[QUOTE=Jim Schneider;74214]I can comment on the show, but, I have worked on the lakes for a long time. I think the most dangerous part of sailing on the lakes is always being close to shore and very few ports that can be entered in foul weather. Yet at the same time hundreds of miles of fetch.
All those little river ports are a PITA, and full of kayaks, sailboats and guys with 40 foot boats that think they can’t leave the channel.[/QUOTE]
Very well put Jim. That explains the dangers of the lakes well. The other thing about them is the waves are much closer together and steeper than you would generally encounter on the ocean. Your boat will go through the wave, not ride it is the best way i can describe that i guess.
[B]New History Channel show to feature Northland tugs[/B][B]7/17 - Duluth, Minn.[/B] – A reality program that highlights the tugboat industry on the Great Lakes will include a view behind the scenes at a Duluth area family-owned business.
“Great Lake Warriors,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday on the History Channel, features footage filmed with tugboat operators and icebreakers from Heritage Marine. The Duluth-based crew is one of three highlighted in the series. There are scenes shot from four weeks of work between December and the end of January.
“People who live in our area see the tugs working in the harbor, but they’re not on board to see what goes on,” Mike Ojard, owner of Heritage Marine, said. “They’re going to have a bird’s eye view from the deck and the pilot house of what we do.”
The documentary-style program features three crews that work on the Great Lakes: Calumet River Fleeting, run by John “The Legend” Selvick, works on Lake Michigan; Gerry Dawson’s Thunder Bay Tugs is a five-boat operation that includes crusty and talented wild-card captain Stan Dawson; Ojard’s crew of friends and family includes his son, Patrick.
Mike Ojard is shown briefly in the first episode, “The Lethal Season,” delivering blurbs about the dangers of working on Lake Superior. The hour-long episode focuses on the crew from Thunder Bay as it pushes a barge and the guys from Chicago, who must help a freighter in trouble.
The first plot points surface during the premiere: A book-smart-but-inexperienced recent graduate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, training to be a captain, bumbles when it’s time to go hands-on; Stan Dawson is referred to as the “best in the business” and speaks colorfully when he isn’t being bleeped to mask swear words.
“This lake has been known to eat ships for breakfast,” Stan Dawson said. And: “I can make a boat dance,” he said. “It’s marine slam-dancing.”
The show is produced by Tower Productions for the History Channel and has drawn comparisons to “Ice Road Truckers” — drivers who move cargo through tricky conditions — and the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” which chronicles the adventures of Alaskan king crabbing boats.
“What appeals to us about the world of tug boating is that it is a world you don’t know that well,” executive producer Jonathan Towers said. “The world of the Great Lakes is something that is really … America doesn’t quite get what an amazing story the Great Lakes are, how dangerous they are, how important they are.”
The show, which opens with a rock version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” explains weather patterns and how ships work. There also are facts about the lakes, including sizes, depths and lives lost.
Though Ojard and company don’t get much screen time in the first episode, Towers said audiences will see more of them as the season progresses. Ojard said the film crews caught standard ice-breaking shots, nothing too out of the ordinary.
“Of course, last season was pretty bad,” he said. “There wasn’t much going on. … It’s good to see Duluth-Superior get ink nationwide.”
There was more activity in the spring, with storms and ship-handling jobs and the debris in the lake from flooding — but by then film crews were gone. Towers said he wasn’t aware of the dangers of working on the Great Lakes when he went into the project.
“This is really a story not just of the dangers, but really also about the relationships between the captain and the crews and how they develop,” he said. “You see a relationship develop between a father and a son, an uncle and a nephew, a brother and a brother.
“It’s very much about that. It’s about training. It’s about someone who starts the season having never faced the risks; the learning. It’s people being given the chance to learn and given the chance to make mistakes.”
“Great Lake Warriors” premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday on the History Channel.
Duluth News Tribune
How do I get a cool nick name like wild card or thunder whatever? Sounds like some bs history channel crap to me. How about a history channel show on a tanker that regularly crosses the gulf of aden. I bet there are some guys with badass handles there.
[QUOTE=Sweat-n-Grease;74938]That’s funny - true - still funny - sage words from a knowledgeable seaman[/QUOTE] Thanks SnG! I remember going to the beach on a date a looonnnggg time ago with a new girl. She was a real water baby, in and out swimming all over the place. I went in and got wet and paddled around for a few and resumed my seat by the cooler with a cold one. She came out of the water and asked me why I wasn’t in the water with her. I said," I guess its because I spend my life trying to stay out of that stuff". We didn’t date after that.
[QUOTE=seadog6608;75006]Thanks SnG! I remember going to the beach on a date a looonnnggg time ago with a new girl. She was a real water baby, in and out swimming all over the place. I went in and got wet and paddled around for a few and resumed my seat by the cooler with a cold one. She came out of the water and asked me why I wasn’t in the water with her. I said," I guess its because I spend my life trying to stay out of that stuff". We didn’t date after that.[/QUOTE]
Well I guess THAT was THAT …
Thanks, seadog, for a good morning laugh .
I think its because of the nasty weather in the North Atlantic. I haven’t been there much but 15’ was a regular in the winter. I have been out in the 35’ also. All these were on 600’ USN ships and when I say NORTH ALANTIC i’m talking about up around U.K. not off the coast of Mass. We had to escort the Carrier around because we were a NUC also while all the other boats pulled into port. After a week and the weax not dying the call came in for the Carrier and us to head to port for a few days. Ended up going to see the man after that port visit but had a great time in Portsmouth England.
I thought the Great Lake Warriors just shows there are Rednecks every where. The show is funny to me. I’ve only seen one episode though. I don’t set my Tivo to record it.
[QUOTE=tamugly;74935]How do I get a cool nick name like wild card or thunder whatever? Sounds like some bs history channel crap to me. How about a history channel show on a tanker that regularly crosses the gulf of aden. I bet there are some guys with badass handles there.[/QUOTE]
you take out a few bridges, then you become a legend
[QUOTE=Wolfesown47th;72823]This show is onboard tugs from Calumet River Fleeting, more commonly known around the Lakes as Selvick. While i’m sure the show would be interesting on some level, it is very staged. While i’m sure we all knew ‘reality’ TV has no basis in reality, this takes it farther than i would have thought… They ran a barge aground just for the show.[/QUOTE]
They’ve been running barges aground for years, way before the cameras showed up
[QUOTE=cappy208;75652]??? Could you expound on that?[/QUOTE]
I would love to hear that one too but given his previous responses to questions regarding his professional knowledge, don’t hold your breath. It would be fun to read his take on it though.
Was curious about the NAW load line and looked it up. It covers different areas for different times of the year. Imagine that.
B. Northern Winter Seasonal Zones and Area
B 100 Regulation 46
North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zones I and II
a) The North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone I lies within
the meridian of longitude 50°W from the coast of
Greenland to latitude 45°N, thence the parallel of latitude
45°N to longitude 15°W, thence the meridian of
longitude 15°W to latitude 60°N, thence the parallel of
latitude 60°N to the Greenwich Meridian, thence this
meridian northwards.
Seasonal periods:
WINTER: 16 October to 15 April
SUMMER: 16 April to 15 October
b) The North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II lies within
the meridian of longitude 68 30’W from the coast of the
United States to latitude 40°N, thence the rhumb line
to the point latitude 36°N, longitude 73°W, thence the
parallel of latitude 36°N to longitude 25°W and thence
the rhumb line to Cape Torinana.
Excluded from this Zone are the North Atlantic Winter
Seasonal Zone I, the North Atlantic Winter Seasonal
Area and the Baltic Sea bounded by the parallel of the
latitude of The Skaw in the Skagerrak. The Shetland
Islands are to be considered as being on the boundary
of the North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zones I and II.
Seasonal periods:
WINTER: 1 November to 31 March
SUMMER: 1 April to 31 October
North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Area
The boundary of the North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Area
is —
the meridian of longitude 68°30’W from the coast of the
United States to latitude 40°N, thence the rhumb line to the
southernmost intersection of the meridian of longitude
61°W with the coast of Canada and thence the east coast
of Canada and the United States.
Seasonal periods:
For ships over 100 m in length.
WINTER: 16 December to 15 February
SUMMER: 16 February to 15 December
For ships of 100 m and under in length:
WINTER: 1 November to 31 March
SUMMER: 1 April to 31 October
[QUOTE=AB Murph;75659]Was curious about the NAW load line and looked it up. It covers different areas for different times of the year. Imagine that.
[/QUOTE]
You ought to read some of the letters to shipping press editors back in the 1880s about the WNA loadline issue. It was a political and economical football that really had nothing to do with science. It still doesn’t really, it is about risk management and what a group of people think is an “acceptable” freeboard.
