Laker

A Laker is a type of ship designed for carrying cargo on the Great Lakes. Most lakers have a distinctive profile to make maximum use of the locks and canals along the lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway: they are long (typically 600-1,000 feet) and narrow, with the pilot house near the bow and a second structure, bearing (typically) a single funnel, near the stern. The newer 1,000 ft lakers have only a stern structure. Before the era of container ships, lakers were also distinctive in not having cranes as most older ocean-going cargo vessels once did. This was because all major Great Lakes ports historically were designed for handling bulk cargo and provided with suitable equipment for loading and unloading, but prior to the container ship era many ocean ports did not have much equipment for cargo handling -- so older cargo ships usually had their own cranes.

Related Topics:
Ship - Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway

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The most famous laker was the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975.

Related Topics:
Edmund Fitzgerald - Lake Superior

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