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Ron Simon: Reflections of a merchant sailor

Ron Simon

Jim Hoffman found a way to work his way through college in the early 1950s.

He went to sea.

A retired health insurance salesman, he never did quite get that degree. But he did two summers aboard light ore and coal carriers working from Buffalo to Duluth.

Even in 1952, college was a costly venture. But by making $500 a month for three months and saving it all, Hoffman got through nearly three years of college.

The whole plan collapsed when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1953, spending 17 months in Korea’s demilitarized zone.

Then he was married and had three daughters. His college days and sailor days were over.

At least, he says, all three of his daughters earned college degrees.

As a merchant sailor, he served aboard two smaller ore/coal carriers, the Presque Isle and the Angeline. These were 605-foot-long vessels that could get up the rivers on the Canadian shore of Lake Superior to deliver coal.

He said each ship carried a crew of about 35 people from the captain down to the coal bunkers, where a man with a shovel could sweat away 10 pounds a day in the summer.

Hoffman started out as a deck hand and worked his way up to deck watchman.

As a watchman, his station was on the ship’s bow to make sure the vessel could steer clear of passing pleasure craft or other obstacles. There was no radio. He simply would yell to the men in pilot house.

“It was an enjoyable job,” he said.

His next promotion was to wheelman in the pilot house.

Ports of call included South Chicago, Port Arthur, Green Bay, Duluth, Superior, Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Every port on Lake Erie’s south shore was a coal port where long lines of railroad coal cars had their loads dumped into ships by loaders that rode on rails.

Hoffman said the hardest job was cleaning the cargo bays after an ore shipment. Iron ore and coal didn’t mix, and it took fire hoses and hard labor to get the bays clear of the ore.

During one summer, Hoffman estimated his freighter would traverse the Sault Ste. Marie Locks once a week.

When the ship reached Duluth, Hoffman and his fellow sailors would board a “bum boat” to shop for needed items. The vessel, which was anchored, was a floating grocery and drug store.

Hoffman can remember his share of storms, including one so violent that it tore off his ship’s anchor while it was trying to ride out a bad storm on Lake Superior behind Isle Royal.

After that storm, Hoffman decided that maybe the life of a Great Lakes sailor wasn’t all that wonderful.

His draft board made the final decision.

A regular at the Mansfield Community Y, Hoffman is a storyteller.

Recently, he brought in an album of photos and drawings of Great Lakes ships and the Soo Locks in action. It drew a curious crowd, and Hoffman’s storytelling ability did the rest.

One of his observations was that when it came to storms, Lake Erie’s shallow west end may be the worst spot in all the Great Lakes for sailors.

But Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay is a real killer. That’s where the famed Edmund Fitzgerald went down years ago.

Hoffman said Great Lakes ships have flat bottoms and blunt bows as compared with the steep bows of ocean going ships.

That helps with carrying capacity but can be a killer when a storm can break a freighter’s flat bottom.

Hoffman was a merchant sailor just long enough to know how tough things could get out there in the big water.

Ron Simon is a retired reporter, award-winning columnist and veteran of the U.S. armed forces. He can be reached at ronsimon@neo.rr.com.