Residents and visitors to Manitowoc are likely familiar with the concrete tower at the harbor entrance across from the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
This marine tower functions as a docking station for self-unloading freighters to deposit thousands of tons of grain per shipment, which is conveyed below ground to the Briess malting facility.
Delivering this much grain by the shipload is one example of how Manitowoc recently became named the Specialty Malt Capital of the World.
This is thanks to Briess Malt & Ingredients Co., which produces the largest amount of specialty malt in the world by converting millions of tons of grain into the primary ingredient in beer.
Related:Manitowoc’s Briess Malt plays role in Wisconsin’s beer brewing history
In recent years, the marine tower has received regular shipments of barley grain transported aboard the self-unloading freighter SAGINAW.
At 71 years of age, SAGINAW has traversed hundreds of thousands of nautical miles in its lifetime.
That life began here in Manitowoc, though under a different name.
The bulk freighter SAGINAW was originally built and launched as the JOHN J. BOLAND by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. With a hull number of 417, it was the third vessel of its type launched by the company.
The 639-foot-long self-unloader slid into the Manitowoc River on its starboard side at precisely 1 p.m. May 9, 1953. Thousands of spectators turned up to watch the launch from the opposite riverbank, stretching from Riverview Park to Chicago Street. They were treated to a magnificent splash that sent waves rolling high over the opposite bank.
The “super freighter,” as it was called at the time, was named after the president and co-founder of the American Steamship Company of Buffalo, New York.
John Boland’s daughter christened the ship by striking a ribboned bottle of champagne against the prow.
At a price tag of $6.7 million, JOHN J. BOLAND was designed to haul up to 21,500 tons of coal, stone and iron ore across the Great Lakes.
The 250-foot-long unloading boom could transport 3,500 tons of bulk cargo to shore per hour.
After nearly five decades of service under American Shipbuilding Company, the vessel was purchased by Lower Lakes Towing Ltd. of Canada and retrofitted at Sarnia, Ontario.
Related:Manitowoc is home to the most completely restored WWII submarine, the USS Cobia. Here’s how it ended up in the city.
The name was changed to SAGINAW on Nov. 20, 1999, in honor of Michigan’s Saginaw River.
By 2008, the vessel was repowered from steam propulsion to diesel. Today, the 14,000-ton SAGINAW routinely transits between the ports of western Lake Superior and the Port of Manitowoc at least twice a year.
Briess confirmed we can expect to see one more shipments of grain this year aboard SAGINAW. With up to 25 million pounds of raw barley in each delivery, that equates to about 40 million 12-ounce bottles of beer. Now that is a shipload of beer!
Kevin Cullen is executive director of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.
