Name English River Status in active service Length 123 m | Completed October 1961 Launched 1961 Builder Collingwood Shipbuilding | |
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Owner Canadian General Electric (1961-1963)
Canada Steamship Lines (1963-1973)
Laurentide Financial (1973-1992)
Canada Cement Lafarge (1992-present) Operator Canada Steamship Lines (1961-2013)
Algoma Central Marine (2013-present) Type Lake freighter and bulk carrier | ||
English River is a Canadian lake freighter and bulk carrier, launched in 1961. In her initial years she carried bulk cargoes and deck cargoes to smaller ports on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River watershed and estuary. Her cargo capacity is about a quarter that of most of the Great Lakes fleet, she is slightly more than half the length, and her draught is about two-thirds that of larger vessels.
By 1973 there was less need to sail to these small ports, as they could be served by new roads or railroads, so she was converted to a self-loading and unloading bulk carrier. Subsequently she has carried mainly raw concrete for the construction industry.
She was built in Collingwood, Ontario by Collingwood Shipyards. She was initially owned by Canadian General Electric. However, they never operated the vessel, chartering her to Canada Steamship Lines. Canada Steamship bought the vessel in 1963.
In 1973, the vessel was refitted and equipped with self-loading equipment by Port Arthur Shipbuilding in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario. At that point she was chartered to Canada Cement Lafarge. Canada Steamship Lines continued to operate the vessel, but Laurentide Financial assumed ownership, until 1992, when Lafarge took over ownership. Her refit increased her cargo capacity from 5,200 long tons (5,300,000 kg) to 7,450 long tons (7,570,000 kg).
Canada Steamship Lines continues to operate the vessel, Lafarge continues to own her. She carries raw concrete from quarries in Bath, Ontario to Toronto, Hamilton, Whitefish, Port Stanley, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Oswego, New York.
English River has been a relatively safe vessel, and has been one of the earliest vessels to travel the lakes in the spring. In 1996 she collided with a dock in Cleveland. In 2012 an employee of Port Weller Dry Docks was seriously injured when he fell 10 metres (33 ft) into her hold in a shipyard in Port Weller, Ontario. English River had a sister ship, French River—also named after an Ontario River.
