J.A.W. Iglehart (Superior, Wisconsin)

 storage, ship, place with historical importance, cement plant

Laid down at the Sun Shipbuilding Corp Shipyard in Philadelphia as a oceangoing tanker in April 1936, the JAW Iglehart started her life under the name SS Pan-Amoco in service with the Pan-American Petroleum and Transportation Co. of New York, NY. Hauling fuels along the US East and Gulf Coasts for 24 years, the tanker was finally removed from service and sold by Pan-American for scrapping in 1960.

Attracting the attention of the National Gypsum Co, the tanker was purchased from the scrapper and towed to Montreal, where she came under the ownership of the Huron Cement Division of National Gypsum and had her name changed to SS H.R. Schemm. Sailed across the lakes to Sturgeon Bay for conversion to a drybulk freighter, the vessel was finally converted for her new career at the American Shipbuilding Yard between 1964-65. Losing her traditional tanker midship pilot house and accommodation block for a laker-style bow wheelhouse and accommodation block, the former tanks were re-configured for hauling cement and fitted with self-unloading equipment which consists of a belt conveyor unloading system and topside boom.

Starting her Great Lakes career May 26, 1965 with her christening as the SS J.A.W. Iglehart, she became the world's largest self-unloading cement carrier and marked the end of an era on the lakes, as she was the last oceangoing ship to be converted to a laker and also the last steam-powered laker to join the U.S. fleet. Hauling bulk cement products across all five lakes for the next 41 years, the Iglehart outlasted all of her contemporaries to become the oldest operating steam-powered freighter on the lakes by the start of the 1996 season.

Her increasing age and outdated powerplant began to catch up with the Iglehart as she continued her service and by the turn of the century her owners began to seek a replacement for the venerable ship. With the arrival of the articulated tug/barge M/V Samuel de Champlain/Innovation to the fleet, the Iglehart began handing over her routes and finally ended her lakes career on October 31st, 2006 when she docked at the Superior Municipal Terminal. Shifted to her current location at the Lafarge dock in November 2006, she began her second career on the lakes; that of a stationary storage hulk for cement products being handled at the Lafarge plant.

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