Show fighting ships being built on great lakes fighting ships and ocean cargo vessels are going to war by way of chicago st louis memphis and on down the father of waters to new CIT orleans leans vessels more titan than feet built on the great lakes are reaching salt water by way of the illinois and mississippi rivers cities and villages in the heart of the midwest are getting glimpses of frigates foot submarine hunters for the american and british navies and cargo vessels feet long but of light draft for use in shallow waters the ships are built at duluth minn and superior wise on lake superior milwaukee and sturgeon bay wis on lake michigan and lorain and cleveland ohio on lake erie in yards under the jurisdiction odthe Us S maritime commission imperative need for these vessels appeared in 1943 frigates fast and maneuverable were needed for convoy duty these cargo vessels smaller than the maritime commissions standard cl type are desired by the navy particularly for island operations where narrow ports and i hallow water are a consideration shipyards along the coast lines were operating at full capacity building large vessels the yards on I 1 the great lakes appeared to be the logical choice for construction of these new type vessels without disruption to the commissions overall program the lake yards had the building facilities but the completed vessels could not get to sea by the usual route through the eastern lakes into the st lawrence river the canals around the rapids in the upper st lawrence would only accommodate ships up to feet in length another way had to be found to get these ships to salt water the possibility of taking the ships down the illinois and mississippi rivers was explored it was found that Chi cagos bridges over the drainage canal that connected lake michigan with the illinois river were too low and that the normal nine foot channel in the rivers was not sufficiently deep for the sterns to avoid scraping bottom the canal problem was solved by removing the masts on the frigates and shipping enough ballast to get under the bridges the masts removed at chicago are replaced at new orleans the sterns of the frigates had to be raised for the long river trip air filled steel drums 9 feet in diameter and 20 feet long did the trick the rear part of the ship was practically lifted out of the water by four pon a pair welded and bolted on either side the vessels proceed through the drainage canal to lockport under their own power here the pontoons pon are installed after the pontoons pon are attached the vessels are taken in tow by pusher type vessels much used on the illinois mississippi waterway and are pushed through the foot lock and lowered 41 feet into the des plaines PI aines river and move on down into the illinois river here begins begin s the trip across the middle of illinois and to the mississippi just above st louis and on to the sea at new orleans the pontoons pon are removed and shipped back to lockport for another trip kill V 4 ss 31 a xa N V i ya s 7 W 7 5 4 4 4 ap pp TT 0 adf NUNN R the frigate Us S S orlando having J just passed through the locks at lockport his continues on its voyage to new orleans by way of the des plaines the illinois and the mississippi rivers A pusher type tugboat slowly manbevers manu man evers nevers the foot warship from lockport to the sea left is a of the stern of the orlando showing the steel pon that elevate the heavy end of the ship so that it will clear the nine foot deep channel easily the pontoons pon are removed at new orleans and sent back to the yards |