A tour of the William A. Irvin, a Duluth marvel
DULUTH, Minn. — Make your way into downtown Duluth's Canal Park and you can't miss the William A. Irvin.
After it was commissioned in 1937, the ship —longer than two football fields — spent 40 years hauling iron ore and coal to Great Lakes ports.
Today, it's anchored along the waterfront of Lake Superior near the Aerial Lift Bridge where visitors come aboard to tour the floating museum.
"This boat was the flagship of the U.S. Steel fleet. That is why it is historic and so important," said William A. Irvin tour guide Chris Nylander.
Guides detail the ins and outs of the vessel's design and its immense power.
"This is two steam turbines, high pressure and low pressure. They work together to produce 2,000 horsepower," Nylander said.
He gets a lot of questions about whether the boat is haunted.
"I have heard several ghost stories about actual ghosts on the Irvin. They don't bother me at all. I've never had an encounter with a ghost," he said.
The scariest thing we encountered as we walked through were several sets of steep steps as we made our way around the steamer.
Inside the galley, innovation kept pots, pans and plates in place through treacherous storms.
"They had this design so you could stack a lot more and not have it fall off," said program manager Mary Glad.
Outside on the deck, there are 18 hatch covers where up to 14,000 tons of iron ore were loaded and unloaded. The area now serves as a performance space for "Music on the Ship," a free concert series every Thursday in August.
The pinnacle of our visit is the three-story pilothouse, where we met Brian Thiry, a retired Great Lakes sailor.
"I started as a deckhand in 1970 and I was green," said Thiry, who now serves as a tour guide.
He spent 15 years working on 29 ships, including the Irvin's twin sister — the Governor Miller.
One of his many stories involves him waking up to his first storm at just 21 years old.
"I got out of bed and I went out toward the senior guys. They were calmly sitting around drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and telling sea stories. I looked at them and I thought, 'If they're sinking, why aren't they doing something?'" he said.
He weathered that storm and is glad that unlike the Governor Miller, the William A. Irvin didn't end up in the scrap heap, and its memory lives on.
"The city saved it. Once these boats are gone, you don't get them back," he said.
Regular tours of the William A. Irvin continue until Sep. 15. For the month of October, it transforms into a haunted ship tour full of scares.
