The Roger Blough Christened – June 5, 1971

Front page of the June 5, 1971 Lorain Journal

Fifty years ago tomorrow, the Roger Blough was christened in the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Company, where it was built.

Although the ship’s launch was originally planned for July 1971, the well-remembered engine room fire that killed four shipyard workers delayed it by almost a year. Roger Blough eventually had its sea trials in June 1972 (which I wrote about here).

The Journal article notes, “The 858-foot-long Roger Blough is the largest ship ever built on the Great Lakes and it is the first of the new giants that soon will be sailing the lakes.

“The Roger Blough is as long as three football fields and 105 feet wide. Its size allows it to carry three times the amount of cargo a 600-foot-long ship can handle and its special self-loading system allows it to discharge cargo at the rate of 10,000 tons an hour.”

(Note that the photo of Roger Blough’s niece in front of his namesake ship was taken by our pal Gene Patrick.)

I’ll have more on the Roger Blough when it gets closer to the anniversary date of the tragic fire.