I'm sure I'm not the only one here that is also interested in the marine side of things. The former flagship of the Cape May-Lewes ferry fleet, MV Cape May, is being scrapped down in South Jersey. The story behind this untimely scrapping is one of mis-marketing, the operators trying to turn a simple ferry into something that it wasn't; a mini-cruise ship. More details can be found with a search online.

The outfit that is doing the scrapping is offering all of the furnishings on that boat online. There are many tables, seats, display cases, and good commercial kitchen equipment that may be useful to a dinner train operator. In addition, there are two Fairbanks-Morse OP engines, although a bit pricey right now. Having ridden all of the Cape May boats over the years, I have the impression that their maintenance was always top notch. The several online articles have statements from the guys doing the scrapping that everything on those boats is first class material.

The parts seller has a website, http://www.goodbuyferry.com. I bought a few of the bulkhead light fixtures as a keepsake. I found the seller, Bill Noe, to be a real gentleman. I have no financial interest in this matter, but like many others am greatly disturbed to see this boat's ultimate fate. Very sad...

The MV Cape May is from 1985, right?
Meanwhile on the Great Lakes, a 1906 steamship that was still sailing this year will become a barge.

Very sad indeed!

Yes, sad, and it's also the sort of thing that makes me question the judgement of some business owners. They are going to spend who knows how much money rebuilding a 100-year old hull into a barge, new stern and all that? Honestly, I didn't expect this ship to keep running forever, and was surprised to read of her at the time of her centennial some years back, but someone tell me how this makes sense compared with either continued steam operation or even retirement and new construction. I would understand scrapping better than this.

Let's hope that old stern and the engine and boiler are preserved, at least.

It's a shame. The DRBA has a cash cow with the twin bridges and can throw away massive amounts of money on these sorts of things. Meanwhile one of the former boats is still hauling people and cars up on Long Island.

https://www.longislandferry.com/CommonHtml/f_C_Hen.html

Ah, the Cape Henlopen (LST-510)! I worked as a deckhand on that vessel while employed by Cross Sound Ferry for three years and well before that, made a crossing with her down in Jersey when I was a little kid. She's bad in heavy weather because of her hull shape and "sail area" above the water line. We used to get a kick out of watching over the sun deck from the pilothouse as we backed out of Orient Point on a "lumpy" day. You could see the boat flex and twist! Cross Sound Ferry updated her superstructure by installing a new and more spacious pilothouse after I left the company. I stood my share of helm watch in the old pilothouse with room for little more than the Captain and I. Back then, she still had her original helm and engine order telegraphs left over from her LST days. Those were removed and placed in the company offices when the pilothouse was replaced. She does retain her original chief engineer's station in the engineroom, though.

The interesting thing here is that there are TWO ferries named Cape Henlopen! The boat that replaced the LST-510 conversion, running across Delaware Bay, is also named Cape Henlopen. I'm surprised that the Cross Sound Ferry company didn't rename the earlier boat with a local Long Island Sound name. That boat also ran across Chesapeake Bay, before the bridge-tunnel was built.

Very sad to see the St. Marys Challenger becoming a barge, that seems to be the way of the old boats now. The Reserve was recently converted, a ship I remember seeing many times as a kid at the Soo Locks.

I fear steamships on the lakes are a dying breed, and their days are numbered. It will be a sad day when the last steam turbine finally shuts down for good.

CSF has typically kept the names on ferries they've purchased. The exceptions are the Susan Anne (former Prince Nova) and the Mary Ellen (former Grand Republic of the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson S.S. Co.). Both vessels are named after members of the Wronowski family which owns the ferry company as well as Thames Towing and Thames Shipyard in New London.

There's still quite a few steam turbines operating. It's the reciprocating engines that are rare.

Not to nit-pick Tails post above, but the St. Marys Challenger engine isn't a turbine, but a Skinner Uniflow, which may be one of the rarest types of reciprocating engines around today.

They're down to seven currently-active steam cargo ships on the Great Lakes now (all oil-fired steam turbines), plus the coal-fired former C&O carferry Badger with twin steeple compound Skinner Unaflows. The last Canadian steamer, the 1961-vintage Montrealais is on her last trip as we speak. She is expected to be towed for scrap next year.

I am aware of this. My point was to say that I wondered how much longer the Turbines would be around.....after all, its a safe bet that the turbines will likely out last the other steam ships, since there are so many of them. Sorry for not being clear with my statement.

That has already happened. The St. Mary's Challenger was the last cargo ship in service with a Skinner Unaflow, and her conversion to a barge is already well underway. The classic open-crank "up-and-downers" became operationally extinct on the Lakes over the winter of 1999-2000 when the Cuyahoga had her Lentz double-compound replaced with a new Caterpillar diesel. The last working triple-expansion and quadruple-expansion steamers, the cement carriers S.T. Crapo and E.M. Ford were retired from active service in 1996. The Ford is currently in the late stages of demolition, being slowly scrapped by Purvis Marine in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario over the last few years. The Crapo survives intact as a storage barge in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Another old triple-expansion cement boat, the J.B. Ford of 1904 is the subject of a preservation effort by the Great Lakes Steamship Society http://www.jbford.org.

The writing is already on the wall for the seven currently-active turbine steamers (six after this season), as new EPA regulations will ban them from burning bunker C in another decade or so.