By Contributing Artist Mary Bedy
I live in Michigan in an area where most freighters and tankers and a few cruise ships sailing on the Great Lakes regularly pass by. After living here for a few years, I photographed a couple of freighters when I was down at the boardwalk in town, and slowly got hooked on collecting as many of these majestic ships as possible. I downloaded a tracker on my phone and now one of the first things I do in the morning is check that tracker to see what might be coming through here on that particular day.
Since I live on the very eastern edge of Michigan, and in fact I can see Canada from the boardwalk across the Saint Clair River, I check to see what might be in range between about 1:00 pm and dusk, since the ships in the morning are backlit from the east, so the lighting is not good for photography.
If you are interested in these majestic vessels, there are a couple of websites that provide lots of interesting information, like Boat Nerd and Marine Traffic (type as one word to find their websites), that will show you where these vessels are at any one time and contain descriptions of the ships, etc.
I waited for the Arthur M. Anderson to come through town for years. She would come through either in the dark or the very early morning when the lighting here is dismal, but I finally caught her a couple of times recently in decent lighting. For those of you who are not familiar, the Arthur M. Anderson was the ship following the Edmond Fitzgerald the night the “Fitz”, as we call her, went down off of Whitefish Point on Lake Superior during a powerful storm on November 10, 1975. All 29 crew members were lost. You have no doubt heard the Gordon Lightfoot song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. The bell from the ship can be seen in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at the lighthouse at Whitefish Point in Michigan’s upper peninsula.
Browse and shop at the following links to my online gallery.
These ship images look great and are quite challenging as jigsaw puzzles. However, they make wonderful wall art pieces and are also available on a variety of home decor items.
Arthur M Anderson Closeup 042121: https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/featured/arthur-m-anderson-closeup-042121-mary-bedy.html
Paul R. Tregurtha Closeup 120720: https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/featured/paul-r-tregurtha-closeup-120720-mary-bedy.html
Walter J. McCarthy Jr. 082922: https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/featured/walter-j-mccarthy-jr-082922-mary-bedy.html
Federal Ems and Blue Water Bridge 072922: https://mary-bedy.pixels.com/featured/federal-ems-and-blue-water-bridge-072922-mary-bedy.html
Click to learn more about the artist: Mary Bedy.
I love the story about the Arthur M Anderson – glad you caught it eventually. I have visions of you scouring that app and then grabbing your camera and racing out of the door. I love your enthusiasm and these are fantastic shots that are really tricky to take.