 1958 copy and it is sitting on my lap right now. I carried this with me all the time I sailed. 

Today when I took it off my bookshelf I realized that it is 'weighty' so I weighed it: five pounds, 2-1/2 ounces. It measures 9-1/2 inches high x 8 inches wide x 3 inches thick. I also carried a Modern Marine Engineer's Manual by Alan Osbourne that weighs three pounds, 3.375 ounces. 9 inches high x 6 inches wide x 2-1/4 inches thick. Most ships I sailed I typed a more complete than usual Condensate Temperature = Inches of Vacuum chart displayed at the log desk beneath clear Plexiglas. Both of these books lived in my desk when I was with Westin.

Attached:
20110604-IMG_4102-typewriters.jpg (114.0 KB) 
SS-George M. Humphrey-Welland Canal-August 14,1986.jpg (67.8 KB) 
SS-John-Sherwin-Docking. Mark Hansen.jpg (104.5 KB) 
SS-Shenango II.jpg (83.0 KB)

Greg Hayden


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