The Anderson

Sometime in the summer of 1991, some friends and I were visiting another at their parents’ house on the St. Clair River. They had just run to the store, so we waited in the driveway for their return, taking in the scenery of this gorgeous home and landscaping overlooking the waterfront. We stood around and talked, and it wasn’t long before I heard a low humming sound, and looked over to see this enormous red freighter slowly gliding past the trees. It was the Arthur M. Anderson.

I remember feeling spellbound to see this particular boat, the last one to have radio contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald, before it was lost in a storm in 1975. I guess I thought it would remain something I read about in books and nothing I’d ever see in real life, like meeting a celebrity. It hadn’t even really crossed my mind that I might catch a glimpse of her on that day. But that would be the last I’d see of her for the next 28 years.

Life went on, and it wasn’t often I got out to our Great Lakes. My love for the water, boating and especially our lake freighters remained, but it was distant and any time I spent on the water was on our inland waterways. Six years ago that changed, when I landed a job in downtown Detroit, just blocks from the river. I was so happy to be able to see the boats again from our building.

Today we now also have the internet in our pockets and apps that track just about everything. I discovered Boatnerd.com, the FindShip app and later, Marine Traffic that track the locations of boats all around the world. I longed to see the Anderson once again.

In January of 2017 she went into long term layup for some repairs and also, I guess you could say “benched” for the time being due to the economy.  I watched and waited for any news of her return, checking Facebook pages and websites, hoping it wasn’t the end of her career. In July of this year, she was back in service to the joy of myself and many, many boat nerds.

So now. When will she be passing Detroit?

The logistics of my job downtown changed in April of this year, when we adopted a remote work arrangement. So now, as much as I LOVE working from home, my opportunity to see boat traffic was reduced to two days a week. And as you might imagine, I missed her coming down the river several times. Every time she passed by on her way to Detroit, Ecorse, even Cleveland, I was remote that day.

Last night I opened the Marine Traffic app, just out of curiosity to check the whereabouts of the Anderson. Might I have a chance to see her before everything freezes over until March? To my horror, I saw that she was just rounding Belle Isle (minutes from my work) and her destination was Detroit, probably Zug Island. My plan was to work remotely the next day, but that changed in a second! I decided to go in and catch her coming back upbound.

So today I set up camp in the 13th floor employee lounge, one of the spots for mobile workers, and waited.

I consulted Marine Traffic and saw she was docked not at Zug Island but somewhere near Historic Fort Wayne, just north of Zug Island. Now, however, I had no idea when she’d be underway and passing by my building upbound on the river.  I simply had to check the app. I had two meetings to attend and thought for sure that I’d be tied up when she was finally underway.

But the Lake Gods were on my side and I was able to watch as she made her way up the river and passed under the Ambassador Bridge at roughly 12:15pm.

And then she was here.

I would have loved to have my tripod, but I WAS at work, after all.  🙂  I’m just lucky to have had this moment, another item off the Boat Nerd Bucket List. As I finish this post, she’s on Lake Huron, getting ready to pass the tip of the thumb, destination Rogers City.

Godspeed.