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This is a multicache that will take you to three waypoints in Manitowoc that are associated with modern Great Lakes commercial shipping. If you are lucky, you will find a Laker (a commercial Great Lakes freighter) unloading at one of these locations. It makes a nice bicycle ride through Manitowoc or can be accomplished via moped or car.
In 1868, there were more than 2,200 commercial ships registered on the Great Lakes. Today, there are fewer than 100 commercial ships left.
The coordinates of the first waypoint are:
N 44 05.950
W 087 40.278
The first waypoint takes you near a dock for a company that was founded in 1912 and employed the oldest laker on the Great Lakes – the St. Mary’s Challenger. Please do not trespass on company grounds. The St. Mary’s Challenger was built in 1906. Up until 2013, she was one of only two vessels on the Great Lakes powered by the classic Skinner Marine Unaflow steam engine- but she has since been converted to a barge and her Unaflow removed. She was originally built as the William P. Snyder, and also carried the names Elton Hoyt II, Alex D. Chisholm, Medusa Challenger, Southdown Challenger, and was finally named the St. Mary’s Challenger on April 28, 2005. The vessel is 551-foot self-unloading cement carrier that can carry 10,250 tons of cargo. To decipher the second waypoint, use the name painted in red on the cement silos:
N 44 05.RDN
W 087 R9.09A
Manitowoc _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Cement Co.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The second waypoint will take you to the dock that serves the only Great Lakes vessel that is powered by the classic Skinner Marine Unaflow steam engine—two of them, in this case, powered by coal-fired boilers. Coal-powered ships were once common on the Great Lakes, but this is the last coal-fired vessel anywhere in North America. Use information from the vessel’s historic marker to decipher the coordinates to the final waypoint:
N 44 05.3FC
W 087 3B.A4D
ABCD = The year the vessel from the second waypoint was built
EF = The above vessel is the last one of how many once based in Ludington, Michigan ?
The final waypoint overlooks two commercial docks on the Manitowoc River. The large tower to the west is a grain elevator that holds barley used to make Budweiser Beer. Barley was first malted in Manitowoc in 1847, and it’s still malted here today, brough to Manitowoc via self-unloading lakers.
To the northwest is a coal dock used to fuel the vessel from the second waypoint. The coal is brought to Manitowoc aboard self-unloading lakers that tie along the river front and swing their unloading boom over the shore, dumping the coal in large piles.
All of Wisconsin’s communities along the Lake Michigan shoreline were once busy shipping ports, but Manitowoc is one of the few that still services large Great Lakes freighters.
This cache was placed as a partnership with Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Maritime Museum. We hope you enjoyed learning about the Manitowoc Shipping Today. To learn more about Wisconsin’s maritime heritage please visit our other geocaches in the Manitowoc / Two Rivers area and throughout the state, or visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org and maritimetrails.org!
***Congratulations to donb01 on your first FTF!***
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Uvag: Ybbx ng gur rireterra!