The MV Great Republic unloading stone in Holland, Michigan on May 3, 2025
MCP Boat Blog is a presentation of the Mason County Historical Society’s Port of Ludington Maritime Museum, ludingtonmaritimemuseum.org, located at 217 S. Lakeshore Dr., Ludington.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
The eastern shore of Lake Michigan has a long maritime heritage. This is the beginning of two new blogs that we will be featuring on Mason County Press. The other blog will focus on maritime history while this blog will focus on current maritime happenings. I will be sharing the MCP Boat Blog duties with Mark Varenhorst of Ludington. The topics will focus on both commercial and recreation maritime topics from Manistee to Holland, and perhaps beyond.
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Today, I am taking you to Holland where I tracked down the MV Great Republic.
Late Friday evening I checked the Marine Traffic app and noticed that the Great Republic was making its way south on Lake Michigan to Holland. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to get some drone footage of a freighter, the last one being the MV Manitowoc that visited Manistee in mid-April. So, I decided to head to Holland Saturday morning — not paying attention that it was the first day of the Tulip Time Festival. My 11-year-old daughter Avoca came along for the ride.
Despite a little bit of heavy traffic heading into downtown Holland, we were able to make our way toward the Great Republic’s slip, at Verplank Trucking, located near the intersection of West 8th Street and Washington Boulevard. Just a short distance away is Kollen Park which had plenty of parking and was a safe spot to launch the drone.
The MV Great Republic unloading stone in Holland, Michigan on May 3, 2025
I prefer to be unobtrusive when I fly my drone and I make every effort not to draw attention. I normally will fine an area away from other people to launch and land. With that said, I don’t mind answering questions about the drone. Many people are curious about how it operates and the rules and regulations. As a Federal Aviation Administration certified unmanned aircraft system pilot (fancy term for drone), I am more than happy to talk about this great addition to my photography toolkit.
I just prefer not to do it while I am flying and concentrating on operating it safely.
The ship arrived early Saturday morning. We arrived about 11:30 a.m.
The Great Republic is operated by Great Lakes Fleet, Inc. of Duluth, Minn. and is managed by Key Lakes, Inc. It was built by Bay Shipbuilding Co. of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., in 1981. It was originally named the American Republic and was operated by American Steamship Co. In 2011 Great Lakes Fleet obtained the contract to operate the ship.
It was the final of four similar River Class ships constructed by Bay Shipbuilding Co. The other three were the Sam Laud, Buffalo and American Courage. The Republic was specifically designed to navigate the Cuyahoga River, being built to run taconite pellets from the Lorain Pellet Terminal and Cleveland Lakefront Docks to the steel mills upriver on the Cuyahoga. It was capable of carrying around 20,000 tons on her shuttles up the Cuyahoga River, more than other vessels are capable of carrying up the river.
The MV Great Republic unloading stone in Holland, Michigan on May 3, 2025
It operates with two 20-645-E7 diesel engines manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in Chicago. Its horsepower rating is 7,200 BHP. It is 623-feet, 3-inches in length; breadth, 68-feet; depth, 40-feet; loaded draft, 28-feet, 4-inches; capacity, 24,800 tons. Is has a loop-belt self-unloader with an aft-mounted self-unloading boom arm that is 251-feet, 6-inches. It has six cargo holds and 21 hatches.
The Great Republic mostly carries materials for the iron ore, coal and stone industries.
According to Marine Traffic, the ship left Holland at 6:08 p.m. and was heading to the Stonport, located at the Presque Isle Quarry along Lake Huron north of Alpena.
The MV Great Republic unloading stone in Holland, Michigan on May 3, 2025
www.masoncountymihistory.org
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